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Palak (and celery) Paneer and Chapati




The original recipe (which was for a silver beet, not spinach, paneer) is here, but I changed a few things, like adding celery, and more spices. Fist sauté with 2 tbsp of vegetable oil or ghee 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp turmeric. Then add a couple of roughly chopped shallots, a good pinch of salt and finally 500 g chopped frozen spinach (defrosted at room temperature) and three celery stalks, with leaves. Add a little water too, about a cup, and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp freshly grated ginger, and salt to taste. In the meantime cut a block of paneer and sauté until lightly golden on the borders (Vegan use tofu). Blend the spinach with an immersion blender, then add the paneer. This is my very favorite Indian dish! 




Ah, and I made chapati too, the edges are not very smooth, but I was in a hurry!
I used 1 cup wholemeal flour, mixed with 2 tbsp vegetable oil and then enough water to make a thick dough. I made 4 chapati with it (see the step by step here) and to cook them I used my Italian cotte, the iron hot plates that I use to make crescentine. They worked perfectly well and I could cook two at the time.




Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

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  1. Ushnish GhoshAugust 26, 2012 at 10:11 PM

    Dear Alessandra
    How are you ? I have been in the Shara desert without a proper net connection for almost a year ...Today at the 1st chance looking at missed posts ..and here you are with a great variation of a traditional Indian dish! I like the variation and it will give a new dimetion to this dish! Will try when I am back home ..Let me see what all I have missed
    Ciao
    Ghosh
    Algiers

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlessandraSeptember 4, 2012 at 12:15 PM

    Lovely to hear from you Ushnish, I hope your travels are going well! And thank you for the compliment, I am not confident with Indian cooking so you are very encouraging :-).

    Ciao
    Alessandra

    ReplyDelete

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