Saag Uday Paneer

Story: What is your definition of true love? Is it the filmy laau that gets you a red heart shaped balloon and chocolates on Valentine's day? Or is it the casual love you feel everyday? The kind of love that does not have the burden of expectations, the kind of love that goes without saying the cliched "I love you" 25 times a day...

One thing is sure.. Uday Naik's love for Saag Paneer goes beyond any definitions! Who is Uday Naik? - a Friend, philosopher and local guardian for a couple of grad students who moved to USA a decade ago. He also happens to be my brother in law :P

Uday always orders saag paneer in an Indian restaurant. Every Friday's desi take out automatically includes saag paneer. We are all tired of seeing him eat saag paneer.. but Uday's excitement about saag paneer is the same - every single time!

Reminds me of the Rafi-Lata song:

Source: My mom - inspired by one of SK Guruji's recipe

Time: 30 mins

Ingredients: for 4 people

• 2 bunches of baby spinach
• 3 inch square of paneer cut into 1 cm cubes
• 2 tbsp cream
• 1 tbsp ghee or butter
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 cloves of garlic - shredded or minced
• 1/2 tsp sugar (optional - it is my Maharashtrian gene)
• salt to taste

Recipe: The beauty of this recipe is in its simplicity. Short list of ingredients, pure spinach taste and the dashing green color. But if you are looking for the ghisa-pita restaurant style saag paneer - this ain't it. You will either love this recipe or hate it..

Here goes it:

Blanch the spinach leaves in boiling water for half a minute. Remove them and immediately place them in ice cold water to lock in the beautiful green color. Squeeze out extra water from the leaves and grind them into fine paste.

Heat ghee in a pan. Add cumin seeds to the hot ghee. Once cumin seeds turn brown in color, add the minced garlic and saute for half a minute. Add the spinach paste, salt and sugar. Saute for half a minute. Add 1 tbsp of cream and mix well.

Add the paneer cubes, cover and cook for about a minute.

Serve hot and garnish with the other tbsp of cream.