Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Palak Paneer

I first had Palak Paneer at Teaism in Washington DC. I didn't really read the menu too carefully, and spent most of the meal trying to figure out what the delicious white bits were - not egg; meat, maybe? not really... cheese? not quite like any cheese I'd had... I finally looked at the menu again on the way out and discovered, yes, cheese. But no, not quite like any cheese I'd had before!

Paneer is a white cheese, and is about as easy as it's possible for cheese to be. In a nutshell, heat up milk to almost boiling, pour in a bit of white vinegar, watch it curdle, and dump into cheese cloth to drain. The end. For those who want a bit more detail in your directions, look here.

For this Palak Paneer recipe, I used a gallon of milk, drained the cheese in a flour sack towel-lined colander, then cut my paneer in half - one half to use in the recipe, and one to freeze for later. (Also - save the whey! Cook rice or pasta in it for a bit of extra flavor.)

 Flour sack towel in a colander over a bowl... post cheese removal

Half of my paneer block ready to freeze

Paneer means "cheese" in Hindi, and Palak means "spinach". There are hundreds of recipes available online, and I sort of meshed two of them, but this one is pretty close to what I made, which came out quite well! I didn't use chana masala, and only used one bunch of spinach - though should have probably used two. It could have had more, in any case! But the result was quite tasty :)

 Frying paneer - like feta, it doesn't melt

 The "masala" - mixture - of onion, tomato, garlic, ginger and spices. Smells heavenly!

 Blended palak

Everything but the cheese

Mmm, delicious!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Green Tomato Salsa

What to do with green tomatoes...

A colorful beginning...

...stewing...

...green tomato relish.

The verdict: Pretty tasty! I used the recommended half cup of vinegar in this. What to use it for? Farmgirl Susan had some great suggestions - first try is turkey burritos. Mmmmmm...

Update 11/10: Turkey burritos were DELICIOUS!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Chocolate Chia Date Bars

A while ago, I discovered Chia seeds at my favorite Colorado grocery store (never to replace my all-time favorite grocery store!). Having heard of them while poking through a magazine in my chiropracter's waiting room, I picked some up. The chia gel thing didn't quite do it for me. Too small and crunchy when added to the granola. Chia milk, disgusting (sorry).

However, I found a winner in this recipe from Vegetarian times. I don't know what raw chocolate is (I just used Hershey's dark chocolate baking powder. I'm sure that's blasphemous.) or where to find it. And I'd likely be too cheap to pay for it in any case. But these are tasty! I made as directed, plus a bit of water and maybe a tablespoon of corn syrup- my dates were pretty dry.

Mix everything together in food processor, smush into a big pancake between 2 pieces of wax paper...

Refrigerate for a few hours, cut and enjoy!

Wrap the rest in pieces of wax paper and stick in the fridge for a tasty to-go snack.