Thursday, February 6, 2020

Indian food.....saving time when making a lot of dishes....Palak Paneer





We love Indian food, and when I make it, I prepare many dishes at the same time to have and Indian buffet style of dinner.

However, I don't like to chop onion, garlic and ginger to prepare many different curries. Therefore, I have designed my own way of making a base to prepare them.

Every Indian curry has almost the same base: tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, garam masala, and dry chili powder. Thus, to make my life easier, I make the following:

Curry base

3 bottles of tomato paste (680 grams each)
3 onions
6 garlic cloves
a piece of ginger (5 cm)
2 teaspoon of cumin freshly grinded
2 teaspoon of turmeric
2 teaspoon of garam masala 
2 teaspoon of dry chilli powder
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
3 teaspoons of salt
ghee or cooking oil

I have an instant pot that I use a lot specially in a pressure cooker mode. You can do this  in a normal pressure cooker.

In sautee mode,  add the ghee. When is melted, add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the the chopped onions,  and chopped garlic and ginger.  Once this mix is translucent, add the salt. Then, add the 3 bottles of tomato paste, and the spices (cumin, turmeric, garam masala, and chilli powder). Put it in high pressure for 10 minutes. Let it cool for 3 hours. Open it, and divided in 6 equal parts. Now, you have your curry base....


Palak paneer 

1 curry base
350 grams of spinach
200 grams of paneer
2 cardamom pods (black seeds only)

Cut the paneer in cubes. Heat the curry base at medium heat, and add the spinach and cardamom. Once the spinach are cooked, let it cool. Mix it in the blender until you have a creamy sauce. Place it in a pot, and correct it for salt and chili. Add the pieces of paneer. Serve it warm with basmati rice. Enjoy!













1 comment:

  1. The homemade curry paste must have tasted very different from those storebought ones. Thanks for sharing another great recipe!

    ReplyDelete