Palak Kofta – Paneer is your last minute savory savior when you are running out of the options what to cook.
It is the kitchen staple for all the vegetarian households because the high content of protein which makes for a great substitute of meat or fish.
Paneer or cottage cheese has versatility and can be used in many recipes aside from those where it plays the protagonist character. Take for instance, you can make Paneer sandwiches or at the least, Bread rolls with Paneer stuffing for your baby’s lunch box.
You can’t be in North India and not be drooling over the very many Paneer recipes that they avail at your service. Paneer is the only reason you can go vegetarian for and here is a kickass Paneer kofta recipe that will go down best with Parathaas.
Palak Kofta –
Like I said before, Paneer has great adaptive qualities and you can assort it with other vegetables too. Here, we are using Palak or Spinach which is tasty and healthy to say the least. This dish bears great resemblance to the Punjabi Malai Kofta with same gravy but different ingredients for making the Kofta balls. This can be best relished with Roti, Chapatti or Jeera Rice.
Method Palak Kofta :
Mix spinach puree with grated Paneer and boiled and mashed potato which will give it a good bind. Now add the paste of about 5 cashew nuts and some breadcrumbs in the mixture and you are good to go. Don’t forget to add green Chili paste and salt in the dough. Shape this mixture into balls. Take a thick layered vessel and heat some while oil now leave the balls that you made for deep frying in simmer so that the middle of the balls are fried well too. Make sure when you take out the balls from the oil, they have to be crisp. Keep aside.
For the creamy gravy:
Take another vessel and splatter some cumin seeds and whole green chillies, add one bay leaf, 1 tbsp. kasuri methi and 1/2 tbsp. fennel.
Now saute one chopped onion until golden brown. Now add some ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, chopped coriander leaves, red chilli powder and saute well. Keep mixing water occasionally. When done, mix the cashew paste which is made from cashews soaked in water and blended smooth. Keep stirring to avoid lumps and it would turn out as a thick gravy. Now add the balls slowly in the gravy and keep in simmer for 2-3 minutes.
You need to make sure that when you remove the dish from the vessel into another decorative serving dish, the balls don’t break. You can now add some fresh cream atop and grated cashew nuts which will enhance its looks.
Serve Palak Kofta to him in the dinner and see the magic!
