Palak Paneer: A Signature Dish

After formally acknowledging the arrival of spring, Chef Vinita embarked on a brisk review of her lectures to date, in preparation for our written final which is the day after tomorrow. We still have another week of class left, but next week will be taken up with our class projects.

Chef also introduced the concept of raw food, where nothing is heated above about 116 degrees. Proponents believe that energy-giving enzymes are killed at higher temperatures. Rudy, in class for just a day, scoffed at the idea but Chef Vinita responded immediately. "You may laugh, but there are chefs laughing all the way to the Citibank. Chefs are preparing three-hundred-dollar-a-plate raw Thanksgiving dinners for celebrities in Hollywood. I am confident that this information I am giving you will be useful to at least one of you, someday."

Once it was time to cook, Chef urged us to prepare something from the heart, "and make it as if it's your signature dish." We made paneer yesterday for cooking today, so I was tasked with preparing palak paneer and cumin rice pilaf. Chef generously spent much of the morning coaching me through the process. My cooking today was definitely from her heart, through my hands.

Paneer is a fresh cheese, the only cheese indigenous to South Asia. It does not melt, and it is not made with rennet, and is therefore vegetarian. To make it, bring whole milk to a boil. Infuse with spices or herbs, if desired (we used saffron.) Curdle the milk by adding an acid — vinegar or lemon juice, for example, about three tablespoons per half-gallon of milk. You've added enough acid when the whey is clear, not cloudy. Pour the curds and whey through a cheesecloth-lined colander. Chef Vinita says she always retains the whey, at home, and uses it like stock when cooking rice or vegetables. (She told me today that "Nothing ever goes to waste in my house. We only need to put out trash one time a month!") The paneer is then refrigerated and left to drain overnight or longer.

Our dish today was Palak Paneer, Paneer with Spinach. You often find "saag paneer" on Indian menus: that translates to "greens" and Chef says they're typically a combination of mustard greens and spinach. I started by slowly caramelizing two diced onions in oil for a LONG LONG time, close to an hour, until they were deeply golden brown. At the same time, I cut the paneer into cubes, and sautéed a couple of tablespoons of cumin seed in hot oil, in preparation for the pilaf (made by the same stove-top method that Chef Afreen showed me last week.) I washed the rice, using three changes of water and letting the rice fall through my fingers. When the cumin seeds were deep brown, I removed the pan from the heat and added the water, and let the spices infuse the water on the back of the stove.

When the onions were caramelized to Chef's satisfaction, we added minced garlic and ginger, and cooked them until golden. Then we made a thin paste with curry powder and water. Andy made the curry last week, under Chef's direction, and it contained cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne. Maybe something else. I added the paste to the onions and allowed it to cook, the water evaporating, the spices warming and browning. Chef said that you need to "cook" the spices to remove the raw taste, and she sniffed the pan regularly, fanning the steam towards her nose, until she determined that they were done. I was not really able to discern the difference, but she says that the aroma changes, and the spices become a blend rather than a combination of individual scents.

Once the spices were properly incorporated, I added the spinach — a huge amount, stirring it to wilt it. For formal occasions, you would cook and stir the spinach, using your spoon to push it against the side of the pan until it becomes a paste, and the palak actually forms a sauce. When you're getting really fancy, you add cream. But today, we were cooking "rustic," Chef said, so I stirred the spinach until it was totally wilted, then added the cubed paneer.

By this time, the rice was cooking right there in the open, lid-less, until the steam vents appeared on the surface of the rice, and most of the water was gone. Then, as before, I covered the pan with a towel, then aluminum foil, and turned off the heat.

Chef prepared a special garnish for the dish. "In lieu of ghee," she melted about a quarter cup of butter, then added more minced garlic and ginger, and a generous amount of cayenne pepper. She allowed the aromatics to get quite brown in the bubbling butter, stirring the pan frequently. Right before serving, she poured half of this over the paneer, and stirred it in. The rest was poured like a little gravy over the dish.


Our buffets keep growing bigger, and more diverse. Today we had salmon two ways and chicken two ways, an eggplant-cheese casserole, lentil dal, spiced green beans, stir-fried vegetables with sweet and sour sauce, risotto milanese, bean burritos with guacamole and fresh salsa, rice noodles with shiitake mushrooms, and Rudy's "triumph," faux broccoli beef made with seitan. Just not my cup of tea. Oh, and we also had raspberry iced tea, in which I did indulge.