Bits and Bites: Saag Paneer

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I started making Saag Paneer when I started dating my wife. It’s cooked greens, principally spinach, along with paneer cheese (think cottage cheese with no liquid). I wasn’t that much into dishes based on cooked spinach, but I was in love. My Indian cookbook didn’t have saag paneer, but it did have a similar dish called Methi Chaman based on spinach and methi leaves. I doubled the greens, adjusted the spicing, and have been refining it ever since. I pretty much hit my standard batch by using half a pound of spinach, a bunch of chopped cilantro, and frozen methi leaves to fill out the pound of greens.

Then I went to a place in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland, called Mother’s India Café. I ordered Saag Paneer as a matter of course (I enjoy the dish and it’s useful research). Mother’s saag paneer blew mine away. First, it was chunkier. The recipe I follow calls for adding two cups of water to the cooked and pureed greens, bringing it to a boil, adding the paneer and then simmering down over an hour or two.

I much prefer Mother’s version as it tastes fresher. It also had a flavor to it that I can’t quite pin down. Not just ghee (clarified butter). I use asafoetida (hing) in my version, which adds a little hwang to the mix. I went to Mother’s three times in four nights, the last of which was a Saturday night. I decided to go with takeaway as the place is popular. I put in my order, went to a nearby place for a pint, and then came back. The line had grown amazingly by the time I returned. I happily took my curry back and even got my obligatory ride on the upper level of a double decker bus.

Once back in my hotel room, I decided that the rice and chana daal (lentils) would be adequate, so I treble wrapped the saag paneer and put it in the mini fridge. It survived the trip back to the U.S. and I shared it with my two favorite curry tasters. I also made a batch of my own, improved with some ideas I got. First of which is that I decided the long cook down was not necessary. The water I used to rinse the greens was sufficient for the sauce. Rather than pureeing the batch, I used an immersion blender to leave the batch a bit chunky. Finally, I adjusted the greens. In the past, I’ve used a half pound of spinach, leaves from a bunch of cilantro, and a half pound of methi leaves. I decided to add in some mustard leaves for a bit of a kick and kale for heartiness. It wasn’t really a blind taste test as I brown my saag whereas Mother’s doesn’t and it was my fresh made batch vs. four day old leftovers. Still, Mother’s forced me to up my game. Here’s my new and improved recipe.

Paul’s Improved Saag Paneer

Serves 4 – 6

Ingredients

1 pound of greens, coarsely chopped, rinsed, and drained

1 bunch cilantro, stems removed and chopped

1 pound of paneer cheese, cut into 1/2” cubes

¼ cup each clarified butter and vegetable oil

Spice Mix #1

1 tsp. Asafoetida (hing)

2 tsp. cumin seeds

10 cloves (or ½ tsp clove powder)

Spice Mix #2

2 tsp. turmeric powder

1 tsp. red chilli powder

2 tsp. chopped ginger

1 tsp. ginger powder

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 tsp. salt (or to taste)

Notes

Spinach is the base for the greens, but it helps to use a combination. I like ½ pound of spinach, a few mustard greens and some kale, and then methi leaves to fill out. If you don’t have methi leaves available, I’d suggest a combination of spinach, kale, and mustard leaves with at least half the weight from spinach.

Method

Cut one pound of paneer cheese into half inch cubes. Brown in a bit of vegetable oil and set aside.

Put ½ cup of F A T in a med. sized pot or dutch oven over med-high heat. I like using a combination of half clarified butter (it really is needed) and canola oil (because we don’t need it that much). Add in spice mix #1. No biggie if you don’t have any hing, but it really does add something to the flavor. Cook until the seeds begin to “pop”.

Add the chopped greens and cilantro, lower heat and cover until cooked. Add spice blend #2 and cook for a minute or two. There should be a bit of excess water. If not, add up to ½ cup. Partially puree with an immersion blender. If you don’t have one, pour mixture into blender and pulse a few times until partially pureed and return to pan.

Add paneer cheese and bring the mixture to boil. Serve over rice.

BB

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Notes from a Small Island

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Fairlington Blade

I’m taking the title of this post from one of my favorite books, a travelogue of the UK written by Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson is a humorous writer, mostly of travel books, who is originally from Des Moines, Iowa, and who lived in the UK for many years. His family decided on a move back to the U.S. and so he had one last trip around the UK. The book pokes fun at various locales and people, not the least of which was Bill Bryson himself. It’s also a spirited defense of the way of life at the time. It says a lot about the ability of the British to laugh at themselves that this book was on the best seller list during my entire four year stay in the UK.

I arrived in Glasgow on a rainy Saturday morning three weeks ago. As it turns out, that was one of the few rainy days that I would experience. The hotel thoughtfully had my room ready early. Free use of the hotel lounge and free mini-bar were also much appreciated. A hot bath and a short nap later, I headed up to the lounge for a coffee and out on the no longer rainy Saturday morning.

This was my first trip to the UK since 2004. It felt like taking out an old pair of shoes from the closet that I don’t wear anymore. They’re comfortable, but in a different way. British cities have much less open space than their American counterparts. I felt back in my element. Much better, actually, as now I have the fuller life that I lacked back then.

I arrived at noon for the first of many Indian meals. There’s two places I should highlight. Mama’s Rasoi (kitchen) is a relatively new Indian restaurant on the back side of the St. Enoch shopping center. I hope they’re getting a good rent as there’s relatively little foot traffic. The place came recommended by the Indian students of my host. They know what they’re doing. The food was excellent. Service has a little work to do, but the place has promise. I hope it survives.

The other place I want to high light is Mother’s India Café. One big plus about food there is that it’s down “tapas style”. In this case, it means half size portions. That’s a big plus for the solo traveler as it meant I could try four dishes as opposed to one or two. This place has the best saag paneer I’ve ever had, including mine. I’m going to do this as a separate bits and bites item, but Mother’s was so good that I brought a batch back to the US.

I timed my arrival in Scotland to be in the middle of two big stories. The smaller one is Scottish independence. The Scottish National Party holds a majority in the Scottish parliament, a creation of devolution. They trumpet a policy of independence from the UK, though the referendum that its leader wants is multiple choice. Independence, continued union, or continued union with more (undefined) devolution. David Cameron, the Tory PM, has called his bluff and proposes an earlier referendum of Stay vs. Go.

The much bigger story is the Rangers going into administration (bankruptcy). There are two big clubs in Scottish football—Celtic and Rangers. The closest analogy that I can draw is Yankees vs. Red Sox. There’s a long history of competition between the two firms, including sectarian rivalry (Catholic vs. Protestant). Rangers were taken over recently by a businessman with a dodgy past. A tax avoidance case could cost them tens of millions of pounds. The administrators subsequently revealed that the takeover was funded by selling the proceeds of advance ticket sales to pay off a bank debt. It’s a huge scandal.

There are some definite highlights and lowlights to the trip. I had a few enjoyable side trips. My host took me to Glen Goyne distillery the day after I arrived. As I’d picked up a bad cold on the day I left (losing my voice in the process), a whiff of fermenting barley cut through nicely. We also went to Stirling castle on my second weekend and finished the evening off at the village pub. We went up to Loch Fyne my next to last day, enjoying a good lunch and then visiting a whiskey shop. I came back with a bottle of 12 year old Glen Goyne and a custom blend from the whiskey shop (plus some cheese, a few toys, and a batch of saag paneer).

The lowest point may have been realizing that I wasn’t going to accomplish my experimental goals. I was there to help them set up a particular experiment. Pete’s post-doc emailed me the equipment they had purchased for this work. It does everything but sit up and beg. Well, if you order the right accessories. They didn’t order this system, but inherited it from a professor who’d moved to Dublin. So, it didn’t have the mounts for characterizing devices nor the software options. In terms of the work I was supposed to do, we got next to nothing done. I got the system up and running and specified the machining to be done to mount one of their samples. So, there goes a few thousand pounds from the Queen’s treasury.

I did get quite a bit of other work done. We’re coming up on the deadline for submitting the oral program for a conference that I co-chair. It was helpful to have some time away from work to finish this off. A colleague of mine is a professor at St. Andrews University. He invited me to come up and give not one, but two talks. I was to deliver a colloquium for the department in the morning and a seminar for his research group in the afternoon. The latter talk is one that I plan to develop into a potential interview talk, so I spent quite a bit of time on it. Although I had to sing for my supper, I’m pleased to report that supper (and lunch) were very good indeed. Everything was capped off with scotch at host’s home and a room overlooking the 18th green at St. Andrews golf course. This might also develop into a sabbatical. I’ll be working on that in the near future.

I had one of the more interesting conversations of my visit with my friend. I’d put him as a stereotypical Tory (saying this without having explored his political opinions). He’s upper middle class with wife and family. I described Rick Santorum as a socially conservative politician and then had to explain what that meant. It would also be fair to say that movement conservatives have no analogue in the UK. The argument is about how to best run the NHS, not to eliminate it altogether. Until the thread earlier today, I was unaware of any sentiment to eliminate public education in the US. ATiM is an interesting place.

Overall, I didn’t get done what I meant to get done, but it was useful to spend time away thinking about what I really WANT to get done. I’m not sure where I’m headed, other than I’m probably headed away from my present job. Change isn’t a bad thing. A couple of weeks thinking about it isn’t either.

BB

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