素食好主意 -- 菠菜奶豆腐 # 2

 

我的家鄉馬六甲有一間北印餐廳叫做 "Pak Putra" ， 是一家把餐桌和椅子擺在路邊的路邊攤式餐廳。他們家的印度饢和各式咖喱都很不錯，烤雞更是遠近馳名。不少到馬六甲玩的外國遊客都聞名去嚐鮮呢！

我和N回國探親的時候大多時候都會去那裏吃幾次飯。他家有一款我家人非常喜歡的咖喱叫做“Palak”，第一次去吃的時候我就有點奇怪了，因為這不是印度那裏的吃法，後來我想大概是因為馬六甲買不到新鮮的奶豆腐所以把馳名的菠菜奶豆腐做成隻有菠菜的咖喱了吧！

後來我有一天做了這個菠菜奶豆腐，我媽一吃，說：”唉呀！這就是Pak Putra的菠菜咖喱嘛！“。看來我的猜測不錯哦！

 

My family in Malaysia loved North Indian Cuisine, there is a very nice Indian restaurant that sells naan and Tandoori chicken name "Pak Putra" in Melaka. It is a roadside hawker style restaurant, they have all the chairs and tables lined up at the roadside in front of the shop every evening.  

 

We made special trips there when N and I visiting Malaysia, he is always delighted to go there for his Indian food fixed. 

 

Pak Putra made very good spinach curry without paneer, I find it very funny at first, they called it "Palak", without the word paneer. I guess it is because fresh Indian Cottage cheese is hard to find in Melaka.

 

So my family in Malaysia are so used to the palak gravy that they thought it is how it should be eaten. They have no idea about the famous Northern Indian dish called Palak paneer, until mom and brother visited US and I made it one day and they were like :" Oh this is the real thing?". 

 

They liked it very much though mom couldn't really get along with the idea of eating "tofu" with spinach. She has learned it somewhere on the internet that calcium in tofu will react to oxalate in the spinach and promotes the formation of kidney stones or some sort of rumor like that.

 

So, even though I have repeatedly told her that it is just a myth and paneer isn't really tofu, she still eats only the spinach gravy but not the paneer. I guess old habits die hard then.

 

 

材料:

1 大把的菠菜 （大約400克）

200 gms 奶豆腐 Paneer (切塊)

1 tsp 薑蒜蓉/ginger garlic paste

4-5 瓣的蒜瓣 (切碎)

2-3 隻青辣椒

1 1/2 tsp 食鹽

1 tsp 孜然 (Jeera)

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

1-2 tbsp 奶油/cream  Optional

 

Ingredients:

1 big bunch of spinach

200 gms of Paneer (Cubed)

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

4-5 cloves of garlic (Chopped)

2-3 green chilli

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp Cummin Seed (Jeera)

1/2 tsp of Garam Masala

1-2 tbsp of cream  Optional

 

 

 

 

1. 把菠菜和青辣椒用熱水燙過，然後冷水洗淨。(這樣做菠菜糊糊會保持翠綠的顏色。)然後把菠菜和青辣椒，加上薑蒜蓉和一點水攪拌成糊狀。
 

2. 在一口平底鍋裏把奶豆腐煎成稍微有點金黃色。備用。

 

3. 在一口鍋裏加入2 tbsp食油或Ghee,倒入蒜末，煸炒2-3分鍾後加入孜然。當孜然和蒜蓉都煸香的時候，倒入菠菜胡，繼續煮3-5 分鍾。

4. 加入鹽和garam masala調味,把奶豆腐加入，再燜煮3-5分鍾即可，吃之前可以加點奶油。

 

1. Blanched spinach and green chili, drain and wash with cold water (This is crucial to retain the beautiful green color of spinach). Use a mixer to blend spinach, chili and ginger garlic paste to form a paste. Remember not to use too much water to blend as you don't want the result to be too watery.

 

2. In a cooking pan, heat up 1-2 tsp of butter, shallow fry the paneer pieces until browned. Keep aside.

 

3. In a cooking pot, heat up 2 tbsp of cooking oil, stir in chopped garlic, cook for 2-3 minutes, then add in the cumin seed. When the garlics become slightly browned and cumin seeds splutter, pour in spinach paste and cook for 3-5 minutes.

4. Season with salt and garam masala, add in the paneer pieces and continue cooking for another 3-5 minutes. Add some cream before serving if you wish.
 

Serve the palak paneer with roti or rice.

I also have another version of Palak Paneer that requires no Blender to cook

-- http://spicehunt.blogspot.com/2011/09/palak-paneer-indian-cottage-cheese-in.html

 

可以就著麵餅或者米飯吃。

 

 

歡迎到我的英文博客玩--

http://www.echoskitchen.com/2014/07/palak-paneer-spinach-with-cottage.html