Friday, May 23, 2008

Paneer, part 2

I did it!  I finally made some good paneer!  I'm quite proud of myself too.  I have been working off of Angela Kasmala's vegan paneer recipe, but substituting whipped silken tofu for the cashew cheese because Nate is allergic to cashews.  Angela's recipe tastes great, but the tofu version is just not the same. It's good, but not great.  Last week I was enlightened with the fact that pine nuts are NOT, in fact, nuts, but rather, seeds from a pine tree.  Nate can eat pine nuts without any problems, so I decided to use them to make a blended cheese.  I used 1 cup of pine nuts, juice from 1/2 lemon, and some sea salt and blended it in my wonderful VitaMix, then added a package of  extra firm tofu and blended it all together.  Then I baked this creamy mixture for about 1/2 hour.  It was delicious!  So we will be having palak paneer for dinner tomorrow night, unless I eat all of the paneer before then...

2 comments:

Chessa said...

Awesome!!!! I want the recipe, please please puh-leeeze! :D

Jen said...

Definitely! I am so bad about posting my recipes...too lazy I guess! :)

For the pine nut cheese, make it the same way you would your cashew cheese, obviously subbing pine nuts. The pine nuts seem a little naturally saltier so you might want to adjust the sea salt. Pour it into a small baking pan (so your paneer will be about 1 1/2 inches thick) and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Let it cool to room temp., and cut into cubes.

For palak paneer: Saute a teaspoon of cumin seeds, ginger, and 6 cloves of minced garlic in sunflower oil. Add 1 chopped red onion and saute until translucent. Add a can of tomato puree, or chunks of fresh tomato and stir. Add 4 cups of steamed baby spinach and some sea salt, and mix well. Simmer for a few minutes, then add the paneer pieces and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

I've been serving this over coconut rice, which may take away from the authenticity of the recipe, but we just really love coconut rice!

I have found that my paneer will crumble if I leave it in the pan any longer than a couple minutes. This last time I made it, I just tossed it in right before serving. LMK if you make it and how it turns out!