SPINACH PEANUT PANEER KOFTA

This vegetarian curry tasted great. If they say "palak & paneer" taste amazing, we have to believe... when I say addition of roasted, ground peanuts took taste to new heights, you must accept, try it... you win. It was cooked two months back when my family visited Singapore. I discovered 50 grams of paneer in freezer one evening, forgot to stack it before they arrived, was unwilling to boil 2 litres of milk to get little. Availability of spinach / palak isn't problem here, we get locally Thai, Chinese varieties, for Indian variety we need visit Indian super store, Southern Indian Marts. Thai Palak tastes exactly like Indian variety, its welcome. When two bunches of palak got cooked with little amount of crumbled paneer, amount looked little, I had to feed seven people. I always have big jar of roasted peanut stored at home, husband needs it everyday with his beer. I tried other combination of mixed nuts, dried fruits on him, he doesn't enjoy them on regular basis. Adding roasted peanut powder wasn't problem. It made big difference, all in family loved warm, tomato based creamy curry with non-fried kofta. I could not stop thinking of daddy, he loved kofta curries, made of raw banana most. I started cooking KANCHAKOLAR KOFTA CURRY for his love of it but hardly got any chance to feed him. 

Our mother does not let anyone get away with accolades, to keep rein in her hands, she is ready to take pain of tremendous labour at this age. She enjoys household activities, doing groceries. We don't stop, she should have some engagement around attractive enough to make her live decent life. Else, my brother's wife cooked fabulous keema chana curry the day we reached Kolkata this time, I cook better dal than our mother, I find her dal varieties bland.... 

Anyway, along with my brother, his wife, she also liked the vegetarian curry, the side of SPINACH PEANUT PANEER KOFTA I served them. That definitely was big satisfaction. The mother truly had grown old, one who loved dosa & idli, could not digest giant sized dosas served here. She liked the idli I prepared at home with semolina, dalia. She was willing to have oriental style light soups that did not have pork or beef. On every outing, I had to instruct outlets how to make customised soup with fried, boneless fish, egg, prawn, chicken, .... she preferred vegetarian soups adding soya sauce, sesame oil, red chilli paste to it. I prepared soup for her too, one we loved I did click, shall share with my loving readers at later date.

Coming to this SPINACH PEANUT PANEER KOFTA, I forgot clicking all steps. When kofta mixture was done, I forgot clicking. Anyway, I did entire process with regular kitchen spices we usually use in our cooking. I mean being in food space for sometime, I came across different variety of spices, tour of Istanbul Spice Bazaar further enriched my experience but I had to throw off half of Ottoman Meat Spice I bought from there, meat curries with that didn't catch my fancy. Its either South Asian Spices or Oriental Sauces for me... ok different salad creams too are favourite. 

I still have some amount of dried vegetables I got from Istanbul safe in refrigerator, thinking of making spicy, lemon flavoured pulao to serve with chicken tonight. I find it difficult to add life to a dish, do justice to it if it totally goes against my tastebuds. Principle of "love thyself to be able to love others" works everywhere. I find broccoli too bland, I also know it's health benefits, it tastes horrible if we overcook it. What I do is I serve it over a bed of boiled noodles with drizzle of olive oil, Thai, Vietnamese sauces. I am fond of them, I add to spicy tomato rice. I am happy, family too. 

Cooking occupies major part of my life, it imparts happiness within. Had I have known cooking is pleasure at an young age, would I have pursued something like hotel management course? Nope, cooking is pleasure, literature is love. When I didn't take it as  major in graduation fearing poorer performance, husband[then dear friend], mother told I am doing biggest mistake in life! Yes, I did, Masters in Po.Sc. + bachelor's degree in education seems useless pieces of paper resting in locker, Political Science wasn't my choice. 

In my country of origin, most get master's degree by fluke, not loving subject taken as major, mugging up "previous ten years of question papers". A Nupur Datta told me after our Master's results were out .... " S you got higher score than me because you have superior power of mugging up texts".... I am not our mother that I would get a hell out of people doing positive criticism. There is a but, however our mother is, she means more to me than other's parents. Nupur in her own right was head girl of Ballygaung Shiksha Sadan in 10th standard, in Modern High in 12th may be. In recent past, I was not surprised to see her as principal in full fledged high school. This time too I could not meet her though we discovered we live near to each other, there is next time, I know she would not have problem accepting I cook "maacher jhol" perfectly like wonder women in our grandmother's era .... neither I will hesitate to tell her "listen thought of facing an interview gives me goosebumps till date" if she asks me why I wasted my life sitting at home. Anyway, here is full proof, yummy vegetarian recipe for family, friends, readers .... everyone who follows CURRY AND SPICE !

INGREDIENTS FOR KOFTA BALL :

SPINACH / PALAK : 500GM
PANEER : 50GM-100GM
ROASTED PEANUT POWDER : 1SMALL TEA CUP
SLICED ONION : 1/2SMALL TEA CUP
CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 1TBSP
CUMIN SEED : 2PINCH
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1/2TSP
CUMIN POWDER : 1/2TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1/2TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 2PINCH
SALT : AS REQUIRED
SUGAR : 1TSP
OIL : 2TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR KOFTA CURRY :

THE PREPARED KOFTA BALLS
TOMATO : 4-5 MEDIUM SIZED
ONION : 1BIG
CUMIN POWDER : 1TSP
CORIANDER POWDER : 1TSP
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2TSP
GARAM MASALA POWDER : 1TSP
RED CHILLI POWDER : 1TSP
GINGER PASTE : 1TSP
CUMIN SEED : 1/4TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
BUTTER : 1TBSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3-4TBSP

PROCEDURE :

Discard root ends of spinach stalks. Roughly chop them, wash, blanch in hot water for few minutes. Discard water, make paste out of it in blender. Crumble paneer.

Heat oil in wok, temper with cumin seeds. Add cumin seeds, chopped green chillies, stir. Add washed onion slices, fry till golden brown. 

Add spinach paste, stir for few minutes. Add crumbled paneer. Fold in well. Now, add salt, turmeric + red chilli + cumin + coriander powders + salt + sugar. Stir cook for 2-3 minutes.

Take it on plate. Add roasted peanut powder. Let cool, then mix well.

Shape into kofta of your choice tearing smaller portions. 

I cook kofta mixture well, avoided frying them. 

For curry, we would chop, wash tomatoes. We would discard two ends of onion, peel, halve, slice, wash onion. 

We would make paste of tomato pieces.

We would heat oil in clean wok, fry onion until brown in it. We would take them out, cool, make paste of it.

In same reheated oil, we would add bay leaf, cumin seeds. We would then add ginger paste, fry for 1&1/2-2 minutes. 

Thereafter, we would add tomato paste, stir at low heat for 2 minutes.

We would add onion paste there after, fold in well.

We would stir cook for a minute, add turmeric + cumin + coriander + red chilli powders, salt to it.

Mix it well, add 11/2 coffee mug of water. Let gravy simmer at low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add garam masala powder now.

After simmering it for 2-3 minutes, we would add butter. As butter melts, we would arrange koftas in serving bowl. 

After allowing gravy to simmer for another minute, we would pour it over koftas evenly.

We would wait at least 1/2 an hour before serving kofta curry with flat breads / rice or even toasted breads.