Fancy Spinach

Do you ever come home, rummage around in the fridge and realize you've got half a bag of spinach that's quickly dying on you and you need to use it now? Well that happened to me today. I should eat more salad. I know I should. But frankly it's cold outside and if I eat something I want it to be hot. Ok the arugula salad from yesterday wasn't hot, but it went nicely with hot soup. So here I was with half a bag of salad and no way was I eating a salad. my feet are still chilly from the walk home for crying out loud.

So, I poked around some more and found some garlic. Of course I found garlic. And in the back of the fridge I found some pine nuts. And in my cupboard, neatly labeled was a snapware container of golden raisins. My OCD comes to an ugly head when it comes to my cupboard.

In the pantry I had some onions and I was ready to rock and roll!

This yummy sweet yet salty spinach totally hit the spot. The raisins, garlic, onions and pine nuts all combined to make this one heck of a delicious side dish. And spinach is so chock full of iron, Vitamins A, K, Manganese and folate. So terrifically healthy for our bodies. It did look mighty fancy next to boring old baked chicken though.

Ok, I checked and pine nuts aren't actually a nut. They are a seed of a pine tree. Isn't that interesting? That being said though, I also checked and some people are allergic to pine nuts, most likely people who are allergic to more than one type of nut. SO, people who are allergic to nuts may want to avoid pine nuts and other seeds unless they know they are not allergic to them. Just to be on the safe side. That would really wreck the whole experience of eating this fancy spinach if someone went into anaphylaxsic shock.

Fancy Spinach

1 Tbsp olive oil

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 large onion sliced thin

1/2 bag baby spinach, washed and dried

Juice of half a lemon

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup pine nuts

Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add onion and saute until onion softens. Add baby spinach and cook for 3 minutes until spinach wilts, but maintains its bright green color. Squeeze juice from half lemon over spinach mixture and transfer mixture to serving bowl.

Add raisins and pine nuts to skillet. Saute until pine nuts start to color and raisins are warmed. Add to spinach mixture. Toss well and serve.

Saag Paneer

When opportunity knocks it is important to answer. So what opportunity could be knocking in my grocery that has decided to close it's doors at the beginning of February? Paneer showed up. I have no idea why Paneer, that lovely creamy Indian cheese, would show up out here in the middle of northern Ohio. This is just a bizarre and lovely happenstance. I stood there at the cheese kiosk gazing helplessly at the little boxes of Paneer. If it wasn't price prohibitive, I might have bought them all. Immediate memories flooded back to eating at Shalimar in Ann Arbor with my good friend S. Memories of drowning my sorrows of being so far away from family and friends in Indianapolis at the Indian restaurant around the corner from work.

I happen to love Saag Paneer. A dish of spinach and cheese that's smooth goodness immediately soothes me into a state of calmness. I even have the Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking cookbook. And it has a recipe for Saag Paneer. Up until now I haven't found Paneer and thus haven't had a chance to make Saag Paneer. And I'll admit it. I'm a chicken when it comes to actually making the Paneer myself.

But this dish, although not terribly pretty, In fact it is downright ugly, is so yummy and delicious that I may have to go to my grocery and buy out what's left of the Paneer and then learn how to make it myself so I can eat this again and again. And yes its embarrassing that I don't have a recipe from some elevated Indian cookbook. But this Betty Crocker version is surprisingly good. Warm and soothing with a little bit of a kick.

The only problem I had was that it got a little dry in the spinach simmering time, so I added a cup of water. Also, I pureed my spinach before adding my cheese. And once the holidays ended, so did my supply of heavy cream. So I added whole milk and it turned out just fine.

Saag Paneer

From Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking

2 Tbsp olive oil

5 medium cloves garlic finely chopped

2 Tbsp finely chopped gingerroot

1 cup tomato sauce

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt

2 (10 oz) packages chopped frozen spinach, thawed and undrained

1 cup water

2 cups 1/2 inch pieces of paneer sauteed until golden in olive oil

1/2 cup whole milk

1 tsp Garam Masala

1.) Heat oil in 3 quart saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic and gingerroot; stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes or until garlic is golden brown.

2.) Stir in tomato sauce, ground coriander, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt; reduce heat to low. Partially cover and simmer 7 to 8 minutes or until a thin film of oil starts to form on surface of sauce.

3.) Stir in undrained spinach and water. Cover and simmer 8 to 10 minutes or until spinach turns a light olive green. Transfer spinach mixture to food processor and puree; return to pan.

4.) Stir in cheese. Cover and simmer 3 to 4 minutes of until cheese is hot; remove from heat.

5.) Stir in milk and Garam Masala.