This is one of my favorite dishes, but hard to eat due to the onions and garlic in the sauce. Therefore I decided to make my own. Plus I’ve heard making your own farmer’s cheese is quick, easy, and results in a final product that is way tastier. I also decided to use fresh spinach instead of frozen. Alright, here goes:
Farmer’s Cheese
(adapted from Sandor Katz’s recipe in Wild Fermentation)
½ gallon milk (whole milk preferred— I used organic vitamin D)
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. salt
Slowly heat milk to 180°F, stirring occasionally so it doesn’t burn. It should almost boil, but not quite. You want it to form a skin on top, which is called scalding it. Remove it from heat and add the vinegar and mix gently. It will turn yellowish green. I left it for about 5 minutes to stand then poured it through cheesecloth in a colander. I added about 1 tablespoon of salt, which I heard helps it firm up more. You can also add other spices, like sage, pepper, etc. at this stage. Then ball up the cheesecloth and hang it from your sink or over a bowl if you want to keep the liquid (whey). In about 2 hours it will form a ball.
Palak Paneer
3-4 bunches spinach, rinsed stems removed (add more if you want leftovers)
½ of you farmer’s cheese- broken into large chunks
2 potatoes, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
thumbnail worth of ginger, peeled & grated
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 ½ tbsp. garam masala
1 tsp. cumin
1 thai chili, cut into large pieces you can fish out later
Sautee spinach in covered pot with ¼ cup water for 5-10 minutes until completely cooked. Removed pot from heat, add about 1 tsp. of salt, then use a wooden spoon to break up the spinach and cover the pot again. Meanwhile, boil potatoes. You can either make mashed potatoes to serve the spinach over, or add to the spinach and eat over rice. It’s up to you. Okay, now heat the oil and add the garam masala, ginger and chili. Add the cheese to the oil and brown on both sides, about 5 minutes. Next add the tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes before adding the spinach and mix ingredients. Let simmer for another 3 min stirring occasionally. Before you serve, you can add 2 tbsp. greek yogurt to make it creamy, heat for another 2 minutes. Season to taste- e.g. with a tsp. more cumin at the end. I served it with additional yogurt.
If you aren’t a vegetation and want to add a little twist, you can add some shrimp. We added a handful of frozen shrimp to the cheese before adding the tomato.