Saag Paneer

One of our favorite restaurants to go to in Seattle is an Indian / Tibetan / Nepalese place called Annapurna Cafe. We've been there a handful of times and I always order the same thing: Saag Paneer. Sure, a girl could branch out. But why? When you found the perfect dish already? The only unfortunate part about Annapurna is that it's not in our neighborhood and is therefore a little bit out of the way and a trip in itself to go there. So, I got it in my head to try to recreate my favorite dish at home. I remembered seeing a recipe on Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks  blog, which I've mentioned before in this space and still regularly read. You can find her recipe for Saag Paneer here.

I made it to recipe ingredients wise, but was a little short of spinach and a little heavy on the paneer. If I made this again (which I'm planning on doing) I'd reverse that balance. More spinach and less paneer. We decided we wanted more creamy and less chewy, which is more how they make it at Annapurna. The flavor profile was spot on though.

I had a little trouble finding paneer in our regular grocery store, and ended up having to go to Whole Foods to find it. So, it may be difficult to find if you don't have a specialty foods store in your area. Here's a crazy idea for my fellow Wisconsinites - how about using super fresh cheese curds?? I know. I'm so wild. They'd be more salty for sure, but I think the texture of a day-old cheese curd might be just the ticket. Or it could melt into a delicious cheesy mess in the pan that one would have to scoop up and eat on the spot. But who's complaining about that?