I did threaten that I’d intersperse the odd recipe in here. I promise there will be incisive, devastatingly-phrased and insightful political commentary, and witty round-ups of the week’s events. At the moment, frankly, there’s not much I can say about politics that wouldn’t fall foul of some sort of internet obscenity laws. It’s party conference season, I know, but I can’t shake the impression that basically it’s one assortment of fuckwits responding to the concerns and accusations of two other assortments of fuckwits as the edifice they stand on tumbles slowly and embarrassingly into the abyss. There are several things I could say about the week’s events, as well as internet obscenity laws, but I won’t, because you’re smart enough to draw your own conclusions. What I will do, is give you supper. Now read on.
A while ago I pretty much swore off chicken. I’ve always (read: last five or six years) been pretty careful about where the chicken I eat comes from, and when I started shopping for myself I would only buy free range, usually those mixed packs of thighs and drumsticks that you get at the supermarket. When I was working as a butcher (nice to have the When I Was there at last, rather than the Since I Am) I was able to be even more picky about the meat I took home, but working in a small supermarket 9 hours a day in a village with very few amenities means lunch options are limited. The odd chicken sandwich, therefore, did pass my lips. No longer.
I’m not going to use the blog as a platform for telling you all about the inhumane vagaries of factory farming – as I said above, you’re smart enough to draw your own conclusions. I assume that anyone reading this isn’t stupid enough to buy or eat chicken that isn’t at the very least supermarket-defined ‘Free Range’ – that means Nandos too. That extremely ropey definition of free-range, by the way, is one of the reasons I decided not to eat chicken unless I knew exactly where it had come from and that the bird had lived its life outdoors and relatively free of stress and pain. Which doesn’t seem like all that much to ask, you’d think, but it’s apparently not covered by ‘Free Range’. Anyway, cutting chicken out of my diet wasn’t that much of a problem considering I didn’t eat that much anyway – lamb and pork (free range, naturally) are the staple meats in our house, and we’re finally getting better at having meals with, gasp, no meat in them at all. Not even a little bit. But curries are a problem.
I like chicken, that’s a problem too. Love it. Taste, texture, the way the skin goes crispy. Yum. Chicken curry, rich with chickpeas and garlic and methi leaves, I have something of a hard-on for, quite frankly. And being as my dad lives dangerously close to a heavy concentration of fine establishments with names like ‘Kohinoor’ and ‘Star of Bengal’, curry’s on the menu a fair bit. We make our own occasionally, and damn good they are too, if I may honk my own instrument briefly. But if it’s a takeaway and I’m not eating chicken, and I don’t fancy the lamb for whatever reason (mainly that it’s nearly always chewy and not from any recognisable bit of a sheep) then what?
Vegetable curry, obviously. Why the hell have I taken two paragraphs to get to this point? Increasingly I’m a vegetarian curry eater, and my new friend is the strange rubbery building block that is paneer. Or panir. Whatever.
Think Feta without the saltiness, think Halloumi without that textural oddity that means you can’t swallow it first go, think Tofu without…no, don’t think Tofu, actually. Ever. Panir is a curd cheese and one of the main sources of protein for the largely vegetable-based cuisine of India. And, conveniently, you can get it in good-sized blocks in international food shops and (some) (big) supermarkets. I’d love to suggest a more readily-available alternative, but I can’t think of one, its close cousins above being ruled out by, well, the above.
Anyway Sag Paneer, Spinach and Paneer curry, is a fairly common sight on any given takeaway menu (Mottor or Mutter Paneer is another) and this is a completely made up recipe that happens to include both spinach and paneer. Got there eventually.
Ingredients:
- 3large tomatoes, or one 400g tin of tomatoes
- 1 large white onion and 1 medium red onion (This is purely for aesthetic purposes, you don’t have to be as picky as me)
- 2 large peppers, red and yellow
- 1 250g block of paneer cheese
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 large bag of spinach (or 8 large leaves of cavolo nero, which is what I used because I’m just that much of a fucking hipster)
- 1 large red chilli (or 2, depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing)
- 3 tsp garam masala (standard curry spice mix, buy it ready ground or whole and grind it yourself in a pestle and mortar)
- Tomato puree
- 500ml chicken or vegetable stock (you may not need this if you’re using a tin of tomatoes)
- 3tbsp natural yoghurt
Roughly chop the large onion and bung it in a food processor with the roughly chopped or tinned tomatoes, garlic (peeled and halved), half the chilli (seeds and all) and about one-third of the paneer, in small cubes. Halve and de-seed the peppers, then roughly chop one half of each and add to the processor. Pulse until the whole lot is finely diced but not a paste. If you don’t have a food processor, then you’ll have to finely chop all of the above. Nothing wrong with that, but I’d stick an audiobook on if I were you, you’ll be there a while.
Roughly chop the spinach (or thinly slice the cavolo nero, losing any thick stalks). De-seed and finely chop the rest of the chilli and peppers, and set the whole lot aside.
Finely slice the other (red) onion into half-rings, cut the paneer into 1cm cubes, and fry the lot over a low-medium heat in a glug of unflavoured oil for about 10 minutes, or until the paneer cubes are getting crispy and brown at the edges. Set aside on some kitchen paper to drain off the oil.
(If you’re using whole spices: Wipe the pan dry with some kitchen paper, then toast the spices for a couple of minutes until the frangrances start to make your entire house smell like curry. Grind to a powder in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar). Another glug of oil in the pan, medium heat, add the spices and a good squeeze of tomato puree, fry together for a minute or two, stirring constantly.
Add the veg from the food processor and cook for 10-15 minutes until the onion is soft. If the mix is still quite dry, this is the place to add some stock – gradually, like a risotto, until the sauce is the consistency you like. I like the actual sauce of a curry to be quite thick and free of chunks, so I used a stick blender here and whizzed it all to hell. Stir in the yoghurt.
Stir in the spinach, peppers and chilli. Let it cook for another ten minutes or so, before adding back the paneer and onion. A further five minutes, then switch the heat off and leave it for 20-30 minutes to let the flavours mingle. Stick a lid on the pan if you have one.
Munch.
Poorly-lit photo makes this actually look like a takeaway curry. It's not that yellow in real life, I swear.
That’s your lot for now. M
((EDIT: apparently ‘unflavoured oil’ is just too cheffy a term for some folks. What I mean is, a cooking oil that is neutrally flavoured, like Groundnut, Sunflower, ‘light’ or ‘mild’ Olive oil. Not bright green extra virgin olive oil, basically, which you shouldn’t be using for cooking anyway – it has far too much spicy-pepperyness. Avoid vegetable oil full stop.))
