Five-green saag paneer

8/3/10 update - new photo (not a good one though, ha!)

This is based off of a traditional saag paneer recipe from Dance of the Spices by Laxmi Hiremath. "Paneer" is Indian style white cheese, and it's about the most basic cheese you can make. It's really pretty easy, just requires a little planning. It's similar to cottage or ricotta cheese, except that you press out water until it's rather solid, and then cut it into chunks for use in recipes. "Saag" refers to the spinach sauce that the paneer is in. I've made this so many times I feel like it's kind of taken on a life of its own, especially with the CSA coming in strong in the greens category. Saag paneer is basically my catch-all dish to use up any kind of greens, from lettuce to kale, even the radish and beet tops that you might be tempted to just toss (yes! you can eat them!).

A few specifics on the ingredients called for - I'm pretty sure almost any combo of greens would work. So really you should use the ends of whatever you have! Heck, you could even throw in some broccoli or cauliflower probably. But I do like keeping spinach the predominant one just to keep tradition somewhere in the mix. This is a good use of the outer lettuce leaves that are a bit tougher, especially on a head of Romaine. For the paneer, steps 6 and 7 have ** next to them, because I've done very different times for those steps, and it's always worked. I've let it drain in the sink over night, I've pressed it for only 1 hour... last time I made this I skipped the draining over the sink part, only pressed it for maybe 1.5 hours, and it was ready for dinner that night, no foresight required. So bottom line, make the cheese fit your schedule and it'll be fine.

Paneer
1/2 gallon whole milk
4 c. (1 quart) 2% milk
3 c. buttermilk

1. In a very large saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. This will take a while. Stir occasionally.
2. When it just gets to a simmer, add the buttermilk and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir constantly until the curds have separated from the whey. The whey should be pretty clear when this process is done. It will only take a few minutes. This is when it's easiest for the curds to burn, so make sure you are stirring.
3. Turn off the heat, let sit for about 15 minutes.
4. Line a large colander with a double thickness of cheesecloth, with enough excess so that you'll be able to gather the corners after straining. Pour the mixture slowly through the cheesecloth.
5. Gather the corners of the cheesecloth, and twist/tie up with kitchen twine. Use the twine to suspend the cheese bundle from a faucet.
**6. Let the cheese drain into the sink for 3 hours.
**7. Place an upside down small saucer or salad plate on top of a dinner plate or bowl. Place the bundle on the inverted plate. Put something heavy on top of the bundle. You may need to arrange other random heavy things around this setup so the first heavy thing does not fall down. I usually put my cast iron dutch oven atop the cheese, push the setup into a corner and then balance the dutch oven with two heavy canisters. This is probably the hardest part of the process. Let it stand like this for 2-3 hours.
8. Unwrap and slice for immediate use or store in the fridge. I like my slices about 2" by 1" by 0.5".


Saag
About 6 c. packed greens - I probably used about 0.5 c. radish greens, 1 c. ugly Romaine lettuce, 1 c. beet greens, 1 c. kale, and 3 c. spinach.
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
8 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
3-5 serrano chilis, de-seeded and cut into a few chunks.
about 1 c. water
2-4 T. butter
1 small-medium onion, grated (grate this in the food processor first, before starting the saag)
1 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. turmeric
black pepper
1 t. salt
1-2 t. sugar (optional)
about 1/2 c. heavy cream (optional)
paneer (recipe above, sliced)
shelled pistachios or pine nuts (optional)

1. Place the greens and 1/2 c. water in a very large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high with a cover. Stir a few times until the greens are very wilted; 6-8 minutes.
2. While the greens are steaming, ready a big bowl of ice water. Transfer the greens to the ice water when they are done steaming. Let sit for at least 5 min.
3. While the greens are steaming and chilling, add the ginger, garlic, chilis, and about 1/2 c. of the ice water (try to avoid the ice cubes) to the work bowl of the food processor or blender. Blend until these ginger, garlic, and chilies are well-chopped.
4. Squeeze some of the excess water out of the greens and add them to the work bowl.
5. Process until everything is very smooth. You may need to add more cold water. It should have the consistency of a thick pancake batter... or maybe a thin hummus (having trouble making a better analogy here, sorry!).
6. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium. Add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onion browns a bit.
7. Add cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper and stir for 1 minute.
8. Add the spinach mixture. Bring to a simmer. Add more water if necessary.
9. Add in the paneer and warm it up. This is a good time to add the cream, if desired (I like it a lot more with cream, personally wouldn't skip it). Stir it in, then taste and adjust the seasonings - add the optional sugar (I again always throw in just a small amount), and if you want, more salt and pepper.
10. Serve over jasmine, basmati, or (my favorite) brown basmati rice, with a sprinkling of pistachios or pine nuts on top and some Sriracha on the side.

Grill-braised leeks and artichoke over wild rice with mushroom sauce and eggs

Most of the recipes I post are vegetarian, and in general, I mostly eat vegetarian. I wrote a little about my reasons for doing so here – and could certainly expound upon some of those ideas even more. But the main reason why I mostly eat vegetarian is that I like it. In fact, I love it. I simply love veggies, herbs, grains, eggs, cheese, and nuts. However, the one part that can get a little old has to do with texture. Perhaps not even texture really – textural qualities and descriptors include chewy, tender, meaty, flaky… all of which can be achieved using ingredients from the grain, vegetable, legume, and dairy domains – it might be better described as food geometry - the shape, size, and layout of food on your plate. In simpler terms, I like a dish that requires using a knife. If you look at the cookbook that I single out as the cookbook that opened my eyes to the diversity of flavors in vegetarian cooking, the Moosewood Cookbook, nearly every dish can be eaten with a fork alone. Consider the vegetarian staples. Pastas, stir-fry, and soups use ingredients already processed into bite sized pieces. Quiches, omelets, and casseroles are delicate enough to only necessitate a fork. Pizza and sandwiches require only your hands. Lasagnas and anything stuffed come closer, but even still you could get away with a fork.

So the bottom line is that sometimes I want a vegetarian meal that requires a knife and has a large focal point in the middle of the plate. And recently, I had half a bag of wild rice and a bunch of dried mushrooms in the pantry. I was tempted to make a nice soup or frittata using those ingredients as well as some leeks for a classic combination of flavors. But instead I opted for the “deconstructed” version (I feel terribly pretentious using that term – and I don’t even know if it’s the right word - but I think it suits the meal). What I mean by deconstructing is to keep things relatively large and whole and mix the flavors at the end, on your plate, to your desires. And the focal point ended up being the least likely of the players: the leeks. As well as some artichokes as I ended up cooking the same way as the leeks because there was a pretty big crowd over for dinner. So, the menu ended up being:
-Grilled braised artichokes and leeks
-Mushroom sauce
-Wild rice
-Poached eggs
-Chicken sausages (on the grill)
-No-knead bread I had started a day earlier and finished that morning

Everything was really good, and unfortunately my photography skills don't really do it justice, especially because I'd already broken the egg.

I will just give the recipes for the artichokes, leeks, and mushroom sauce since the rice was just according to the package and I’ve talked about poaching eggs before. I also ended up cutting the wild rice about 2:1 with brown basmati rice, again cause there was a crowd. The leek and artichoke recipes were to some degree inspired by an Alton Brown leek recipe, and a Mark Bittman artichoke recipe.

Grilled braised artichokes and leeks
1 T oil
1 T butter
4 large leeks
3 artichokes
salt
pepper
about 2 cups broth or stock (I used BTB veggie stock)

1. Preheat the grill to medium high.
2. Melt the butter and combine with the oil.
3. Trim away the green top of the leek, and then the outermost layer or two of the white part. We want to cut the leeks in half, long-ways, but we need to be careful to keep the layers together, yet still rinse between the layers. To do this, we're gonna keep most of the root area intact. So with a knife, just barely shave away the roots themselves, leaving the bottom of the leek round. Then, slice the leek in half, long-ways. Now rinse them well, the bottom of the leek should keep everything in place and allow you to pull apart the layers to a degree under running water to get the grit out. Leeks can often be really dirty, so this is important.
4. Brush the cut sides with the oil/butter mixture, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Clean the artichokes: rinse them, then use scissors or kitchen shears to snip off the spiky parts. Then cut them in half vertically, and scoop out the hairy part. Marvel at how quickly the flesh oxidizes (turns a little brown), but don't worry this is okay. To slow down that process a little, brush with the oil/butter as soon as you're done scooping at the hairy part on each artichoke half. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Place all the leeks and artichokes on the grill, cut side down, and grill with the lid closed till a little caramelization and grill marks appear (5-8 minutes).
7. Ready two BIG pieces (about 14" each) of heavy duty aluminum foil and place one over the over perpendicularly. You will use this to hold the veggies to complete the braising. Place 3 artichoke halves on top of the foil and fold the edges up around the chokes. Make sure it looks capable of holding liquid, and then pour in broth to about 3/4" deep. Fold together the ends of the foil to create a relatively tight pouch that will hold some steam. Repeat for the other three artichoke halves, and then all the leeks (they'll fit in one pouch).
8. Return the three pouches to the grill, and cook for 15 minutes.
9. Carefully check on the pouches after 15 minutes. Remove from the grill, open pouch carefully (watch out for steam), and see if the veggies are down. You want to be quite tender, a sharp knife should easily pierce the artichoke flesh (on the cut side), and the leeks should be very soft. If they're not, return to the grill, adding more stock if necessary (or water, if you're out of stock), and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Mushroom sauce (or simple saucy mushrooms)
2-3 1.25 ounce packets of dried mushrooms - I used one oyster, one porcini, and one unidentified half packet from the depth of my pantry - may have been shitake.
1 T. butter
salt
3 shallots, chopped rather small
1 carton of white button mushrooms (the larger cartons at the store), sliced
half and half to taste - about 1/2 c.
leaves from 6-8 sprigs of fresh thyme
freshly grated parmesan cheese to taste (optional)

1. Boil some water and pour over dried mushrooms. Break apart any very large dried mushrooms. Let them sit for 20-30 minutes in a bowl.
2. Heat butter and cook shallots over medium for about 8-10 minutes, till they are thoroughly cooked and starting to brown.
3. Add the fresh mushrooms and cook for another 8-10 minutes.
4. Scoop the rehydrated mushrooms out and add them to the pan. Don't throw away the soaking water.
5. Stir everything for a minute, and reduce heat to low, and add the half and half and thyme. Add some of the soaking liquid and salt and pepper as well, and cook a few more minutes till you've got a taste and consistency you like. If you'd like, stir in some parm, or just serve it at the table.

At the table...
Mix, or don't mix, the various pieces to your taste.

Butternut and bean mole

Well this recipe is sort of cheating, but it is good and original. One gripe I have with Mexican restaurants is that there is a rarely a vegetarian dish featuring mole sauce. If you're unfamiliar with mole (pronounced mo-lay) it is a thick sauce that usually has a mixture of chiles, cocoa powder, and cumin. It's delicious, but traditionally served with chicken which I generally don't order at restaurants. It also is pretty labor intensive and takes a while to cook. But not with a spice blend from Savory Spice shop. I tried their Mexican mole blend and improvised a vegetarian dish that was sort of based on the recipe card I picked up in the store for a chicken mole. It turned out really good.

Ingredients
1 large butternut squash
oil
3 tomatillos, leaves removed and rinsed
4 ozs. Savory Spice Shop's Mexican Mole Blend
1.25 c. vegetable bouillon, or 1.25 c. water and 1.25 t. Better than Bouillion
2 T. raisins
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1-2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
2 c. cooked beans (I used some pintos I had cooked a while ago and froze, I think a can or two of pintos, blacks, or kidney would all work)
corn tortillas for serving
brown or white rice for serving

1. Slice squash in half and remove seeds and skin. Cut up into 1/3 - 1/2 inch chunks. Heat a small amount of oil in a cast iron skillet over medium. Add squash chunks and cover, cover 5 min. Remove cover and crank up heat, stir frequently until cooked through, and crispy on the outside.
2. Roast tomatillos under broiler until blistered and slightly blackened, about 10 minutes, flip halfway through. Set aside to cool.
3. In small bowl, mix Savory Spice Shop’s Mexican Molé seasoning, 1/2 cup warm veggie bouillon into a smooth paste. In food processor or blender, pulse molé paste, raisins and tomatillos until thoroughly blended. Set aside.
4. Heat olive oil in a Dutch over or pot over medium high heat. Add in onion, cook and stir for 3 min. Add in green pepper and jalapeno, cook and stir for 3-5 minutes, till the veggies are mostly cooked through.
5. Reduce heat to medium, add mole paste, and sauté and stir for no more than 1-2 minutes. Add squash and rest of veggie bouillon. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 12 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Serve over brown rice and with corn tortillas. It's even better leftover the next day.

Very green curry (aka green dinner, part 1)

I made the greenest meal ever the other night: Green curry with lots of green veggies and avocado ice cream for dessert (coming in the next post). This Thai-style curry is really not very inventive, but I think it was a great combo for spring, and definitely a quick, tasty, healthy dinner. If you haven't ever cooked with Thai-style curry paste, you should give it a try. The ingredients in this particular brand are simple and delicious: chiles, lemongrass, garlic, keffir lime, and ginger - that's pretty much it. I think this was the first time I put edamame (baby soybeans, look for them in the freezer section) in a curry; they really play a nice role! I think I may like them in curry as much or more than tofu. You can buy them frozen, shelled or unshelled - shelled makes them super easy to use in applications like this. Unfortunately the only picture I took is the curry leftover, as my lunch today.



Serves 4

2 c. rice (I like brown) cooked in a rice cooker or however
2 t. neutral oil
1 onion, chopped or sliced
3-4 carrots, sliced (looks especially nice if you cut on a diagonal)
pinch of salt
1 bunch asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces (ditto on the cutting remark above, make sure to discard the bottom of the stalk if they are lighter in color or feel tougher - that part is unappealing fibrous when cooked)
1 can coconut milk
1/2 can of water
1 to 1.5 T green curry paste (it's spicy, so start small if you're sensitive)
2 c. frozen, shelled edamame
2 large handfuls washed baby spinach
fish sauce to taste (2 t., maybe)
sugar to taste (2 t., maybe)

1. Heat the oil in a large wok (if you use a typical 10 or 12" skillet, you may want to reduce quantities of the veggies to prevent overflow)
2. Stir-fry the onions and carrots with a pinch of salt, till the the carrots are still firm but the crunch has just been taken off (about 5 minutes)
3. Add the asparagus, and stir-fry till the asparagus is still firm but the crunch has just been taken off (about 3 minutes)
4. Add the coconut milk, water (use the water to rinse the last bit of coconut milk), and curry paste.
5. Add the frozen edamame, bring to simmer, and cook for 4 minutes.
6. Add the spinach and cook for another minute or to wilt the spinach.
7. Season with fish sauce and sugar to taste (I used about 2 tsp. of each).
8. Serve over rice



[I hope I don't spill this on my laptop!]

Brown rice and portobello risotto

This is a very non-traditional take on risotto. It happened because I really wanted risotto for dinner tonight, but I only had short grain brown rice on hand. Typically, risotto is made with Arborio rice, a short grain white rice. But it's also a bit non-traditional in the preparation. I intentionally did not stir it as much as is called for in traditional risotto recipes to see if it would still work. One caveat on all the hypotheses postulated below; they may not be at all correct, but I think they probably are.

Risotto 101 - basic techniques and science
Risotto is essentially (in order of decreasing volumes used) liquid, rice, bits & pieces (chopped veggies, meat, seafood), and seasonings (usually including freshly grated parmesan cheese). What makes it special is the preparation. When you make most non-risotto rice dishes, you are going for fluffy, separated grains that are cooked till tender. In contrast, with risotto, you are going for a creamy, heavier texture and an al dente bite to the grains themselves. To accomplish the non-risotto texture, you boil/steam the rice with the lid on, without any perturbations to the system. To accomplish risotto-texture, it is exactly the opposite: lid off, adding in liquid a half cup at a time all the while vigorously stirring. What happens is that while the rice is cooking all that stirring-induced agitation causes starch molecules to leave the rice grain, and get cooked in the liquid. Since the starch molecules are released slowly, and you're stirring constantly, it's similar to a roux, but better. Lumps and burning cannot occur (whereas it's quite easy to make lumps and burnage while combining starch and liquid at a more macro-scale - think gravy). Alton Brown had an excellent Good Eats episode explaining most of this with a few more details, if you're interested.

Risotto 201 - brown rice risotto, mechanisms for desired outcome
Everyone knows brown rice is better for you. Less processed, more good fiber, etc... My thoughts on using brown rice for risotto were that:
a. it would take longer, because brown rice takes longer to cook in general.
b. otherwise it should work just as well.
Point a. is fairly obvious but point b. is more complicated. See, what makes brown rice brown is that the bran and germ are intact. White rice, at a point in its life after harvest and before the conclusion of processing, was brown. The bran and germ were removed, leaving only the endosperm. So when making risotto, I was somewhat concerned of the ability of water to pass through the bran, dissolve some starch molecules, and for those starches to leave the grain to return back to the cooking liquid to make that sought-after creaminess. Furthermore, since brown rice takes longer to cook, I was concerned about my arm having to stir the pot for 45-50 minutes. Luckily, and logically, I didn't have too. I probably stirred the pot for 15 of the 50 minutes of cook time. This makes sense, if the water can enter the grain, logically starch can leave it. Yes, starch molecules are larger than water molecules, but once the rice is cooking for a while, the bran splits, exposing the endosperm and allowing for free passage of starch molecules.

So these hypotheses/observations can give us a road map for successfully making risotto out of brown rice. The basic plan: make it in a similar fashion to traditional risotto, but there's no need to stir it for the first 10 minutes or so of cooking, since it is the heat and expanding endosperm that ruptures the grains, not the stirring. Once you see the grains opening to any degree, or swelling substantially, stir to your heart's content. I'm still a bit impatient, so I didn't stir constantly after that. The more stirring the better, but with white or brown rice I'm too lazy/disorganized to stir the whole time.

Another thing that's nice about this, is that since it takes longer to cook, but my above observations relieve me from constant stirring, you can start cooking the rice before prepping the other ingredients (chopping garlic, mushrooms, sage, grating the parm in the food processor). You can even use the down time to make side dishes, and depending on your sides, everything can be ready in an hour. I served it with a spinach, apple, and red pepper salad, and a Brussels sprouts and apple dish very loosely based off of this one. So in the end, this shouldn't take much more total time than Arborio rice risotto.

The end product was very tasty. The characteristic nuttiness of brown rice pairs nicely with mushrooms and sage, and though it maybe could have used a bit more stirring, there was ample creaminess. Like most risottos, especially those made with red wine, it's not much to look at:



A few notes on ingredients:
Using red wine as a cooking liquid is also a bit unusual, but according to the Gourmet Cookbook, it is traditional in the Piedmont region of Italy. With these ratios, the flavor is not at all overwhelming, it just imparts a nice, deep flavor (as well as a slightly funny color).
For the rice, make sure it's short grain. Long grain simply won't give off as much starch. I use a brand called Lundberg that I think is excellent. It also happens to be the only kind I can find out here, and it's only at the King Sooper's, not the Safeway, in Golden.
For the veggies, I probably would have gone with 1/2 an onion and 3 mushrooms, but I didn't have any onions.

4 c. water plus more for deglazing your pan and as needed
1 c. red wine
2 T. olive oil, separated
1 T. butter
5 cloves garlic, minced and separated
2 c. short grain brown rice (don't rinse)
4 portobello mushrooms, sliced thinly (~1/4-1/3") then chopped into chunks
salt and pepper
2 T. fresh sage, thinly sliced
1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese (plus more for serving)
optional, a touch of cream or milk

Start the rice
1. Combine the wine and 4 c. of water in a 2.5 qt. saucepan over high heat. When it comes to a simmer, reduce heat to low.
2. Heat 1 T. of the oil and the butter in a 3.5 qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add half the minced garlic and stir till fragrant. Add in the raw rice and stir for 3 minutes.
3. Add enough of the simmering wine/water mixture to cover the rice by less than half an inch (maybe a quarter inch). Reduce heat to low, cover loosely, and let it cook for 10 minutes.
4. After the initial 10 minutes, or once you see some grain rupture, add 1/2 c. of the liquid at a time, stirring frequently. I like to think if I stir extra vigorously, I'm releasing as much starch if I stirred more frequently and less vigorously. Add another 1/2 c. when the last 1/2 c. is absorbed. Continue like this till the rice is tender and al dente, about 45-50 minutes including the initial 10.

In the meantime... prep and cook the veggies

4. Heat 1 T. oil in a skillet, add the other half of the garlic, stir till fragrant, and then add the mushrooms and some salt. Cook till the mushrooms are done, about 6 minutes.
5. Move the veggies to a serving bowl and add the sage.
6. Pour 1/2 to 3/4 cup of boiling water into the skillet to deglaze all of those tasty mushroom flavors. Use this hot water as your next addition to the rice pot.

Combine it all

7. Once the rice is done, add it to the veggies. Stir in some salt and pepper to taste, the parmesan, and the cream or milk if desired. Serve immediately with extra parmesan at the table.