Passport & Plate - Stilton Saag Paneer
India | Monday, March 2, 2015 | 2 photos
Ingredients
250g. Baby Spinach, washed
1 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
1 Medium Onion, chopped
1 ½ tbsp. Fresh Ginger, minced
1½ tbsp. Garlic, minced
1 Green Chilli, chopped
1 tsp. Ground Coriander
½ tsp. Turmeric
200g Stilton Cheese, Grated
2-3 tbsp. Cream/Cream Cheese
½ tsp Garam Masala
½-1 tsp Lemon Juice, or to taste
Salt, to taste
How to prepare this recipe1. Blanch the spinach for 3 minutes, drain, and puree in a food processor.
2. In a skillet (or pan), heat the oil, and fry up the cumin seeds for 2-3 minutes until lightly toasted. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli until the onions soften (3-4 minutes).
3. Mix the coriander and turmeric into the pan and leave for a further 2 minutes. Add your pureed spinach into the pan, alongside the grated stilton cheese, cream/cream cheese and the garam masala. Bring the pan to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer on a lower heat for 10 minutes.
4. Season with lemon Juice and Salt to your taste and leave to simmer for a further 5-10 minutes.
5. Serve as a curry by itself just for you, or as an accompaniment to another curry you are choosing to serve up!
The story behind this recipePut simply, Asian inspired food is breath-taking! Quite literally sometimes too because of the wide ranging flavours achieved with spices!
I consider spices to be one of the greatest pleasures in life. There is such an array of flavours with such vibrancy in colour, and when you consider the low calorie content of spices, they can really transform the most simple of ingredients and dishes into something brimming at the seams with flavour without your stomach brimming out of your trousers!
Although I must confess to never stepping foot inside India, I spent many a time visiting a large number of "Indian" restaurants in both the UK and Australia due to my endearment to spice! However, I could not possibly claim that I am an expert when it comes to balancing spices to result in excellent flavours 100% of the time...
This recipe however, is one that I truly am passionate about though. I live locally to the village of Stilton, in Cambridgeshire, which has a great association to Stilton Cheese, even if EU regulations stipulate a ban on producing Stilton Cheese in the village itself. The cheese is a very strong flavoured cheese that completely transforms itself during a cooking process, and as a result the range of strong flavours in this recipe complement each other fantastically well within bold colours and creamy and textured consistency. Serve this as a curry by itself or as an accompaniment to another great tasting curry, and you will be left feeling like you are in India sat at your kitchen table in Britain!
I like to consider this recipe as another step into British inspired "Indian Style" cuisine, taking something inspired by Indian food and putting a British stamp on it! Maybe it could be considered a new style of cuisine in itself, combining the best flavours of both Britain and Indian foods to create "Brindian" cuisine??
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!
