Khan Lady: CHICKEN PALAK - CHICKEN WITH SPINACH

CHICKEN PALAK

(CHICKEN WITH SPINACH)

There are numerous recipes out there of this super yum spinach cooked with chicken. Many opt for frozen or tinned spinach but I always prefer fresh spinach. Although it gets time consuming but hey...I go to great lengths when it comes to cooking! So if you are going to prepare this dish with fresh spinach then you'll need at least 6 medium sized bunches for 1 Kilo of chicken.

The spinach leaves have to be picked to make sure all leaves are good. Then it has to be finely chopped, washed well and drained before it can be used. Some people have their spinach blitzed to a paste...! Well...umm...we all have our choices...but spinach paste...that is not for me thank you! Spinach that's finely chopped gives some texture to the dish and yes...makes a great difference to overall taste. Once you have your spinach all ready for use...the cooking doesn't take long. So...here goes. This is what you are going to need.

INGREDIENTS

1. Spinach - 6 medium sized bunches. Or tinned spinach or frozen. Keep in mind that spinach cooks down to very little. I don't use frozen or tinned - so you will have to do some guesswork to see how much of frozen or tinned spinach you'll need for the amount of chicken you are going to use. What I normally do is blanch the fresh spinach before use.

2. Chicken - 1 Kilo cut into 12 pieces. Washed and drained.

3. Fenugreek leaves (Dried) Kasuri Methi - 2 Heaped Tablespoons. (Believe me that this very much complements Spinach and improves the overall taste greatly)

4. Green Chilly Paste - (I have to specify here that the amount of green chillies you use depends on how hot you want the spinach to be. I took about 20, roughly chopped them and threw them into the blender along with the ginger and garlic and some warter and blended well.

4. 1 Cup Cooking Oil

5. 2 medium sized onions - Sliced

6. 3 medium sized tomatoes - peeled and quartered.

7. 2 Teaspoons turmeric powder

8. 1 Teaspoon coriander powder

9. 1 Teaspoon cumin powder

10. 1 Heaped Tablespoon ginger and garlic paste

11. Green Chillies Paste - amount all depends on how hot you would want it to be.

12. Salt to taste. Go easy on the salt as Spinach already has salt content.

PROCESS

Prepare the Spinach. Chop off the most part of the stems and finely chop the spinach leaves. Place them in a large deep bowl fill with tap water right to the top. Agitate the leaves slightly. Let the bowl stand for about 20 minutes. The idea is to get the grit if any, to settle to the bottom of the bowl leaving the chopped leaves floating above. Now lift the leaves out and transfer them to a colander. OR you can wash the Spinach well before chopping it up. Either way, the spinach has to be thoroughly cleaned.

Now pile up all the chopped and cleaned spinach into a deep pan and place this on heat. DO NOT ADD WATER. Let the spinach boil down for about 10 - 15 minutes. Take off the heat and there you have your spinach ready to use. Alternatively, you can wait for the spinach to cool down, pack it off into a zip lock bag or a container and either freeze it or place it in the fridge for later use.

Now we come to the cooking part.

Place a pot or a deep pan or a wok on heat. Add the oil. Tip in the onions and stir fry until lightly browned.

Add the ginger and garlic paste. My paste already contained the chillies so it looks green. If your chilly paste is separate then add the ginger and garlic first followed by the green chilly paste after a minute.

After stir frying the ginger garlic and chillies for about a minute, add the

chicken. Add the salt.

On high heat, stir fry the chicken until most of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken is well browned.

Add the turmeric and cumin and coriander powders. Stir to mix well.

Add the tomatoes.

Tip in the spinach (along with its water) into the pot. Stir. Cover and leave to cook on high heat. Uncover after about ten minutes to give it a stir to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Still on high heat, keep stirring from time to time until you see that most of the moisture has reduced.

Now you can keep stir frying until you see that almost all the moisture has reduced and the oil has separated. Taste for salt and add more if necessary. Take off the heat and you are ready to serve.

VARIATIONS:

1) During the end of the cooking process, when the oil has separated, you can add a little less of a cup of coconut cream. It gives a very unique and delicious flavour. I do this often but not always just to change the taste at times. However you shall then have to increase the amount of chilly paste since coconut cream will greatly reduce the spiciness.

2) You can prepare Alu (Potato) Palak instead of Chicken Palak. All you do is that instead of adding chicken as I have shown above, you add the spinach instead. After half of the moisture in the spinach has evaporated, you add the cubed potatoes. You definitely wouldn't want mushy potatoes in there so just see for yourself and add the potatoes at the right time. Then continue to stir fry until oil separates.

3) Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Palak. Carry out the same process as shown above but without the chicken. Towards the end you can add the Paneer Cubes. You might want to fry the Paneer Cubes in a frying pan with about 2 tablespoons of oil just to brown them a bit on all sides. Or you can add the Paneer cubes as they are. It all depends on what you choose.