Palak Kebab
Another shout out from my daughter, for this recipe. I had made it for their friends when they were here and it was polished off in no time.
Well, many a good news hovering around me. The daughter got into Yale, my cooking classes have taken off and this darned blog has got fixed. There were some major issues, so all those of you who tried to come back for your favourite recipes and found gibberish in the ingredient section, my apologies. My very profound and heartfelt apologies. It could have got fixed earlier, but as usual, I was travelling.
I was in Mahabaleshwar, a small quaint hill station a few hours from Bombay. I have a home and a farm there, so this time the 12 days I stayed there, I ate off the farm, played with the new pup and chilled with my best friend Nishi.
We cooked, ate and drank!
We would wake up in the mornings, sit in the sun, (it was cold there!), and sip our tea and coffee. Then after a leisurely breakfast, we would put face packs (moisturising ones – like I said it was Brrrrr!) and jabber away for an hour or so. By the time the watch thought of turning both its hands to 12 – we would be sitting with our afternoon drinks – again yakking away to our hearts’ content. It was the most idyllic holiday one can have.
I plucked fresh Spinach, from the field and made this ultra easy and very delicious recipe. It needs very little preparation time. I have cooked it on a non-stick, with very little oil, but if you have a large party you can easily fry it in oil. I did it for the kid’s 21st birthday party and it vanished into mouths as soon as freshly fried plates were put in front of them.
cocktail snacks
I have also made a video, for a quick look-see. The first video I made was not “good enough” and my niece and son insisted I work a little harder and produce a better one. Well, they are not all that happy with this one either, but I lack patience so there is for all to view.
Unfortunately, I am not able to load the video here because of (temporary – I will fix it asap) data restrictions. But here is the Facebook URL
FACEBOOK URL FOR VIDEO OF PALAK KEBAB
and there is the google drive URL.
CLICK HERE FOR GOOGLE DRIVE LINK
I hope you will see the video and try the recipe. It makes for great cocktail snacks, lunch box sides, or sides.
Promise to get back with a recipe soon. I’ve been tardy!
- 1/2 Cup Whole Black Masoor Dal (Indian Brown Lentils)
- 1 Bunch Spinach
- 1/3 Cup Cottage Cheese (or Ricotta cheese)
- 5 Cloves garlic
- 2 pcs green chilles
- 1 Inch Ginger
- 1/3 Cup onion Finely chopped.
- 2 Tbspn Cashews, crushed
- 1 1/2 Tspn Garam Masala
- 1 Tspn salt
- 2 Tbspn - Plus oil for cooking and oiling hands
- Water
- 1 Tbspn Chaat masala
- 1 onion Sliced.
- Soak the dal for 30 minutes.
- In a mortar and pestle, pound together the chilles, garlic and ginger.
- Wash and chop the spinach into very fine strands.
- Bring water to a boil, and boil the Spinach for a 2 / 3 minutes.
- Wash and grind the soaked dal into paste with as little water as possible. Preferably no water.
- In a non stick skillet, add a appx 1 Tbspn oil.
- Add the ginger, chilly and garlic paste. Fry till it is brown.
- Add the onions, and fry till brown.
- Now add the Dal paste, and again fry till it forms lumps and all the water has evaporated.
- Now add the spinach and mix and cook till incorporated.
- Add the cottage cheese/ ricotta cheese. Break it and sprinkle it all around for a better mix.
- Mix till incorprated.
- Add the cashews, garam masala and salt.
- Mix well and take off the fire on a plate to cool.
- Oil your hands and make small rounds, appx the size of a small lemon.
- Flatten it. Repeat with the entire mix.
- In a skillet add appx 1 Tbspn oil and cook the kebabs, pressing it and turning it till it browns on both the sides.
- You can also fry these kebabs in oil.
- Serve hot, sprinkled with chaat masala and garnished with onions. Serve with a corriander chutney.