Uncle Ted's Recipes #15: Saag Paneer with pulses and pre-marinated paneer

Sorry if the lack of updates on this blog has left your appetites for film and video game reviews or recipe posts insufficiently satisfied but here I am again with an old recipe that I have updated a bit during my time spent experimenting with recipes during lockdown.

So here is a recipe I built up for saag paneer with pre-marinated paneer and extra pulses that is suitable for most occasions and is simple enough that it can be adapted to different dietary needs.

Utensils:

• Chopping board
• Sieve/colander
• Garlic crusher
• Large chopping knife
• Small vegetable/herb knife
• Wooden spoon
• Cast iron or stainless steel saucepan or pot with a lid
• Measuring spoons

Ingredients:

• 2 medium white onions
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 400g tinned or frozen spinach
• 400g low-fat coconut milk
• 3-5 tablespoons chilli flakes
• 2 tablespoons Garam Masala
• 2 tablespoons allspice
• 2 tablespoons ground tumeric
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 2 tablespoons tikka curry powder
• 1 lemon
• Vegetable oil
• 400-500g diced paneer (preferable), chicken breast or tofu
• 400g kala chana
• 400g green lentils
• 200g chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon cardamom pods
• 1 tablespoon caraway or cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon curry leaves
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds or cloves

Cooking method/process:

1. At least 2 hours before beginning cooking, dice the paneer into a tupperware box and squeeze all of the lemon juice into the box along with grating the lemon rind. Also add in a teaspoon of oil, a few shakes of salt and the tikka curry powder. After mixing all of this into the paneer, put on the lid, wrap in clingfilm and place into the fridge for at least a couple of hours
2. Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in the pan at about 20% heat along with the seeds, pods, chilli flakes and curry leaves along with a handful of shakes of salt before stirring and allowing to lightly simmer for 5 minutes but be VERY CAREFUL to make sure this doesn't burn.
3. Dice up the onions and add them to the pan along with the garlic after it has been crushed before stirring and turning up to 50% heat and allowing to simmer until the onions are moderately soft while keeping close attention to the pan to make sure this mixture doesn't burn. Just before dicing the onions, it would be a good idea to rinse the beans and pulses in a sieve/colander so that they have at least a few minutes to drain.
4. In a mug or bowl, pour a couple of tablespoons of oil before throwing in all of the ground spices aside from the tikka powder with a couple more tablespoons of oil and a few shakes of salt on top before mixing well and setting this curry paste mixture aside for a few minutes.
5. Get the paneer out of the fridge and add it into the saucepan along with the beans and pulses and mix well with a few shakes of salt and allow to cook for 10 minutes at 40% heat.
6. Add the curry paste to the pan and stir well before turning back up to 50% heat and cooking for 10 minutes.
7. Turn the pan up to 75% heat and add in the spinach, coconut milk, tinned tomatoes and a few small shakes of salt before mixing well and adding in boiled water if the whole mix still looks a little dry and allow the mix to cook at this level for 5-10 minutes before turning it right down to 20% heat and allowing it too cook slowly for 1-1.5 hours (keep a careful eye on the pot during this period to make sure it doesn't burn or boil over.

Serving suggestions:

Serve the curry with spinach and sweetcorn or lentil samosas, garlic naan bread, mango chutney and pilau rice with a garnish of a few leaves of coriander on top.

Serve with an ice cold glass of water or bottle of Cobra beer and after you've finished eating, have a warm cup of turmeric tea and a vanilla milkshake.

What to do with leftovers:

At the end of the week, if there is any of the curry left after you've eaten most of it, try heating up the remainder in some vegetable stock water with half a teaspoon of saffron, 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 150g of stewed lentils to make some saag paneer dhal soup.

Another option to use up any leftovers is to mildly heat it up and then place in a slightly warmed up paratha wrap with pickled red cabbage, dry vinaigrette slaw, cucumber and mint rajita and then closing up the wrap and lightly toasting it in sesame seed oil so that it can be closed up as an Indian kind of, sort of burrito.

Uncle Ted's Recipes #9: Protein-packed vegan curry

Ok I know vegan recipes or even vegetarian ones aren't the most common sight on this blog but this is one cheap and reasonably healthy.  Its good for either keeping in the fridge for yourself for a few days or for a dinner party.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4-6)

6-10 Tablespoons rapeseed oil

4 small, 3 medium or 2 large brown onions

250g fresh leave spinach washed and rinsed

600-800g chickpeas soaked and drained

300-450g green lentils soaked and drained

650g baby potatoes

4-6 teaspoons of chilli flakes

2-4 teaspoons of chilli powder

1-3 teaspoons of cumin seeds

1-3 teaspoons of ground cumin

4 teaspoons of graham masala

5 teaspoons of ground smoked paprika

Thyme or sage leaves

3-5 cloves of garlic

2-4 cups boiled water

Salt

EQUIPMENT/UTENSILS

1 large cutting knife

1 herb knife

1 cutting board

1 or 2 colanders or sieves

1 large or very large cooking pot or stove

1 heat or melting proof mixing spoon

Teaspoons for measuring spices

Ladle for dishing up curry

METHOD/PREPARATION (Time to prepare approximately 15-30 minutes)

 

Step 1: Dice up the potatoes and place them into a strainer and rinse in cold water for a couple of minutes over the sink then let them drain while you do the other initial preparations.

Step 2: Dice up the onions while pouring the oil into the pot and turning the hob onto a low-mid heat.  After a few minutes, hover your hand over the pan and if there is a mild heat coming off of it, then place the herbs except for the salt and thyme or sage into the pan and stir until the spices are mixed together in one mush.

Step 3: Place the potatoes and onions into the pan with a small extra bit of oil and stir until mixed in well with the spices.  Afterwards, begin crushing and dicing up the garlic and then place into the pan and stir again.

Step 4: After rinsing and draining the spinach, place into the pan and let the spinach wilt. then drain and rinse the lentils, chickpeas and thyme or sage then place into the pan then stir moderately.

Step 5: Add in the boiling water and a couple of pinches of salt and then stir.  Also, make sure that the spinach is mostly submerged so that it can wilt some more and get mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.  Afterwards, do a brief taste test to see if the balance of spices and herbs is to your liking and add more of one of the spices if you would like to.  Afterwards, place the lid onto the pot and turn down to a low heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes while you do the washing up.

Step 6: Serve the curry on a bed of either pilau or basmati rice with a coriander naan and served alongside either an icy cold beer such as Cobra or a yoghurt drink and a glass of tap water.

Hope you find plenty of use out of this recipe if you decide to make it like this or use my recipe as a base template to adapt your own curry recipe from.  Please feel free to make suggestions in the comment section below and let me know how you all get on with this nice, cheap and healthy curry recipe!

Restaurant review #2: The Mogul

When someone mentions an Indian takeaway in the UK, I tend to imagine greasily mouth-watering side dishes, rich sauces and aromatically pleasing rice.  As is the case however with proportion of other similarly popular takeaways in the UK such as Pizza, Fish 'n' Chips and Chinese takeaways, some Indian takeaways can sometimes fall under the category of many such takeaways simply serving overly-greasy, rich and aromatic food that has no passion or aesthetic quality to it.  And that good sirs and madams is where the glorious Mogul Indian restaurant and Mogul takeaway (both of them in different parts of Greenwich, London) come in.  Not only is there a definite sense of character and enthusiasm put into the food that comes out of the Mogul near the Cutty Sark museum and its takeaway outlet, but the food from the cooks at the Mogul balances culinary aesthetic with a good balance of aromatic smells, nicely balanced flavours and food that employs mouth-wateringly traditional Indian cooking but doesn't overflow with grease as many takeaways do.

Now before I get into the always-anticipated description of the food, I feel it necessary to describe the pleasingly warm atmosphere to be found within the walls of the Mogul restaurant.  Located at 10 Greenwich Church St, a stone's throw away from Greenwich market and a 4-5 minute walk away from the Cutty Sark museum. The outside of the Mogul restaurant is modestly welcoming but not garish while also being simply painted and advertised but at the same time also having an air of inviting warmth.  And that is just the atmosphere to be found once you walk in the door, warmth and a definite inviting air about the place.  Like the outside, the inside has simple painting and decoration but is aesthetically pleasing in that regard while the furniture within the resturant is comfortable and (thank freaking goodness) doesn't wobble as the furniture of so many restaurants before it.  On top of that, the staff in the Mogul are also helpful and informative about the differences and characteistics of and between each dish while at the same time not being overly-pushy but also managing to be freindly enough so that you feel welcomed both as a customer and visitor.   As for the takeaway outlet at 192 Trafalgar Rd, the atmosphere feels a little rushed but the same helpful attitude from the staff is present there.

Now enough about the arty side of the restaurant and its takeaway and onwards to the truly important aspect of this review; the mouth-wateringly, nose-tingly, eye-achingly, stomach-grumblingly delicious food.  The meals that are available at the Mogul are the usual kind of meals you'd expect from an Indian restaurant.   There are some popular favourites such as chicken tikka masala, Bombay potatoes and onion bahjis.  But the main thing (or at least in my slightly mad opinion) that characterises the food at the Mogul is that it is generally mild and instead of going all out on fire and brimstone dishes of crazy levels of spiciness, tends to serve meals that concentrate on massaging and tingling rather than sweating and tempering the taste buds.

Naturally there are some spicy dishes but it seems that the main aim of the food at the mogul is to give the usual diner there a delightful rather than challenging Indian cuisine experience.  Now don't get me wrong, I love spicy food as I have tons of Tabasco  mustard, wasabi, peri-peri sauce and the like on my food at home and also tend to sometimes get particular spicy dishes out at a restaurant when I'm feeling brave.  Sometimes however, as we all might, I occasionally feel the urge to simply chew on something from the sun-swept lands of India that is flavoursome more so than it is spicy.  

Naturally my usual meal from the Mogul reflects this wholeheartedly. For the basis of my meal it of course has to be a rice, and in my case I usually prefer the Mogul's saffron rice as despite the fact that the Mogul's possibly more popular pilau rice has more of an interesting palate and smell.  I personally like the saffron rice more due to its interesting colours and mellow, perpetually nutty flavour. 

As for vegetable dishes I usually like to go for the sag paneer; a course of cooked spinach with rectangular chunks of oh-so glorious, whey-based haloumi cheese (I honestly don't know how to spell that one).  In particular, the sag paneer has a nice flavour to it as the mild flavour of the spinach is modest and vibrant while at the same time allowing for the chunks of cheese to stand out as beacons of truly expressive flavour within this mighty dish.  

Subsequently, I usually also like to go for something extra such as Bombay potatoes which in particular at the Mogul, are not cooked in the usually dry and independently-flavoursome manner as in many other Indian restaurants but are instead cooked with a sauce meaning that there is more room to interpret the flavour and cooking of the potatoes themselves.  

As for the main dish I usually go for something a little gamy and mild, specifically at the Mogul I usually go for the murgh dhansak which combines grilled chicken with lentils in a sweet and sour sauce that is pleasant for those with a penchant for more mild flavours while at other occasions, I may also go for the rogan josh which combines tenderly-cooked chunks of lamb with a rich tomato/garlic/onion hybrid of a sauce for those who have more of a palate for more extravagant culinary experiences.  To top it all off I usually get a garlic naan which clearly has a flavour of garlic about it which is thankfully not too strong and wash that all down with a refreshing cobra beer and glass of water.

In comparison to the restaurant I personally prefer the food that is to be found there over the mogul takeaway, but as is the case with most people, I find it more relaxing sometimes just to sit back, relax and call up a delivery with free popadoms while lazing on my rear end on the sofa while watching ITV's Britain's got Talent on a Saturday night and swigging a couple of ice cold brews.  And that isn't to say that the cooking at the Mogul takeaway outlet is inferior to a great degree, oh no, it just means that there are some slight differences in flavour, I think, between there and the restaurant which aren't even all that noticeable for the most part.  What in turn makes the food from both the restaurant and the takeaway outlet truly appealing however isn't just the well-balanced flavours and aromatherapy-esque smells but also the reasonable prices with largely range from roughly £5 on some of the more simple dishes like panch ratten karai to £12 on a few extravagant ones like tandoori king prawns.

In conclusion, this restaurant has stood the test of time and developed its culinary might for nearly 40 years and it most certainly shows.  Not only is the food good, but the customer service is informative and helpful yet not pushy and the character of the Mogul is shown through that.  The one and only criticism that I have of this beacon of Anglo-Indian cooking is that some dishes like the sag paneer and onion bahjis may lack a little bit of character that could truly make them amazing via not having enough spice.  Regardless however, the food is still good and the prices are reasonable for the most part. So if you're in south-east London, I recommend you venture to the Mogul.

Venture out and feast as royalty!

Food: 9/10
Customer service: 8/10
Atmosphere: 8.5/10
Price: 8.25/10

Overall: 33.75/10