Saanjh Savera

Saanjh Savere is a signature recipe from the famous chef Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor. I was greatly inspired by this and tried to make the same with slight variations for ease of cooking. So let's try it -

Ingredients

Spinach Leaves – ½ kg (cleaned and stems removed)
Paneer (Cottage Cheese) – 200 gm (finely grated)
Tomatoes - chopped 1 bowl
Onion – chopped 1 bowl
Gram flour (Besan) – 2 tablespoons
Maize flour (makke ka aata) – 2 tablespoons
Corn flour – 1 tablespoon
Green chili – finely chopped – 1 teaspoon
Ginger – finely grated – 1 tea spoon
Garlic – finely chopped – 1 tea spoon
Whole Garam Masala (2 Green Cardamom, 1 black cardamom, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, 2 cloves)
Cumin seeds (Jeera Whole) – 1 tea spoon
Cream – ½ cup
Dry fruits powder (Cashew powder, Almond powder, 1 tablespoon each)
Turmeric powder – 1 teaspoon
Red Chili powder – 1 teaspoon
Garam masala powder – 1 teaspoon
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Butter – 2 tablespoons
Oil – for deep frying - ½ cup
Milk – ½ cup
Kasoori methi – 1 teaspoon

Method:

Boil and strain spinach and keep aside to cool and drain away all water
Make paste once it has cooled down. (Don’t add any water while making paste). It should be thick paste

In an open pan - heat 1 tablespoon oil, add a pinch of whole jeera (Cumin seeds), 1 tablespoon chopped onion, ginger and garlic and saute for 2 minutes

Add spinach leaves paste to it and roast it
Add gram flour (besan) and maize flour – mix properly
Add a pinch of jeera powder, garam masala powder, salt

Keep mixing in the pan, till all the water from spinach paste has dried and it becomes a dough

Take it out of the pan and keep it aside to cool down. Keep it covered with lid, so it doesn’t dry out
Put the grated paneer in a separate bowl, add chopped ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, salt and 1 pinch of garam masala.

Mix these together with band and make small balls

Now take the spinach-flour dough and make it in shape of small bowls and fill with the paneer balls and close completely from all sides
Do this for all the spinach-flour and paneer – should make around 10 stuffed balls with this quantity of ingredients

In a deep fry pan, heat oil
Roll the stuffed balls on corn flour and deep fry in the pan, till light brown

Keep these fried spinach-paneer stuffed balls aside, while we prepare the gravy

For preparation of gravy

In a shallow pan, heat oil add – chopped ginger, garlic, onions and whole garam masala and roast properly

Add ½ cup milk and cover with lid for 5 minutes
Remove from flame and keep aside to cool down.
Once it’s cooled down, make a paste in mixer-grinder
In a shallow pan, add 2 tablespoon butter, a pinch of whole jeera and add the paste we just prepared.
Add turmeric, garam masala powder, red chilli powder, salt and mix the dry fruits powder and ½ cup water - cook for 5 minutes on low flame
Add kasoori methi and mix properly and leave on low flame for 10 minutes. Once the gravy is cooked properly, add cream to it.