Indian, take two.

I cooked dinner last night. That's nothing unusual, I cook dinner most nights. Last night, though, I attempted one of AC's favorite dishes in my most challenging ethnic food to cook: Saag Paneer. I've attempted Indian once before, and that attempt ended in two pounds of very expensive Black Bass being thrown away because the fish masala was, in a word, awful. The whole event also included a very green, very messy blender and mushy samosas. I sulked on the sofa the rest of the night and bemoaned the fact that even my samosas were terrible. I love samosas and wish I could replicate them at home; we don't have any really good Indian restaurants here in New Haven.

I started out with a recipe from WW, ricotta salata, spinach, a couple of spices and a pound of hope.

Actually, I lied. First I put on some wild rice. It seemed like a good thing to have just in case something went terribly wrong (which I was counting on) and when it did, I could throw some frozen shrimp in a pan and call it... dinner. Anyway, I made AC cut up the onion, because it makes me cry. Not normal onion cry, but can't stop crying for a half hour, tears streaming down my face MESS. And AC seems impervious. No tears!

DON'T ADD SALT to any variation of saag paneer using this cheese until you taste it. I'm super sensitive to salt and this dish was way too salty. AC can't taste salt unless there's a pound of it on whatever he's eating; this dish didn't get any salt added to it.

This isn't a hard recipe, but you do have to move rather quickly. Also, make sure you have a big enough pan to wilt your spinach down. I used a normal sized skillet and the spinach that was on the bottom got too cooked cause I didn't have a way to stir it without spilling it all over the place. Live and learn.

So how was it? I'll let the plate speak for itself.

Success!