Last night I visited Jen and Jeff in their cute West Philly apartment. As soon as I saw Jen in the train station, I was greeted with a very enthusiastic "WE HAVE TO MAKE CHEESE!"

So we did!

We made paneer, the light and tasty cheese cubes that you may be familiar with from Palak Paneer. The cheese is actually quite simple to make: slowly bring whole milk up to a boil, and once the milk is boiling add the appropriate amount of lemon juice to make the curd separate from the whey. Stir, stir, then strain through cheese cloth. Finally, press down the curd with something heavy, perhaps a book on top of a plate.

Jeff made a great palak, and started with a base of coriander-ginger-garlic paste. A large amount of baby spinach leaves were pureed to create a neon emerald mixture. Roasted crushed cashews were added, along with a few other spices. In with the paneer, and you have a dinner fit for a voracious and vegetarian crowd. Actually, we were only voracious, but it's good to know that we could please additional folks if needed!