Saag paneer

A few weeks ago, I had a craving for some saag paneer. The grocery store I was in at the time didn't have any paneer. What is paneer anyway, I asked myself, isn't it some sort of cheese curd? And when you buy poutine, don't they sometimes use mozzerella instead of proper cheese curds? Maybe I could just use mozzerella instead.

I came home and consulted the Internet for a saag paneer recipe. Cut the paneer in to cubes and pan fry in a shallow layer of oil. No problem. Predictably, when I dropped cubes of mozerella into smoking hot oil, it instantly melted into a gooey oily mess. Yuck. Quel desastre.

Looking up the definition of paneer in wikipedia, it is described as "an unaged, acid-set, non-melting farmer cheese made by curdling heated milk with lemon juice." I think that non-melting clause may just be important. Sarah, the victim of the oiled mozzerella disaster, gave me some proper paneer from the East West Market. And this time, it turned out grand.