Shaam Savera or Dusk & Dawn, as loosely translated in English, is a signature creation of the world renowned Indian Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. The beauty of it lies in it's simplicity of ingredients put together, creating a visually appealing dish. The rich green koftas (shaam) stuffed with paneer (savera) looks beautiful on silky smooth, aromatic orange gravy, as it creates a great visual with it's play of colors, textures, flavors.
Blanch spinach. To do so, heat water, once it comes to a boil, add cleaned spinach leaves. Boil it uncovered for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, drain the water and transfer spinach into a bowl of ice cold water. Drain all the water after a few minutes and squeeze the spinach to remove any excess water. Roughly chop the blanched spinach.
Heat oil in a pan, add the whole spices, saute it for a minute. Add ginger, saute for 30 seconds. Add gram flour. Saute it for 2-3 minutes. Add the blanched spinach, a teaspoon of lemon juice, salt, turmeric powder, garam masala and continue sautéing for a couple of more minutes, until the raw aroma of gram flour goes away. Do not overcook. The final mixture should be semi-dry (not too pasty/not extremely dry). You may use more/less gram flour for getting to this consistency. Once done, remove it on a plate and keep it aside to cool down. Once it is cool, divide into about 10 golf ball sized portions.
Take paneer in a bowl, add salt and a pinch of cardamom powder, Mix well. Form about 10 marble sized balls.
Take one of the spinach mixture ball, flatten it between palms, expand it from the sides using fingers, place the paneer ball in between, close the spinach mixture into a ball again, making sure none of the sides are open. When forming this ball, press it gently such that there is no gap between the paneer layer and the spinach layer. This ensures that the koftas don't open up/disintegrate when frying. Roll the kofta into corn starch mixture, and then dust off excess corn starch from the kofta.
Heat oil for frying. When the oil is hot, gently put a kofta inside. fry it for a couple of minutes on all sides. If the first kofta fries well and doesn't disintegrate, continue frying the rest of the koftas.
If it does disintegrate, stop the frying process and make sure the koftas are formed and sealed well, and add a bit of corn startch, or roll it further into the corn starch. Continue the frying process. The oil needs to be hot. Once the koftas are ready. Keep it aside.
Recipe for Gravy:
Soak cashew nuts in water.
Heat oil. Add the whole spices. Saute for a minute. Add ginger, onion. Saute for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, saute for 3 minutes. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, garam masala. Stir and let it cook for another about 7 minutes on medium heat. Turn off the heat and let it cool down for a few minutes.
Put the soaked cashews, above gravy into a blender/food processor. Add milk/evaporated milk/nut milk and make the above mixture into a smooth puree. Return it into the pan.
Turn on the heat, add the above gravy, lemon juice, honey, kasuri methi. At this point, you may add heavy cream / vegan cream if you want. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
To assemble, cut the kofta spheres into two, using a knife. Pour a couple of ladles of gravy in a deep bottomed plate/bowl, arrange the koftas with cut side up. Garnish with heavy cream. Enjoy.