I’ve recently had a very little bit of encouraging success with saag. It’s tricky, because spinach is gritty and annoying to wash and chop properly. It either tastes too chewy because there are stems or it’s too bitter, or the pieces are too big. As much as I usually promote fresh over frozen vegetables, saag-making is a much nicer experience using organic frozen spinach. If it’s pre-chopped, all the better. Buy two bags and you’re set. It’ll be sweet, it’ll be convenient and it’ll be a whole lot harder to mess up. Also, for money to quantity ratio, buying frozen spinach is a pretty good deal. It cooks down so much that to get the 2 lbs called for in the recipe, you end up working with a lot of big pieces of spinach that get caught in everything and stain your kitchen green. So saag is now my quick and easy Indian dish because of the wonders of packaging. It’s sad, and I’m sorry.
I’ve looked for a long time for a good saag recipe, always thinking the spices weren’t quite right. And they weren’t, but the spices really aren’t that complicated because it’s such a mild dish. You don’t want to overpower the flavour of the spinach and it’s not like you need a really complex combination like you would for a piece of red meat. This recipe is for Mughlai Saag, or spinach cooked with onions from Madhur Jaffrey’s (my Indian cooking goddess’) book “Indian Cooking”. If you want something chewier try the recipe on the opposing page for saag aloo (spinach with potatoes), but for a light side dish, keep it simple with:
spinach
an onion
oil
a green chili pepper (or not, if you prefer, but you’ll lose flavour)
fresh ginger
more salt than you think
a little sugar
water
garam masala (store-bought or homemade)
That’s all.
Dice the onion. Chop the spinach into small pieces (if not already chopped). Combine the green chili (very finely chopped…actually I substitute red chili flakes. Not at all what the recipe called for, and it did change the flavour, but there was no green chili to be found, and, well, some like it hot?), about a teaspoon grated ginger, about a teaspoon salt, and a generous sprinkle of sugar.
Basically I messed this up the only way you can…I didn’t cook the onions long enough in the oil before I added the spinach. So they were a little too crunchy. They shouldn’t really add to the texture. When the onions are actually soft, add the spinach and combined spices (not the garam masala). Stir and cook five minutes. Then add 1/3 c. water, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to low to simmer very gently for 10 minutes. The spinach really doesn’t need to cook this long but it does need the time to absorb the flavours of the spices, so make sure you’re not over-boiling it. It’s already wilted, dead, and not getting any tastier. After 10 minutes uncover the skillet or pot and boil away some of the extra liquid (there will be some, assuming you didn’t over-boil the spinach in the first place). Then sprinkle with garam masala and serve. Oh, I forgot! I actually turned this into Callaloo. Though I didn’t add any coconut milk or almond breeze, I did add smoked mackerel. It’s traditionally supposed to be salt cod, but the flavour of the mackerel wasn’t too strong or too fishy, and it substituted nicely, without having to soak the cod forever and then hack it into smaller pieces, watching for bones and skin. It’s a nuisance, and since this is my easy dish, there was no way I was going to do it. So by adding the fish I didn’t have to add salt as it was definitely salty enough. It gave it a nice flavour too, kind of like using bacon instead of oil to fry onions for a soup…though I don’t do that. Anyway, that’s my addition to fusion cooking for the week. Hope Madhur Jaffrey doesn’t mind that I didn’t follow her lovely recipe.
25 minute recipe, max, if you’re a slow chopper…or if you touch your eyes after chopping the chili. Takes a bit of time to get the burning sensation out. Don’t do that please.
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