Sarson Ka Saag (Steamed Mustard Greens simmered with Spices)

 

Ever since we moved to Delhi, Sarson ka Saag (Mustard Leaves) has become such a regular at our table during the winter that I hardly pay any attention - especially since I can eat only tiny portions because of the high fibre content. It was made the other day when A (my friend from Upstairs) had come over for a mid week lunch and she remarked that it was quite different. Tara (my girl Friday) has been making this for so long now that I couldn't even remember the exact recipe.


When I checked with Tara, she promptly showed me her book where I had written down a recipe 3 years back! It's simplicity personified - I now remembered that I had told her I didn't want any heavy garam masalas masking the flavours of the mustard leaves so there's only ginger, garlic and green chillies. There's spinach mixed in to mellow the pungency of the mustard and a little wholemeal cornflour (makki atta is Indian cornflour which has been ground to a fine consistency) to give it some consistency (though much lesser than the traditional version which is creamier because of more makki atta). I also didn't want the leaves to be pureed so it is just mashed roughly after being cooked and tempered with the  spices and simmered briefly. I would say this is on the lines of the keerai masiyal which we make and I love the flavours of the greens bursting through instead of being drowned in heavy spices and cream.

Serve this with makki ki roti (flatbreads made out of Indian wholemeal cornflour) or just plain rotis and it makes for a beautiful meal!

Sarson ka Saag

1 bunch mustard greens (about 600)
Half a binch of spinach (200-300gms)
2 tbsp makki atta (Indian wholemeal cornflour, not refined cornflour)
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
2-3 green chillies, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1" ginger - chopped
salt to taste

1. Soak the greens in water and wash well in several changes of water till you get rid of all the dirt. I include the stalks if they are not too woody and tough.
2. Chop roughly and pressure cook for just 5 minutes (one whistle)- you can also cook on the stove top - Indian mustard greens are not very tender and I find the pressure cooker helpful.
3. Remove from cooker and mash with a wooden "mathu" (masher) or the back of a wooden ladle for a consistency which is not s fine puree but a coarse mash.
4. Heat 1 tbsp Ghee in a pan and add the garlic, ginger and green chillies and saute for a minute. Add the mashed greens and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the makki atta and simmer for another 5 minutes.
5. Drizzle the remaining Ghee over the saag and turn off flame. Serve with rotis.

Mushroom, Miso, Tofu Noodle Soup

One of  my dear friends who is now in Hong Kong sent me a packet of miso paste (among other goodies!!). I have heard a lot about miso and even had it in a lovely miso soup in a Japanese restaurant called Ai in South Delhi. The umami flavour it imparts to a dish is amazing.

Miso is made out of fermented soybeans, salt and the same bacteria which is used in making soy sauce and sake. This bacteria, I coincidentally found out, boosts the good flora required for digestion in the intestinal tract - which means its particularly good for me! It is also supposed to be good for the immune system - so perfect to keep those sniffles away just when they are about to begin. Read more here.

I used mushrooms, spinach and tofu to make a very flavourful vegetable miso soup and added noodles so it became a nice one pot meal. Perfect for a cold, winter's day but light enough for the summer as well. The miso did really add a very unmistakable flavour to the soup and left you wanting for more - I suggest larger quantities next time!

Mushroom, Miso and Tofu, Noodle Soup

(Adapted from Sustainable Pantry)

   

Miso paste – 1 tbsp

Spinach – 1 cup sliced into small strips

Carrot -1,  sliced into rounds

Mushrooms – 100gms, sliced

Tofu – 100gms, cubed

Noodles -150gms (I used egg noodles, you could use Udon or Soba)

Onion – 1 medium , sliced

Spring onions – 2 sliced (white part, reserve green for garnish)

Ginger – 1” piece, minced

Garlic – 4 cloves, minced

Green chillies – 2 slit

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large pan and sauté the onions, chillies, garlic and ginger for a minute.
2. Add the carrots, mushroom and sauté 1 minute and then add 8 cups water and bring to a boil. Add ¼ tsp salt and simmer, covered, for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook as per package instructions.
4. Meanwhile, dissolve the miso paste in 3 tbspof the soup from the pan and add back to the pan.
5. Taste and add more miso to the soup if you require a stronger flavour.
6. Add the tofu cubes, spring onion slices and the spinach and cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Serve noodles in soup bowl and then ladle the soup over the noodles. Garnish with spring onion greens.

This is a superb soup to have anyway, so if you don't have the miso paste, just make it using a stock cube and it should be a comforting, delicious meal.

Asian Style Five Spice Grilled Fish with Spinach

 

Hope you all had a beautiful Diwali celebration this year....we certainly had one of the most memorable ones in recent years. We celebrated Diwali with my family (parents and brother's family) in Mumbai - the last time we did that was in 2005. The kids had a blast and the sweet teeth of my family meant that the amount of sweets consumed was more than what I have had in the last two Diwalis! Plus there was hubby's birthday the day before Diwali. Then on Saturday, we moved to my best friend's place and celebrated with her whole family - a truly special time for us. My daughter didn't want to come back to Delhi!

 

Coming back to reality and the rush hour of work days, I have today a very convenient and time saving grilled fish recipe which is also very delicious.
This is a dish which I made quite impulsively, one of those times one cooks according to a recipe seen somewhere and from vaguely remembered bits and bobs of it - but you do remember that it sounded like a really good recipe and you just have to try it.You know what I mean right.....What?!- you mean, no one else does this? Oh ok. Fine then.


I do things like this all the time - see some cookery show on TV (and don't have the patience to actually note things down) or read some recipe in a library book (again, postpone noting down the recipes I like till its too late and the book has to go back) or even worse, read a recipe from a book while standing in the library waiting for hubby to choose his books (I take 5 minutes since I have a list from here to Timbuctoo, while he only knows what he doesn't want!) - so no question of writing it down anywhere!

Well this Asian style Grilled Fish recipe doesn't even have these sources to boast of! I rushed into the newly opened outlet of Godrej's Nature Basket in my next door market one evening, to pick up some bread on my way back from work. While I was drumming my fingers on the cashier's desk waiting for him to bill it, I saw a stack of fliers. These are the usual ones they keep every week, with recipes using the exotic ingredients they stock - I guess to encourage people to buy  said exotic ingredients - think Fleur de Sel, African Meat rubs and marinades, Corn Relish, Mustard Pickle, plum conserve - you get the drift.

This particular flier had two recipes from the host of some cookery show on the NDTV Good Times channel - I guess if they were quoting him as the source, he must be a minor celebrity but I couldn't recognise his name. I picked up the flier since I quite liked the Five Spice Powder Chicken recipe it had.
The next day was a Saturday and I bought some fish while doing my weekly grocery shopping, intending to use the Five Spice recipe for that evening - yes, I know the original was for chicken, but I'm like that wonly!

But, when I reached home I couldn't find the flier - likely it must have gone into the old paper cupboard or even the trash because my hatred for the fliers that fall out of newspapers is well known in this house (I even rip out the bookmarkish kinds of thick advt pages in magazines because I find them sooo annoying!) So, I decided to wing it with whatever I remembered. The five spice powder, the onion powder and the garlic powder I definitely remembered - the rest are all approximations of what I think should go into an Asian Style Grilled Fish. The original recipe had a sweet plum sauce made to go with the chicken, but I just decided to serve some spinach on the side. Asian greens like bok choy would be good too for this dish.

The pictures don't do enough justice to the lovely, lovely meal this turned out to be. The fish was seared and crisp on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside. The taste of the spices mixed with the honey and soy mixture was unusual and very tasty.

 

                                                 

  Five Spice Grilled Fish with Spinach

Sole Fish fillets - 350gm cut into 3 large pieces

Marinade:

Five spice powder - 1 tbsp
Onion powder - 1 tbsp
Garlic powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Soy sauce - 1 tbsp
Honey - 1 tbsp
Crushed peppercorns - 1 tbsp
Rice wine vinegar - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Spinach - 2 cups washed and chopped long
1 onion sliced
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste


1. Mix the spice powder, garlic powder and the onion powder together and rub into the fish fillets.
2. Mix all the other ingredients of the marinade together mix the fish into it into a wide bowl. Keep aside for half an hour or refrigerate if cooking after an hour.
3. When ready to cook, pre heat the oven to 350C. Heat the oil in a wide pan and saute the garlic for half a minute, then add the onions and saute 3-4 minutes till soft.
4. Add the chopped spinach and saute on high for two minutes till it just wilts, Add the salt and remove from flame

5. In the same pan add a little more oil if needed and sear the fish fillets on high heat - 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove and keep aside.
6. In an oven proof bowl, arrange the sauteed spinach and then the fish fillets on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes or till the fish is flaky.
8. Serve with some crispy noodles on the side or even some sticky rice. The spinach can be served on top of the fish fillets.

You could stir fry the spinach for a few minutes and serve it on the side without baking it with the fish. that way it would retain the fresh green colour. However, you may want to add some more seasonings. By baking it along with the fish, the spinach soaked up some of the marinade juices and was just right.

Keerai Masiyal (Spinach with split mung bean lentils)

The amount of food we eat during the winter seems to be inversely proportional to the temperature; as the mercury drops, so our intake increases! Add to that all the celebrations and parties in the festive season and before you know it, the pounds have piled on by February. All this is quite new to me - never having lived in a city which could claim to have a distinct winter season, we managed to maintain our average calorie levels right through the year. It doesn't seem to help that the increasing weight is nicely hidden out of sight under the many layers that we pull on :)

So, I am trying to increase the quantity of soups that we usually consume; but its tough though when all your body craves is carbs. Salads especially, which are quite welcome during the summer months, just don't seem to do anything for us in winter. Enter the protein quotient - lentil soups, legume soups, chicken salads - now these seem to do the trick of filling us up and at the same time reducing our carb and cheese intake, not to mention being very delicious and giving me a lot of choice to play around with.

In this category then falls one of my favourite comfort foods - keerai masiyal in Tamil. Its a very simple dish which involves cooking spinach till just tender, mashing it up (not pureeing!) gently and finishing with a light tempering of garlic and red chillies.

Adding lentils to it is optional - I do or don't depending on my mood of the moment. On a chilly afternoon, the addition of split mung bean lentils (yellow moong dal) brings a creamy consistency to the dish and fills one up pretty nicely. Pair that with a spicy kozhambu and a porial (foogath) and you are set for a rather satisfying meal. or simply serve with warm phulkas and that is a complete meal too.

Keerai Masiyal (Spinach with mung bean lentils)

Spinach - 1 small bunch, washed in several changes of water and chopped roughly
Mung bean lentils (yellow moong dal/paasi paruppu) - 1/3 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
half a tomato chopped
1 green chilli slit
salt to taste


Tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
1 dried red chilli
urad dal seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida (hing/perungayam) - (pinch)
4-5 garlic cloves sliced thin


1. Wash lentils in water, drain and mix with the cleaned and chopped spinach, turmeric, slit green chilli and salt.
2. Cook in a pressure cooker in just enough water (2 cups) for 8 minutes (2 whistles), wait for the pressure to drop. Or this can be cooked on the stove top by increasing the water for cooking (use a heavy bottome vessel)
3. Drain and reserve any excess water on the top and with a back of a ladle (or a wooden masher - mathu), mash together the lentils and spinach gently till well combined. Remove the green chillies if you like and adjust seasoning.
4. Heat oil for tempering, add the red chillies, garlic and urad dal and when they start to brown add the asafoetida and immediately turn off the flame, taking care not to burn the garlic.
5. Add to the spinach lentil mixture and serve warm with rice or rotis.

Sweet Potato & Spinach Rice

The start of winter in Delhi and along with the weather, the produce at the local market is also changing. No more sad wilted Spinach; Methi (fenugreek leaves) along with other greens are making their appearance and soon it will be time for sarson ka saag (mustard leaves preparation) and bathua raita.

Root vegetables are also plentiful during this season and along with the turnips and yams, what I like best is the lovely deep pink sweet potato. I can have this just plain - boiled and mashed. Stuffed parathas are a favourite with my daughter. But one evening last week I wanted to have it some other way. So right after work I put the potatoes to boil and set about preparing a dish solely based on the flavours I wanted to have for dinner that night.

I knew my palate was craving coconut milk to be paired with the sweet potato but I didn't want a curry. It was also getting late for my daughter's dinner so whatever it was had to be a one pot meal since there wasn't too much time. So thats how this wonderful tasting rice cooked in coconut milk came about.

I soaked the rice and set to work; spring onions seemed right for this but if you don't have any at hand, plain old onions will work fine. I tossed in some chopped spinach as an afterthought to give it some crunch and balance out the sweet potatoes. Garlic, ginger and a slit green chilli were all the spices it needed and a single tomato put in a slight tang; by the time all this had been fried, the rice was soaked and ready to be put in with a small cup of coconut milk. I used a stock cube dissolved in the water in which the rice had soaked for the remaining 2 cups. 15 minutes later and garnished with spring onions, the dish was done. M daughter declared that she loved the rice and could I send this for her tiffin the next day too? I gladly did :)

This dish is a beautiful meld of flavours - the coconut milk, the sweet potato, the spinach - all add their own unique stamp to it. Definitely something I will make again. You can add some more green chillies to up the heat quotient but I would avoid adding cloves, cinnamon etc which might overpower the dish as it is. The photograph didn't do any justice to this dish so I'm not posting it!

Sweet Potato and Spinach Rice

Rice - 1 cup soaked in 3 cups water for 10 minutes ( I used short grained Sona masuri, basmati is fine too)
2 medium sweet potatoes
Spinach washed and chopped - 2 cups
Coconut milk - 1 cup (fresh thick extract or canned)
Tomato - 1 chopped fine
Ginger - 1 " chopped fine
Garlic - 3-4 cloves chopped fine
Green chillies - 1-2 slit
Spring onions - 3-4 sliced, greens chopped and reserved
salt to taste
oil - 1 tbsp

1. Pressure cook the sweet potatoes for about 8-10 minutes, peel and cut into cubes.
2. Heat oil in a pan and saute the spring onions for 4 minutes. Add the slit green chillies, chopped ginger and garlic and saute 2-3 minutes
3. Add the spinach and fry briefly on high till wilted. The chopped tomatoes go in next - fry for 2 minutes.
4. Add the sweet potatoes, fry couple of minutes. Meanwhile, drain the rice, heat 2 cups of the water in which it was soaked and dissolve the stock cube in it.
5. Add the drained rice to the pan and fry for 2 minutes, then lower flame, add the coconut milk, the stock (should make up three cups of liquid) and salt. Bring to boil, lower flame and cover and cook for 10-12 minutes or till the rice is just cooked.
6. Garnish with the spring onion greens and keep covered for another 4 minutes. Serve warm.

Spinach & Corn Quiche

The Quiche which is now considered predominantly a French dish, originated in a region in ancient Germany which was renamed Lorraine when it became part of France. Ergo - the term "Quiche Lorraine" ( "quiche" from the German word "kuchen' for cake).
Larousse Gastronomique describes it as "An open tart filled with a mixture of beaten eggs, creme fraiche and pieces of bacon, served hot as a first course or hors d'oeuvre". The cheese and onion additions, among others, came much later and it was the Quiche Lorraine which became fashionable in the United States in the 1970s as an appetizer. Since it adapts well to a variety of ingredients, soon innovative quiches with fillings like anchovy, olives and ham became the favourite of creative cooks. However, it was done to death in that decade and by the Eighties it lost its favoured status.

The quiche, however, remains a favourite of mine since I discovered it, and it's a bad restaurant which manages to put me off with an "eggy" smell or by smothering it in cheese. An interesting filling with a nice crust is all a good quiche needs and though I hesitated making the crust for a long time sticking to "crustless" quiches, I finally took the plunge. I'm so glad I did - it was really much easier than what I thought it would be.


This quiche from Jugalbandi had the most amazing crust and this quiche on Sunita's World a very interesting filling - so I did what any self respecting Gemini who had to choose would do - I combined and adapted both the recipes! :).

What I got was a lovely quiche with a nutty crust and a great tasting filling. Spinach and corn seem to be the most popular quiche filling and it's easy to see why, once you eat just a slice of this quiche. I kept the egg and the cheese to the minimum and let the sesame seeds in the crust and the spinach in the filling do the talking. This made for a great meal with soup on the side and I even had a leftover slice for a snack the next day.


Crust:
1 &1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats and 2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted and powdered
1/4 cup chilled water
5-6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Filling:
1 cup sweet corn
1/2 cup chopped spinach
2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Freshly crushed black pepper
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp dried herbs
salt to taste
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp cheese grated

1. Rub all the ingredients for the crust together, in a large bowl, except the water. Adding the water slowly, mix the ingredients together till just combined into a smooth but not sticky dough, taking care not to knead.
2. Lightly grease a pie dish (preferably with a removable bottom) and place the ball of dough in the centre. Pat with both hands downwards and outwards till it spreads to cover the bottom and the sides of the pie dish. Prick all over with a fork, wrap in cling wrap and chill for half an hour.
3. Pre heat the oven to 220 C, remove the pie dish from the 'fridge and cover with foil. Fill it with kidney beans (rajma) and bake blind for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Cool and keep aside.
4. While the crust is baking you can start on the filling. Heat the oil and saute the onions till they turn soft and translucent - 5 minutes. Add the garlic, basil leaves, dried herbs, chilli flakes, corn and salt and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the spinach and coriander leaves and saute for just a minute and remove from flame. Cool the filling.
5. Break the eggs in a bowl and beat along with the eggs and a pinch of salt. Pre heat the oven to 180C
6. Spoon the cooled filling into the baked crust and smooth over with a spatula. Pour the beaten eggs and milk over the filling covering it evenly. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes till set, at 30 minutes, remove the pan, sprinkle the grated cheese over the quiche and bake for the last 5 minutes. Let rest for a bit and then cut and serve warm.
7. If you need to warm it, use the grill or oven and not the microwave.

PS - I made this again on the weekend, this time using the tofu filling in J&B's recipe and it was equally fabulous! I substituted the chard with spinach and the basil and thyme with coriander and mint leaves, made the crust a day before -perfect for an appetizer though my spice quotient left some of my guests gasping! I blamed the really fresh red chilli flakes I got from Dilli Haat for that! ;)

So go on, try this one out, don't let the idea of French cuisine daunt you - its as easy as pie ;)

Good Food - Egg Curry

So many years ago as a new bride, I got 6 foreign magazines a month from the neighbourhood circulating library. One of them was Good Food - a BBC magazine which had some really good recipes and some nice articles on food. I remember trying many of them - especially the one pot ones which suited me when I was learning to balance work and home. Then of course, there were the absolutely amazing pictures to drool over.

Over the years though, I have shifted to looking for recipes online on it's website and it's very convenient to search by ingredients or look for a particular dish. I was very happy then, to find the Good Food "101 Healthy Eats" cookbook. A really good selection of recipes - simple, healthy and delicious. I am definitely going to cook my way through this book!

I love egg curry in any form and am constantly trying out new recipes. So no surprise then, that the first recipe I tried from this book was an egg curry. I was quite intrigued actually, the recipe was quite different from the usual - it had spinach and cherry tomatoes to start with and then was finished with coconut milk. Seemed like an interesting combination and I wasn't disappointed. The curry was smooth and creamy but not heavy and the spinach added a very nice texture to the whole dish.

Egg Curry

Adapted from Good Food "101 Healthy Eats"

3 eggs
1 onion - finely sliced
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
(the original recipe uses korma curry paste instead of spice powders)
2 cups spinach leaves, cleaned and chopped
1 tomato chopped fine
100ml coconut milk
1 tbsp oil

Method:
1. Boil the eggs for about 8 minutes, drain, cool and peel. keep aside.
2. Heat the oil in a wide pan and add the onions, saute for 5 minutes till soft.
3. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and saute 2 minutes.
4. Add the chopped spinach and fry for 5 minutes till it softens. Add the tomatoes and the coconut milk and simmer gently for another 5 minutes.
5. Slice the eggs into half and add the curry, season with salt, gently heat through and remove from flame.

Soup and Salad Lunch - Spinach Soup

Krishna Jayanthi or Janmashtami arrives bang in the middle of the monsoons in India (atleast in the North and the West) and reminds us of the story of Krishna's birth. "It was a dark and stormy night..." seems particularly apt here! I still remember the classic Amar Chitra Katha illustrations (sorry, no fond memories of Grandma recounting the story to us!) which showed Vasudeva crossing the river in spate to make sure his newborn baby had a chance to survive.

I found that while in the South, the festival celebrated the evening before, in the North it is celebrated the next evening - I decided to go the North Indian way, simply because it was more convenient since it was a Sunday. The small footprints leading from outside to the pooja room fascinated my daughter and she did her own spot of painting while I drew the kolam outside. After a heavy breakfast of vadai, semiya payasam, pongal, chatni and sambar there was no way we could have a full meal for lunch.

So we decided on soup and a light salad. Husband was happy to have a spinach soup while I preferred a tomato carrot soup - recipe to come next.

The spinach soup is a very simple one - takes about fifteen minutes to make - the cleaning of the spinach probably takes more time than the actual preparation. But if you have spinach already separated from the stalks (I store them in Tupperware or other airtight containers) it makes it much easier.

Spinach Soup

3 bundles of spinach - separated from the stalks, cleaned in several changes of water and chopped
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 bay leaf
salt to taste
1 tsp butter
1/2 green chilli
Freshly crushed pepper powder
2 tbsp cream

1. Heat the butter in a heavy bottomed pan, add the bay leaf and then the garlic and onions. Saute till onions are transluscent.
2. Add the green chilli and the chopped spinach and cook for 4-5 minutes till the spinach wilts and is just cooked.
3. Remove from the pan and cool. Discard the bay lead and puree in a blender.
4. Return the pureed spinach to the pan, add water or vegetable stock and bring to boil.
5. Add salt, reduce flame and cook for about 4 minutes.
6. Add crushed pepper and one tablespoon of cream and remove from heat.
7. Serve warm with cream drizzled over.

Revisiting recipes – Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta Cheese

I have often wanted to make this recipe of mine; invariably I would either be out of eggs or feta cheese. Last week when my daughter had a day off from school, a couple of friends and I planned an "art day"for the kids at my place. (Read keeping the kids busy and out of our hair!)

My upstairs neighbour organised the brushes, the face paint and loads of one sided paper. Some simple cuts in potato and brinjal halves and they had a whale of a time dipping them in the paint and making block prints! Then there was spray painting which they did with cut outs and an old toothbrush. Of course most of the paints seemed to be on them than on the paper LOL!

Lunch was a mixed spread. Phulkas, Lobia Saag (Cowpeas beans and Spinach Gravy), Cucumber and Tomato salad, Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta cheese, Brown Rice with Chicken and Pumpkin and Apple Crisp.

I have made a similar quiche before using roasted peppers and cream cheese. I wanted to make it again with different ingredients; spinach was the first thing which came to mind and since I had feta cheese too, it seemed perfect.

I was searching for other ideas and I came across this recipe from Baking Bites - the talk of flour that would automatically separate from the batter and form a crust seemed too exciting, though I had used flour in my earlier recipe too and didn't remember a crust forming. I decided to try this once again and adapted the recipe.

The quiche was good and we really liked the wedges we had; the browned top making a lovely contrast to the flaky insides and the delicious feta complimenting the overall taste. But I didn't get the crust effect separately though the bottom was quite firm. Maybe next time I will stick to the recipe completely and see what happens since the flour proportion was quite different from what I used in mine.

Crustless Quiche with Spinach and Feta Cheese

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Refined flour (maida) - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - pinch
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Egg whites - 3
Milk - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 cup cleaned and chopped
Onions - 1 cup chopped
Feta cheese - 1/3 cup cut into small squares
Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Carom seeds (ajwain/omam) - 1/4 tsp
Crushed black pepper - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl.
2. Pre heat the oven to 180C and grease a 10" pie pan or a shallow baking pan. Take a pan, heat the oil and put in some ajwain seeds, when they change colour (1/2 a minute), add the onions and saute for 2-3 minutes till transluscent. Then add the chopped spinach and saute till it softens and wilts (about 3 minutes). Remove and cool.
3. Whisk the egg whites and add the milk, salt, crushed black pepper and chilli powder to it.
4. Mix in the flour mixture gently and then add the spinach onion mixture.
5. Pour in the batter into the prepared pie plate and place the pieces of feta cheese on top.
6. Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes, a toothpick inserted will come out clean and the top will be golden brown.

Sindhi Sai Bhaji (Spinach,lentil and vegetable gravy)

Spinach is one of my favourite greens and I love the ease which it lends itself to most dishes. The greens dishes we used to eat while growing up were either Masiyals or Kootus made out of molai Keerai/arai keerai/siru keerai(all amaranth),murunga keerai(drumstick leaves),agathi keerai,poonaganni keerai,pulichai keerai,manathakali keerai. "Keerai" being the generic term for all greens which can be cooked, so spinach would be called "Paalak Keerai"!!

Masiyal (Mash) was just the greens by themselves, cooked and mashed with garlic and tempered with red chillies,urad dal and mustard.Kootus were made with dal. Paalak Paneer and Alu Methi made a rare appearance sometimes.

And then there were some other mysterious greens which I still don’t know the names of, since my mother loves greens so much she would just pick them up and ask the vegetable vendor what it was and they would reply with some Marathi name she wouldn’t remember. She would sometimes even ask them how it is prepared….and then at dinner Dad would mutter under his breath that he didn’t know whether he was eating plain grass at times! Mom would then launch into a spiel about the nutritional value of greens and how fibre is so good for the body etc etc. Now that she has her own little backyard garden, she is very happy growing her own greens.

Spinach is indeed nutritious and a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, and several antioxidants as well as folic acid and calcium. However, when I was advised to cut down on my fiber intake due to the difficulty in digesting it, I did some research on what nutrients I might be losing out and found that spinach does not contain as much iron as we are normally led to believe and even what iron it contains may not be fully absorbed into the body. Vitamin C helps in better absorption of iron from spinach, however on the whole because of containing high levels of oxalate which binds itself to iron and calcium, it decreases the level of absorption of both calcium and iron contained in the spinach.

What it does have though is anti oxidants, which go a long way in protecting us from cancers of the colon, prostate, ovary and also against heart disease. Read more here

So I still indulge my love for spinach but just in smaller quantities than before and in my efforts to find different recipes which use paalak so that we don’t have the same dish every time, I came across this dish which is a Sindhi specialty and it has become a staple in our home. Spinach leaves cooked with mixed veggies and chana dal till they are well blended – this dish is rarely seen in restaurants and I think is home cooking at its best. It goes well with rotis but I often have it with rice, papad and pickle. Some recipes also include a handful of methi or dill in this dish so feel free to add any other greens you like.

Note:
Spinach (like most vegetables) retains its nutrients best if it is not overcooked. So, I usually dunk it into boiling water for about 5 minutes, then in cold water for another 5 minutes to retain its colour and freshness and then either chop, mash or puree it.

I adjust the below recipe then, by cooking the chana dal separately till soft; I then fry the spices and vegetables in the same order as below and cook till done, adding the mashed cooked spinach and cooked chana dal at the end and cooking for another 5 minutes till well blended.

The recipe below I use when I am short on time and can’t cook everything separately. This time I made this dish in the cooker for a quick dinner and I thought it was a good match for sra’s Grindless Gravies event over at her blog when my soup came alive .

Sindhi Sai Bhaji

Ingredients:

Spinach – 1 large bunch
Chana Dal – ¼ cup (soaked for 1 hour in warm water)
Potato – 1 diced
Eggplant/Brinjal – 2-3 (small) diced
Bottle Gourd – ½ cup diced (can substitute with ash gourd)
Tomatoes – 2 chopped
Onion – 1 chopped
Green chillies – 2 chopped
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tsp

Method:
1. Wash the spinach leaves in several changes of water till clean, chop and keep aside.
2. Take a pressure pan or a cooker in which you can cook directly and heat oil.
3. Add cumin seeds and when it changes colour, add onions and sauté.
4. When the onions are sautéed, add green chillies and ginger garlic paste and fry 3 minutes, then add the chana dal and fry another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add the vegetables, chopped tomatoes, coriander powder and fry for 4-5 minutes,
6. Add salt and 1 cup of water, pressure cook for 10 minutes (two –three whistles).
7. When the pressure is released, open the cooker and mash well. Serve hot with rotis or rice.