Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Recipe: Aloo Saag or Saag Aloo (Indian Spinach and Potatoes)


I bought a 5 pound bag of onions and a 10 pound bag of potatoes at $1.99 each when they were on sale at Pathmark. These are the staples of many a dish and the price was so good I couldn't pass it up.
Aside from making latkes with them or hash, I had a craving for Indian and found this recipe courtesy of Food.com
I didn't have whole cumin seeds so I used ground. I had a box of frozen chopped spinach which I had bought on sale for 80¢ so I used it defrosted. Results came out fabulously! My notes are in parenthesis.

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 large potatoes, cubed (the smaller the cube, the faster it cooks)
  • 400 g spinach or 400 g chard leaves, stalks removed, roughly chopped (could substitute a box of frozen chopped spinach)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated (I used a microplane to make it easier on my knuckles)
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (I find 1 clove does it)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala (a mix of spices available in spice markets)
  • olive oil
  • butter
  • salt

Directions

  1. Fry the cumin seeds in a heavy bottomed pan in a bit of oil and butter until just starting to brown.
  2. Add the onion and fry until it too starts to brown.
  3. Add the potato, garlic, turmeric, ginger and garam masala and fry until the potato starts to soften.
  4. Unless you are using a non-stick pan, you may need to add water and cover to keep the potato from sticking and to help it cook. The first time I did this 1/2 cup of water at a time and it took about 20-30 minutes but I now prefer to parboil the potatoes, which means you add less water and it only takes about 10 minutes to finish off from this point.
  5. Add the spinach or chard and cook until it collapses over the potato.
  6. Salt to taste.

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