Topic: Saag Bhaji (Dry Style)

[JR]

HI, does anyone have a good recipe for saag bhaji (dry style). Ive tried Salvador Dhali's recipe, was geat consistency but to my taste quite bland. Look forward to any suggestions.
   
    Rgds John.

[spiceyokooko]

Hi John

This is my recipe for Saag Bhaji that I've pretty much arrived at through trial and error. It uses common ingredients to typical BIR style cooking - garlic/ginger paste, base sauce, mix powder etc and I've used it with a variety of different base sauce/mix powder combinations with reasonable results so there's no one mix powder/base sauce combination I'd recommend. I would suggest however that you stick with one mix powder/base sauce combination from one source rather than mixing and matching them.

I'd encourage you to experiment with it and find out what works best for you, the ingredients aren't set in stone. Add some chopped/sliced green pepper in with the onions if you like or perhaps extra sliced garlic, a pinch of garam masala 5 minutes before the end, mix in a dollop of cream or yoghurt at the end etc.

It's meant as a starting point really. If you try it, let me know how you get on.


Ingredients

1 Chefspoon oil
1 Heaped tsp garlic/ginger puree
1/2 finely chopped onion (1/2 a medium/large one, 1 whole small one)
1 or 2 finely chopped deseeded green finger chillies
About 12 frozen pureed spinach blocks defrosted
1 Chefspoon/ladle base sauce
Finely chopped coriander


Spices

Pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mix powder
1/2 tsp ground red chilli powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp salt


Method

1/ Heat oil in frying pan on medium heat, add garlic/ginger puree and fry till it turns an almond/beige colour.

2/ Add onions and half of the chopped green chilli and fry on a low heat till soft or just starting to turn golden and/or brown round the edges, about 5-10 minutes. You should see the oil separate from the onions.

3/ Turn up heat to medium, add spices and fry for about 30 seconds to a minute. Add a chefspoon/ladle of base sauce and reduce this to about half on medium heat.

4/ Add spinach puree and the other half of chopped green chilli and stir fry till fully mixed. Cook on medium heat till all moisture has been absorbed stirring occasionally making sure it doesn't stick and burn. Once it starts to crackle, turn down the heat to low and let it caramelise in the pan stirring occasionally for about 5 or 10 mins or so.

5/ Add chopped coriander.


Notes

All the magic in this dish happens at the end where you want to cook off the moisture but also let it stick slightly and caramelise the onions/spinach puree on the bottom of the pan, this is where that lovely smoky flavour develops and comes from. You'll know when this starts to happen because the mixture starts to crackle as it dry fries in the pan. Just don't leave it so long it burns.

Because I fry off the moisture, I don't worry or bother too much about ensuring the spinach is strained of moisture before it goes into the pan like some of the other dry style methods. I've added the spinach frozen, semi-frozen, defrosted, boiled and strained and I find no difference in taste. The easiest method is to defrost the spinach first and add it as it is.

I personally prefer spinach puree, I have cooked this with frozen and canned leaf spinach and it works equally as well, although I don't really like canned leaf spinach, but I just prefer the texture of spinach puree. Use whatever you prefer.

Feel free to experiment, this is not intended to be definitive, it's just the method and ingredients I've arrived at through trial and error and I find it produces reasonably consistent results.

If you don't have any asafoetida don't worry it's not essential for this recipe, It'll work equally well without it.

[JR]

H Spicey,
  thanks for the recipe, will give it a go next weekend, will add some sliced garlic, qtr tsp panch phoran.Would you mind telling me what strength of curry you normally eat so i can get an idea of the chilli levels you've added. I eat Vindaloo strength, but dont want side dishes at same strength as the flavours for me all roll into one. Probably would want it between normal curry and madras strength.
   
    Cheers John.

[spiceyokooko]

Hi John

By all means add extra garlic, just be careful you don't burn it as once that happens you just get a bitter taste into the dish you can't get rid of. So you might need to experiment a little as to exactly when you introduce your garlic.

I grind my own chilli powders from whole chillies so it's not easy to equate them across to commercial brands but I'd say they were around medium heat. Try half a level teaspoon of medium Chilli powder to start with. I also like the balance of dried ground red chillies with fresh green ones, but you can reduce the fresh green ones if you're worried about it being too hot.

I generally tend to cook about Madras strength main dishes which usually use about 1 - 1.5 tsp's of chilli powder in them so about 1/2 tsp in the Saag Bhaji is about right for me. I find the Saag dish to be about the same hotness as you'd expect in a restaurant.

In my younger days I used to eat hotter dishes in restaurants but these days I'm more interested in flavour, I find too much heat can over-power dishes somewhat.

Try and keep some over and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day have a good sniff of the container its in, you should get a lovely smell of smokiness coming out of it.

Let me know how you get on.

[JR]

Hi Spicey,

    I recall back in the mid seventies, the smokey aroma combined with the spice was to die for, once smelt and tasted always addicted. Originally it wasn't about the heat,  it was the flavour. I think now the restaurants in general have compensated the flavour with heat, hence i'm eating Vindaloo strength. Do you grow your own and dry them before you grind them? Your chilli quantities sound about right for me, i agree the combination of powder and fresh adds anonther dimension of flavour. Last week i cooked chicken bhoona using 976 bar's recipe,very nice intense flavour, unfortunately used Razors base with Bruce Edwards Pre-cooked chicken which both contain salt, which was a little overpowering. It wasn't a complete disaster. Just cooked 2kg chicken using Bruce Edwards for both Spice mix and pre-cooked chicken, the result is much less salty. have yet to use the chicken in a dish, which will be the real acid test.

I've realised that a day in the kitchen some what spoils your taste buds, so i'm trying to cook the bulk in advance,so your idea of putting some in the fridge for the next day is most important.

    i'll keep you posted on results.

   Rgds John.

[spiceyokooko]

John

You sound a lot like me actually. I'm quite sensitive to salt levels having slowly reduced my salt intake down over time and frequently find standard recipes have too much salt in them so I tend to adjust them down out of habit. This is why I put 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of salt because it really does depend on your own salt tolerance level. A 1/4 tsp is enough for me, for many people 1/2 tsp won't be enough!

I frequently get people complaining my cooking doesn't have enough salt in!

I have grown chilli's in the past but to be honest I just find buying pre-dried ones to be more convenient, but I have been meaning to get back to chilli growing again when I get time.

Achieving that smoky flavour is the subject of much debate on this forum and I've found that with some dishes you can achieve it, but many you can't for some strange reason. I've found with spinach and dhal dishes you can achieve it with the right technique.