Topic: pre cooked sag(spinach) from the takeaway

[jb]

Managed to watch my chef prepare his spinach last night.I always thought that plain spinach from a can(I've seen these in my cash and carry) was used to to make sag aloo or sag bhaji,however my chef actually takes the time to pre cook it.He actually uses frozen spinach which he defosts and then puts through a mincer before using.

First,in one of his big pans went in some mixed veg oil and ghee.When this was hot he added some mustard seeds,about 7 chopped garlic cloves and about three chopped onions.He cooked this for some time,the garlic got quite brown,not burnt but it was cooking for a lot longer than I expected.I'm guessing this browning is the key to getting that 'smoky' taste to a really good sag dish.



Then he added a chef spoon of mix powder,half a spoon of salt,pinch of chilli and some salt.



Then he added some chunks of onions and pepper and the spinach.



This was then cooked a fairly high heat,stirred now and again until all the moisture had come out,the resulting spinach was quite dry.

[jb]

I've watched the chef cook countless portions of sag bhaji and sag aloo.Once he's prepared the spinach it's quite easy.First,in a pan he puts some mixed ghee/oil.Gets this quite hot and then adds the usual garlic,onion,blended tomatoes,salt,methi and mix powder.He then adds a small amount of gravy(and adds precooked potatoes for a sag aloo).He gives the pan a stir now and again until the gravy has reduced.

So far I've been lucky enough to see him prepare quite a few of his pre cooked veg.They're all quite similar,the potatoes are cooked with cumin seeds,the spinach with mustard seeds,mix veg and mushrooms with panch poran.

[ELW]

Great post jb.
Do you know why he uses a veg ghee/oil blend as opposed to one or the other?

ELW

[curryhell]

Thanks for this Jason.  Similar to the Viceroy method with a few variatons.  Will be giving this a go when i'm on hols.  Looking forward to the results 

[Secret Santa]

Great post jb.
Do you know why he uses a veg ghee/oil blend as opposed to one or the other?

I've yet to be convinced of any argument for using veg ghee. The closest to a vaguely believable answer was that it changes the mouth feel of the finished dish but my own experimentation failed to show any effect at all from using it. It'll be interesting to see what the chef thinks it's in there for. I have a feeling it's like most of what a chef does...it's because that's how they were taught it and the why doesn't always seem to matter too much. It's certainly not used for economy as it's always more expensive, even in bulk, than basic vegetable oil.

[haldi]

When they take that much care precooking the spinach, the end result must be fantastic.
They clearly go the extra mile
Wish I lived closer to try the real thing!

[jb]

Great post jb.
Do you know why he uses a veg ghee/oil blend as opposed to one or the other?

ELW

Don't know why,but that's definately how he does it.I've seen the large drums of veg oil in the kitchen.I've also seen him melt some ghee on the stove top and then pour some into one of those cans every kitchen seems to have next to the gravy.I know when tv chefs use normal butter they always add some oil to stop the butter from burning.Considering the high temperatures that are acheived in the kitchen could this be the answer?