Topic: Saag

[Gezh]

Hi all. Just went shopping, and bought a tin of saag from the world foods section. Here's the description:

sarson ka Saag, instant feast, curried mustard leaves.

Ingredients: 87% mustard leaves, spinach 2.8%, then various spices and ghee.

Now, I always thought Saag was spinach. I'm trying to find out if this tin will be suitable for making a Saag main dish. Wikipedia doesn't really help, it says that Saag is made from either Spinach or Mustard leaves.

So, has anyone used this, and does anyone know how similar spinach and mustard leaves are?

Thanks.

[solarsplace]

Hi

From the description that you have posted, it sounds like the tin you have bought is intended to be the finished product already?

May be you could turn it into a Saag Aloo by adding some potato to it?

The other week in a moment of madness I bought a tin of Saag Aloo from the organic shelf in Waitrose. Why I did this I have no idea. I knew it would be disappointing, but still I continued. Just as I suspected it was utter toilet.

There has been a new recipe posted for Saag Aloo recently here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4945.0

Perhaps this may be this may be of some assistance to you?

EDIT: This post suggests the substitution of spinach with mustard leaves: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1332.0

Cheers

[Gezh]

That's interesting, thanks.

I did assume that this was a finished product yes, but I thought it would be ideal to add to a basic curry to make it Saag like. After all, when we learn about what they really do in BIRs, it seems they take these kind of short cuts anyway - I doubt they boil down fresh spinach!

[George]

I bought a tin of Saag Aloo from the organic shelf in Waitrose. Why I did this I have no idea. I knew it would be disappointing, but still I continued. Just as I suspected it was utter toilet.

So is most food from Waitrose and that's before taking their sky-high prices into account.

[solarsplace]

...snip... I doubt they boil down fresh spinach!

Hi

The general thoughts are exactly that. I think it is safe to say that the BIRs probably (in most cases) don't use fresh spinach, probably mainly down to cost.

There is on going debate ATM about whether canned or frozen spinach is generally used. Personally speaking I'm happy with the results of canned and am now testing and trying to for a conclusion about frozen.

This is also a cost issue, where I can buy a bag of fresh spinach for approx ?1.20 and I can buy a can of spinach for 50p - I can get barely 1 Saag Aloo from the fresh pack and 2 from the can. So in restaurant terms the cost saving will be massive - and the canned stuff still tastes great (in my opinion) in the context of a Saag curry dish.

Cheers

Russell

[Peripatetic Phil]

Now, I always thought Saag was spinach.

Saag is actually a generic term, and so saag aloo does not necessarily consist of spinach and potato, though it frequently will.  If you want to be sure of getting spinach and not (say) mustard leaves, you should ask for aloo palak (of course, this won't guarantee that you will get aloo palak, but at least you will have asked for the right thing !).

** Phil.

[Gezh]

Right, well, regardless of everything said above... avoid this product!

It's way too intense to be used in anything BIR-like. Too spicy, and ridiculously salty, I don't see how you could eat it alone, and am not really sure what market it's aimed at. Maybe I'll add a spoonful here and there to add flavour to another dish, but I won't be buying it again.

I'll stick to pureed spinach next time!