I mentioned in the 'Just Joined' section that one of my favourite dishes is saag bhaji, cooked in the simple, dry style (i.e. no base gravy/garabi). I was asked to post a picture, so here it is, along with a couple more to show just how much liquid you need to get out of that frozen spinach to make this dish work. (You can of course use fresh spinach, but this will naturally result in a wetter end result unless you pre-wilt the spinach and then squeeze moisture out).
Keen observers may note the large amount of onions (and garlic) in my dish. This is simply because I appear to be a largely allium based life-form, and is just the way I like it. Similarly, the reddish tinge to the onions comes from the addition of chilli powder (deggi mirch in this instance). This isn't added in restaurants' saag bhaji unless you ask for it, but I seem unable to create anything without adding chilli to it.
Making it couldn't be easier, so without further ado...
For a good portion you'll need the following:
1. Around 5 briquettes of frozen spinach, defrosted. This needs to be thoroughly squeezed of excess liquid (you'll be surprised at how much liquid comes out). It's key to the success of this dish.
2. 3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced (or to taste). To add an 'edge' to your BIR cookery, I recommend the use of an unguarded mandolin to make swift work of this task. You can thinly slice 4 cloves of garlic in about 12 seconds (though it may take slightly longer to pick out the slices of finely sliced finger...).
3. Using the same mandolin with the remaining uninjured hand, deftly slice half of a medium sized onion (a bit smaller than a tennis ball in size). Or again throw caution to the wind and use the whole onion. I know I do.
4. 0.5 tsp of salt (or to taste). As with tarka dhal, salt is a critical component of this dish, and getting the amount right is something that is very much down to personal taste. Most restaurants serve it fairly salty, and that's my preference.
5. 05 - 1 tsp turmeric. Another key component, and one which lends a subtle but wonderful taste and aroma to the dish (as well as a lovely aroma to your kitchen)
Method
1. Ingredients neatly arranged and fingers bandaged, take a black iron or carbon steel pan or wok and whack it on the heat. (Because this is a dry dish you need something that has a little non stick quality when the going gets hot. You can use an aluminium pan, but it's bloody hard work keeping everything going without adding loads of oil.
2. Add a generous chef's spoon of oil or ghee (my chef's spoon is a 2tbsp size, and I use butter ghee for this, but veg would be fine, as would veg oil), and get it to the point where it begins to smoke slightly.
3. Add your garlic and finger slices, and get straight in there with your spoon to keep them moving. You're looking for some nice colour but no carbonisation (at this stage).
4. Nice colour achieved, it's in with the onion next, followed swiftly by the salt and turmeric. The onions will have brought the pan temp down a little, so you may need to whack it up to get that gorgeous smokey 'singe' going. (See the 'Cooking with Chef Az' thread for more on this.)
5. Add the spinach and vigorously integrate it with the other ingredients with your spoon. Because the spinach has little moisture content this stage doesn't take long, but you're looking to get the spinach and the odd bit of onion and garlic to catch here and there (which is where a lot of this dish's great flavour comes from), so let the mixture sit in the pan or wok for the odd ten secs or so from time to time. It all depends on the pan, the heat of your hob, etc., etc., but as always it's only down to practice and after trying it a few times you'll have it nailed.
They really don't come much simpler than this...
Topic: Saag Bhaji - dry style (Read 113231 times)
