I've recently ben trying to improve on my wife's sag aloo (spinach and potato), and she agrees that it's gone well. I thought I'd check out 'sag allo' on this site, just to compare notes, but I didn't see it; the closest I came was 'Potato and spinach bhaji', which is interesting, but not quite what I was looking for.

Have I missed something?

Phil

Hello Phill

Are you looking for a spinach and aloo curry with gravy? If you are, try Spinach and Peas Curry at http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=12962. Substitute peas with boiled and diced potatoes. Indians usually boil potatoes with skin on, so they don't crumble.

If it does not come close to what you are looking for, send me your recipe via 'contact' link. I will see if I can help with imroving it. One way to make it tastier is to add 2 tbs. dry fenigreek leaves to Spinach. It is sold as Kasoori Methi in Indian shops.

Mamta

Hi Mamta,

I wasn't thinking of something with a sauce, but I'll have a look at that recipe. I've never tried adding fenugreek leaves to spinach; I'll try it and see what happens.

I don't boil the potato in advance: it cooks relatively quickly with a little water added every five minutes or so, and the lid on the pot. I'll send you the recipe as it stands, and see what suggestions you have.

Phil

Hello Phil

Dry aloo and spinach bahji can be made with the basic recipe; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10129

Add spinach leaves and uncooked potatoes. You won't have to add any water, as spinach releases a lot. Cook on low medium heat, with lid on. Towards the end, raise heat and stir fry until it loks dry and a bit shiny.

Saag simply mean green leafy vegetables and doesn't have to be spinach. These are many othet leafy vegetable eaten in India, which you can see at any Indian/Pakistani grocer.

Adding fenugreek (methi) leaves to any dish made with leaves, adds to the flavour of a dish. Adding dry fenugreek leaves to your meat curries will also enhance their flavour, give it a try.

Mamta

I make this bhaji using your recipe http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10138.

I also add chopped tomatoes towards the end, when potatoes are done. It tastes quite nice. I think restaurant one has a lot of oil in it, therefore has more of a fried look.

Sara

Thanks to both of you. This is interesting.

I now realise that I don't actually know what 'bhaji' means (though I thought I did). I knew the term from 'onion bhaji', a kind of onion ball in batter which must have been deep-fried, and which is served as a starter in Indian restaurants in Britain.

What does 'bhaji' mean? And what Indian language does it come from? (Northern Indian, that is Indo-European, I suppose)

Apologies for any mis-spellings.

Phil

Hello Phill

In Hindi, the main language of North India and the national language of India, the word bhaji means either .a vegetable. or .a vegetable dish cooked without gravy.. Sometimes it is also used for a .dish with gravy.. So, when the North Indians use the word bhaji, they usually mean either .a vegetable. or .a cooked vegetable dish.. The word 'Sabji' is also synonymous with the word .bhaji., though I haven't often used it on this site, to avoid confusion. Like any other language, many words have same meaning in Hindi too. Then, there are many English spellings for each word, because people have spelt them as they pronounce. So, a saag could be a sag, shaak or shak, shaug. Confusing, isn.t it?

In India, a dish is often described by the name of it's main ingredients. For example, we Indians will call potatoes (aloo) cooked with spinach (palak) simply Aloo-Palak or Aloo Saag.

In UK, the word Bhaji or Bhajia is generally used to described onion or other vegetables fried in a besan (chickpea flour or Bengal gram flour) batter, either as individual slices or in a lump or a ball. Hindi word for these is Pakora. My guess is that the word bhaji is easy to pronounce, that is why it has stuck! It may have originated in Bombay/Mumbai, perhaps during the British Empire, no one seems to know for sure

I hope you are not too confused! In the end, according to my Oxford Hindi to English dictionary, bhaji simply means .a green vegetable.. According to Indian Rajpal dictionary, it means either .a green vegetable. or .a cooked vegetable..

PS Someone else might have another, better explanation for the origin of the word Onion Bhaji in UK!

I never knew Bhaji means a vegetable! Our local calls battered onions and vegetables bhajies.

Angela

Yes, that 'onion bhaji' notion was the sense I was used to. But, come to think of it, I now recall seeing a vegetable side dish with a sauce which had the name 'brindi bhaji', and I think that 'brindi' meant either 'aubergine' or 'okra'. Forgotten which.

I'm assuming that words such as 'sag'/'saag', 'aloo' and 'bhaji' come from the Indo-European languages of the North of India, perhaps even specifically from Hindi. Is that right, Mamta?

Phil

Brinjal = Aubergine

Bindi = Okra

Thanks for that info, Kavita. Sorry: I failed to notice your earlier reply, and thus asked the same question twice.

I don't find the variants on words like 'sag' too confusing. What I have found a little misleading was the 'aloo' part of 'vindaloo', which puzzled me, because I knew that 'aloo' was 'potato', but there's no potato in vindaloo. Madhur Jaffrey says that the name of the dish is Portuguese in origin, with the 'vin' part indicating wine vinegar, and the 'aloo' part from Portugese 'alho' (garlic). This seems plausible, since it's apparently a Goan dish, which was once colonised by the Portuguese, I believe, and the dish does indeed (at least in the Jaffrey recipe) contain both wine vinegar and garlic.

Phil

I believe the Portuguese did introduce chilli's to many countries... so its likely that dishes using them were introduced by them as well.

I hve read same info on origin of "vindaloo"...

Isn't it interesting that the Portuguese seem to have been responsible for taking the chilli pepper from South America to India?

I wonder what Indian cooking might have been like prior to the introduction of the chilli pepper? It seems so essential nowadays.

Phil

Here is my recipe for Spinach and Potato Curry. You can also use this stuffing in Samosas.

Peel and dice 3 lb. of new potatoes and boil or steam until tender. Drain and cool. Heat 1/4 c. oil in a large pan along with 2 tsp. black mustard seeds and 1 tsp. cumin seeds. Heat over high heat until the mustard seeds have popped a bit. Stir in 1 tsp. minced garlic. Add a 10 oz. pkg. chopped spinach and about 1/4 c. water. Reduce heat to medium. Add 1/2 tsp. turmeric and 1 1/2 tsp. cayenne powder (or to taste). Stir until the spinach is tender and the liquid has evaporated. Add the cooked potatoes, 2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. curry powder and 1/2 tsp. garam masala. Mix well. Turn off heat and sprinkle with 2 tsp. lemon juice. You can make up a similar recipe using fenugreek or watercress, although you probably would use much less than 10 oz. for those greens.

Interesting. I put the potatoes in raw and let them cook under a lid, adding small amounts of water from time to time. I cook the spinach separately before hand, and add once the potatoes are done. So it's the reverse sequence for potatoes and spinach, but it might not make much difference in the end.

Hi again Phil

You said:-

I've recently ben trying to improve on my wife's sag aloo (spinach and potato), and she agrees that it's gone well.

Coming late to this thread. In view of the fact that you live in France, may I suggest that you try the recipe with Swiss Chard leaves. (Blettes or Bettes). I find they're FAR better. You may want to use some or all of the stalks - which are often all that's used in France - for another dish.

ATB

Ian

Re-bonjour Ian,

What an interesting idea! We can get them from the local market.

I'll give it a go.

Cheers

Phil

Hi, can anyone tell me what the main ingrediant in a saaj bhaji is? It's for a quiz

Saaj, Saag, Sag ... Spinach

Following Ian Hoare's interesting suggestion, I tried sag aloo with Swiss chard ('blettes' in French), which I bought from the local market here in the south of France.

I found that the Swiss chard green leaves had less taste than spinach, and the white stalks, which are mostly what one pays for, are uninteresting (unlike, say, the white parts of bok choi, which are both tasty and crispy).

I'll have a go at fresh, rather than frozen, spinach, but if anyone has any ideas for some other green vegetable, I'd be interested to know.

Phil

Hello Phil

Mustard greens, known as 'sarson ka sag' in Hindi, will also work well. Add 1/4th fenugreek leaves too. I am sure you can pick them from mustard fields, just the tender, top bits of the plants.

Mamta

Thanks, Mamta.

So that's what 'mustard greens' means

Phil

Hi Phil,

Sorry you didn't much enjoy the Sag bhaji made with chard. I agree that the stalks can be quite boring unless cooked very carefully. I should have said that we use 95% leaves with just a tiny amount of stalk. I'd agree that the flavour of the leaves is lighter than spinach, though I feel they've a much better texture, as spinach is so insubstantial. We actually find that the bhaji works better as a side dish, when it has that lightness of flavour, though I could see that your expectations were different.

Hi Cy,

I don't think Sag means "spinach" although it's often translated as such. Its meaning, if my understanding is correct, is "greens". Neither spinach nor swiss chard would be used much to make Sag Bhaji in India, but a variety other green leaved vegetables.

ATB

Ian

Ian is right, saag simply mean 'green leafy vegetable' and doesn't have to be spinach. many different vegetables are used in Indian cuisine to make various saags, the first two being the commonest.

Spinach There are several dishes to cook with it, search for Spinach.

Mustard leaves/greens http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10347 & http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10502

Fenugreek/methi leaves http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10004 and many others

Amaranth leaves Cooked like spinach

Chickpea or Chana greens Usually mixed with Mustard green Sag

There are several other sags, I can't remember their names, though I know what they look like. I think one is calles Kulfa.

Even white-radish (mooli) greens are used to make delicious stir-fries and even stuffed paratha; http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=12986

Not strictly a sag, but fresh cauliflower greens and stalk also make a lovely Indian Bhaji http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=10467.

Mamta

please can you tell me how to make it.thanks

Hello gerry

I am not sure which tupe of saag bhaji you are looking for, here are a few to look at;

Spinach Bhaji with Gram Flour

Spinach Saag

Spinach Bhaji.

Otherwise, type spinach or saag in the search window and see what is on tghis site already.

Mamta

Just stumbled into this one!

1. In my humble way, I too use raw potatoes.

2. Also, use Rainbow Chard, because that's what we always have.

3. BUT - I just cannot believe that anyone can say that the stems are poo.

a. With Chard, they are 9/10ths of the veg, & it would be criminal not to use them.

b. I find that the stems have 90% of the flavour!! Cut up & sauteed 2 min or so before the leaf.

= Tim

We've tried other greens using Mamta's saag bahji recipe. Shredded Curly Kale and Cavalo Nero we particularly liked. They stayed a bit crunchier than does spinach.

In fiji 'baji' means, virtually, any green-leafy cooked vegetable, eaten as a food. It seems that it does not include mint leaf; coriander; salad leafy greens; curry leaf, etc. Abundantly found in the market places and shops there are bunches of a leafy green vegetable, which I perceive to be Amaranthus (perhaps A. viridus or A. dubius, which seems to be called, 'cheeria', or 'churoya' baji. (A close relative, equally tasty and equally nutritious, would qualify in Fiji as a 'baji', but I have never seen it there. That is what is, it seems, referred to as 'Bathua'or 'Bathuwa' in Hindi in Hindi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenopodium_album -- citation given.]. The plant is a Chenopodium (C. album). Both of these wonderful vegetables are, unfortunately, treated as 'weeds' in much of the western world, though awareness of their value is on the rise.

Thank you for the site. It's very good to be able to learn and share re all this information.

Thanks for that, Janine: most interesting.

I guess that 'baji' or 'bhaji' in Fijian is a loanword from Hindi, since Fijian is a Malayo-Polynesian language, not an Indo-European language.

It's interesting what people consider to be 'weeds', and what people consider to be fit only for animals: it took Parmentier to persuade the French that potatoes were fit for human consumption! On this topic, and other food-related topics, I recommend the amusing foodie novel by John Lanchester 'The Debt to Pleasure' (set in France).

Phil

Similarly I get frustrated when seeing swedes and turnips being used as cattle fodder. People just mowing up dandelion leaves rather than putting them in a salad or hacking down stinging nettles rather than making a tasty soup!

An African colleague once said: 'You eat corn on the cob' Weird! For us, that's only cattle feed!'

Bhaji or sabji in Hindi generally mean 'a vegetable'. In some parts of India, green leafly vegetables are called bhaji, but they are more often called Saags. India is a big country and it is very difficult to generalise names of things.

Another example of this is sitaphal/shareefa. In my family, it is a custard apple but some others call a pumpin sitaphal, a totally different thing altgether. I tend to use north Indian names, which are the ones usually given in my Hindi to English dictionary.

Thanks for that, Mamta. So that's what the 'saag' in 'saag aloo' means. And it's 'bhaji', not 'baji'?

But 'garam masala', not 'gharam masala'?

'dhania', not 'dania'? (coriander seeds).

Phil

in East London markets, saag is a large green leafy vegetable, much like mustard greens or turnip tops. Palak is not often used to describe spinach (often misspelt!)

Sabzi, (from which I think the Hindi word is derived) is Persian, meaning herbs

Bhaji (various spellings) I thought was a dish made from vegetables, usually (greens and chillies) rather than the vegetables themselves, but regional differences may apply!

Hello Phil

In north India, saag is a name for many leafy vegetables like mustard greens, spinach, amaranth (chaulaii or chowlai-many spellings), Bengal gram greens, kulfa (not sure of Hindi name, leaves are thicker, bathua (lambs quarter or chinopodium album) etc. etc. The spelling and pronunciations depend upon which part of India the translator comes from. For example, a Bengali will perhaps all a saag ?shaak or shaag?. The confusion is avoided by pre-fixing the word saag with the vegetable's proper name, for example, sarson ka saag? or kulfa ka saag or Soa saag (dill).

The correct Hindi word is Bhaji, according to dictionary, but many people call it baji, especially speaker of Indian languages other than Hindi.

The word garam means hot, but some will pronounce it as Gharam or even gram, especially if they have not studied Hindi. Punjabi language has many Hindi words hat have been bastardised from Hindi.

It is indeed Dhania, some people just loose the sound of ?h?. Many Hindi sounds do not exist in English, so they also get altered.

Hello Lapis

Could this be amaranth leaves that you are seeing, a popular saag amongst Bengalis? May be Palak has some other name in Bengali. I shouldn?t worry about spellings. Many Bengali shop keepers and chefs spell as they pronounce them.

There are many words in modern Hindi, and indeed Indian dishes, which have their origins in Persian or Arabic.

Bhaji is also used to describe cooked vegetable dishes. On this site, I have used it for a simple reason, which is that most people here are familiar with it, having eaten at Bengali-Indian restaurants.

In India, a vegetable dish will be simply called by its name. For example, Aloo-methi will be just that, not aloo methi bhaji. Cooked okra will be just bhindi or sookhi (dry-without gravy) bhindi and so on.

To keep things simple, use whatever name and spellings you are familiar with, unless you are planning to learn many regional accents of Hindi or several Indian languages.

Thanks for that, Mamta. I'm putting new data from Hindi in the second edition of one of my textbooks, so I'll mention you in the acknowledgements.

Phil

Thank you, but you don't have to do that Phil. Most of what I say is available on the internet somewhere, I sure.

What book are you writing?

Bhaji is used to describe a whole host of very different dishes. Deep fried, dry fried, even veg. curry in a bun! (pav/pau bhaji).

You are right, Pav Bhaji is very popular around Mumbai. Pav=bread (originates from Portuguese) and bhaji is one of many vegetable dishes served inside the bread bun.

http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13335 This recipe is from nephew' wife Ritika.

Is it in season in Mumbai?

Phil,

Do tell us more about your books, I'd love to hear more.

Kavey

Kavey

My books are academic, and so not very accessible. The ones that sell most are my two university textbooks (the first is called 'Phonology', the second is called 'English Phonetics and Phonology'). I think you'd find them rather dry, but I'm working on a comic novel and a lightweight book called 'Tales From The Languedoc'. I suspect that I won't find a publisher for either of them, but we'll see.

Phil

Aah, language geekery! :) I have a friend who would enjoy those!

Look fwd to the new projects - if you cannot find a publisher, look into self-publishing. It's no longer the preserve of vanity press publishers!

Perhaps you're right, Kavey, but I still think of my novelist friend in Edinburgh as doing vanity publishing. My thinking on this is perhaps outmoded.

I think that my comic novel would make a good Hugh Grant film, but that's probably wishful thinking!

Phil

Self-publishing definitely used to be the preserve of vanity press but it's definitely changed today.

The age of internet purchasing is well established and people are more and more used to buying their products not just from the big names but directly from individuals or smaller businesses.

Plus, traditional publishing has become far more conversative - publishers are so much more reluctant than they once were to take a punt on unknowns - instead they push for more material from established authors or look to create books with celebrities so that the celebrity status can be used to market the book and then there are TV show tie ins.

Unknowns have it much harder getting published by the big houses now.

So it's become more common to go down the self-publishing route, it's a good way of getting one's material out there, though it does require a dedication to marketing and promoting sales yourself, which is not easy.

In some cases, especially for niche subjects, such books can do well!

Thanks, Kavey. I've been, perhaps, over-dismissive of my novelist friend in Edinburgh, thinking of him as a bit of a failure because he couldn't find a 'proper' publisher.

I don't fancy doing mu own marketing, but it's not as if I'd be relying on my popular books to make a living.

Phil

You never know Phil, you may sell a million copies and we may all get you to autograph opur copies. You are a published author, though in a different field. That knowledge will certainly help and your present publishers will have contacts, no?

Thanks for the encouragement, Mamta. Four of my publishers are strictly academic (e.g. Cambridge University Press), but I see that two of them (Macmillan and Blackwell) publish fiction. The Macmillan New Writing scheme looks really hard to get published in, but at least it exists. We'll see.

Phil

Hi Phil,

Bhaji in hindi means vegetable cooked or uncooked.

In South India, Bhajji (Bhajia/Pakora in north india) are deep fried spicy snack item made with gramflour. So the indian restaurant that you are mentioning might be probably mentioning bhajji as bhaji and hence the confusion.

and don't forget all the bhajis (also bhujia) like bhindi bhaji, sauted dishes of vegetables, usually quite dry.