Dear Mamta,

I tried the sarson ka saag recipe, and although it was quite nice, my family found it a little on the "boring" side. Its taste is quite bland. is that how its meant to be?

Also tried a makki ka roti recipe, but it would not roll out like chappaties. it just fell to bits and so i had to flatten it with my hand. but the taste was not brilliant.

liza

It could be you are using older spices that have lost their flavour ? I think the last thing any Indian dish is meant to be is bland.

Steve

Hello Liza

You have to make the corn-meal dough with boiling water, allow it to cool and then knead. If that doesn't work for you, you can a little wheat flour. Also, it is easier if you roll roties between two layers of an opened sandwich bag, as given in instructions. It is quite friable, specially if dough is made with cold water. The roti has to be lifted/turned over with a wide spatula. very gently.

Sarson ka saag should not be bland. Did you add spinach leaves, if not fenigreek leaves too? Also, did you give it a good 'temperin' as instructed?

If you have any left over, adjust the spices according to taste, i.e. add more salt, give another tarka.

Only other explaination I can think of is that the leaves were not fresh. I love this saag, so cant understand why it did not come out well.

Mamta

What should the final consistency be - that of thick pouring cream? Or dryer?

I made it with 3 parts saag to 2 parts spinach leaves. If adding fenugreek, what should the ratio be roughly? Becuase i know that fenugreek can be quite bitter.

BTW I grew a crop of fenugreek leaves out of seeds and approx 1 month later I harvested it and we had a lovely methi bhaji! Thanks Mamta = I think i will now do that every year!

Liza

Hi Liza

Growing methi is easy. Out of season, you can add dry methi leaves, but only about 1 heaped tablespoon full of sry leaves. For fresh leaves, roughly 1/4th-1/5th parts methi and spinach leaves to 1 part of mustard leaves.

For srying, I buy bunches of leaves every summer, wash and remove stalks and then dry them on a newspaper, in my conservatory. These leaves are mush cleaner, fresher. In fact I bought 12 bundles yesterday, they are now washed and ready to de-stalk.

Mustard Leaves Sag, Curry

Mustard Leaves (Greens) and Turnip Sag

Mamta