Sarson aur Palak ka Saag (Mustard Green and Spinach Curry)

This was a nice, easy vegetable curry to toss together to round out our dinner for the night. We served it with leftover dal, vindaloo, and some rice and naan.

This wasn't a spectacular curry. But it was perfectly serviceable. And gave us a nice bit of green on our plates.

Sarson aur Palak ka Saag

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 8-9 cloves garlic
• 4 fresh green Thai, serrano, finger chilies
• 2-3 Tbsp. fresh ginger (or ginger paste)
• 2 Tbsp. ghee (or oil for a vegan option)
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 450g mustard greens, chopped
• 450g spinach, chopped
• 1 small (400mL) can diced tomato
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. Punjabi garam masala

Directions

1. Place the garlic, chilies, and ginger in a food processor and pulse to mince (or mince by hand).
2. Heat the ghee over medium heat.
3. Add the cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
4. Add the garlic mixture and stir-fry for a minute or two.
5. Add the greens a handfull at a time, cooking until wilted between each addition.
6. Add the tomatoes and salt and cook until heated through (~5 minutes).
7. Stir in the garam masala and cook for another minute or two.
8. If desired use an immersion blender to purée or process in batches in a jar blender.

Despite the name, I was somehow expecting this soup to be more of a red lentil soup with a bit of spinach in than the other way around. It's not unpleasant this way, just not what I was expecting.

Sadly, the Kidlet wasn't a fan of this one. Honestly, I didn't love it either. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. And when there are so many great recipes out there (especially in 660 Curries), I'm not generally too interested in revisiting the mediocre ones. On the bright side, it is chock full of leafy greens and legumes and very low in fat! So, it's healthy (and pleasantly spicy), just not the overwhelming success that so many of the other curries we've tried have been.

Spinach Soup with Red Lentils

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split brown lentils (masoor dal/Egyptian lentils/red lentils)
• 3-4 c. water
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 tsp. coriander seeds
• 3-6 fresh green Thai, finger, or serrano chilies
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 680g fresh spinach¹, well-rinsed
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. balti masala

Directions

1. Rinse the lentils very well, then add 3 c. of the water and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 18-20 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface.
3. Meanwhile, pulvarize the cumin, coriander, and chilies in a molcajete (or finely mince the chilies and grind the spices in a spice grinder and then mix them together).
4. Heat the oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add the onion and garlic and stir-fry for 5-10 minutes.
6. Add the chile-spice blend and cook for another minute or two.
7. Add the spinach a handful or two at a time, stirring until wilted (a minute or so per batch).
8. Add the cooked lentils along with any residual cooking water.
9. Stir in up to 1 c. of additional water (depending on how thick or thin you like your soup).
10. Use and immersion blender or a food processor to gently pulse the soup. Leave it slightly chunky with some texutre; don't try to purée it smooth.
11. Stir in the salt and balti masala and simmer, stirring occasionally, for ~5 minutes.

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¹ Or use a mix of greens of your choice. Iyer suggests using up to 50% kale, mustard greens, collard greens, or radish greens in place of some of the spinach. I used a mixture of spinach and green kale for my soup, bu I think that tossing a little methi (fenugreek leaves) in would also be nice. ^Back

Haam Choy Chow Gai (Chicken with Pickled Mustard Greens)

I always thought I didn't really care for Cantonese cuisine. Give me Sichuan! Give me Hakka! Give me something with chilies and spices and big, bold flavours! My perception of Cantonese cooking has always been that it tends to involve a lot of steaming and very mild, carefully balanced flavours. Nothing should be fried, nothing should be crispy, nothing should be too strongly flavoured. Ideally things should be soft and/or gelatinous. And that just... never really appealed to me. But I've been trying a few more Cantonese dishes lately, and I've actually really enjoyed them!

I really liked this mustard green dish. Even if it was a bit too salty. That's what I get for not reading the full recipe preamble. They did mention that you should rinse and taste the pickled mustard greens if you were using store-bought rather than making your own:

"If you use store-bought haam choy, you will want to give it a good rinse and also taste it because it is much saltier than homemade."

I missed that memo though and just dumped them straight into the wok. Whoops!

It was still tasty even with that small glitch. But it definitely would've been even better without the overpowering saltiness.

I ended up using an adorable vegetarian chicken as the "meat" component of this recipe. Feel free to use actual chicken if you have it (or tofu or seitan). I had vegetarian chicken, so that's what I used.

The author also notes that this dish is often made with bone-in chicken that has been chopped into bite-sized pieces. The bones add extra flavour and richness, but some people may not enjoy having to eat around the bones. The recipe is written for boneless chicken, but feel free to experiment with bone-in if you have a whole bird and a cleaver!

I had a bit of trouble finding the Chinese/Hanzi/汉字 name for this dish. The original recipe only gave the transliteration of the Cantonese name + the English name. Luckily I was able to able to ask for some help with that on a language-learners' Discord server. So, based on that, it looks like the dish is called 咸菜炒鸡.
Hanzi/汉字: 咸菜炒鸡
Pinyin/拼音: xiáncài chǎo jī
Transliteration of Cantonese: haam choy chow gai
English/英文: fried chicken with pickled vegetables/mustard greens

Haam Choy Chow Gai

From Woks of Life

Ingredients

Chicken

• 450g boneless skinless chicken thighs and/or breasts, cut into 3cm pieces
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Everything Else

• 1/2 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. water
• 3 Tbsp. oil, divided
• 2 slices ginger (~8g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 225g pickled mustard greens, cut into 1cm by 2cm pieces), rinsed if using store-bought
• 3 cloves garlic (~20g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 1 green onion, cut into 3cm pieces, smashed w/ cleaver, green and white parts separated
• 1-3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)

Directions

1. Combine chicken, water, soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil, and white pepper. Mix well, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and white pepper and set aside.
3. Combine the cornstarch (for the "everything else") with the water to make a slurry and set aside.
4. After 30 minutes, add the cornstarch to the chicken and mix well.
5. Heat wok over medium-high heat.
6. Drizzle in 2 Tbsp. of the oil and swirl to coat.
7. Add the ginger and stir-fry for 15-30 seconds.
8. Add the pickled mustard greens and stir-fry for a minute or so.
9. Add the garlic, white parts of the green onion, and chilies and stir-fry for 30-60 seconds.
10. Move the contents of the wok over to the sides to create a clear spot in the middle.
11. Turn the heat up to the highest setting and add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil to the clear spot in the centre.
12. Add the chicken in a single layer and sear for 1 minute on each side.
13. Toss everything together so it doesn't burn.
14. Drizzle the 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine) down the sides of the wok and stir-fry for another 10-15 seconds.
15. Add the sauce, push everything into the centre of the wok, and reduce heat to low.
16. Cover and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
17. After a few minutes, sauce should be significantly reduced. Add more liquid or more cooking time (uncovered) as needed to achieve the desired consistency.
18. Increase heat to medium and add the green parts of the green onion.
19. Stir the cornstarch slurry to make sure it hasn't settled and add it as well.
20. Cook for another 30-60 seconds.
21. Served with rice.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

I believe this should be vegan too as long as you can be a bit careful about the pre-made components and sugar. Double check your soy sauce, "oyster" sauce, pickled mustard greens, and sugar to make sure they're vegan and you should be good to go!

Ingredients

Protein

• 450g extra-delicious tofu, seitan, or vegetarian chicken, cut into 2cm pieces
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. oil
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Everything Else

• 1/2 c. vegetable stock
• 1 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 1 tsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 2 tsp. water
• 3 Tbsp. oil, divided
• 2 slices ginger (~8g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 225g pickled mustard greens, cut into 1cm by 2cm pieces), rinsed if using store-bought
• 3 cloves garlic (~20g total), smashed w/ cleaver
• 1 green onion, cut into 3cm pieces, smashed w/ cleaver, green and white parts separated
• 1-3 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)

酸菜炖粉条 (Braised Vermicelli with Pickled Cabbage)

I haven't been very good at keep up with the blog the last few months. I'm way behind on my recipe write-ups. It's going to take me a while to catch up, but here's what I've got for today: 酸菜炖粉条 (suāncài dùn fěntiáo), which is cabbage and vermicelli stew (or "braised vermicelli with pickled cabbage" if you're going for a more literal translation). It's a popular winter dish in northern China, often prepared with home-made pickled cabbage. My cabbage was not home-made. In fact, the whole soup base came from a kit that I found at the Asian grocery store. I'm sure it would've been even better had made it myself, but the kit was still really nice. We did it as a hotpot and tossed in various veggies and proteins to cook at the table.

Before making the soup kit, I looked around online for recipes to make the dish from scratch. And the Woks of Life came through for me with a great home-made recipe. I used their recipe to adjust how I prepared the kit a bit, including mixing up the delicious dipping sauce to serve along with it. And now I know what to do if I want to make it without the kit in the future. It's actually quite simple to put together.

The folks at the Woks of Life provide several different options for the sour cabbage component of this stew. The best option, if you can find it, is pickled nappa cabbage. If you can't find that, they recommend pickled mustard greens as the next best thing. They tend to be a bit easier to find, but their texture isn't ideal for this dish. And, as a last resort, if you can't find either of the others, you can use sauerkraut. It has a different flavour than the others, but it is sour and it's made of cabbage, so it'll do in a pinch.

We made our stew with mung bean glass noodles/vermicelli, but sweet potato glass noodles are actually recommended. Unfortunately I didn't have any of those and I did have a huge surpluss of bean noodles, so I used what I had. I really liked it with the bean noodles. Sure, they absorbed a lot of the broth and made it less soupy, but I was okay with that.

One final note: The authors of the Woks of Life blog note that this stew is almost always served with rice. I'm sure it would be tasty that way, but we chose to omit the rice and just have our brothy noodles and veggies. Follow your heart!

Cabbage and Vermicelli Stew

From The Woks of Life

Ingredients

Pork Preparation

• 1L water
• 450g pork belly or 900g meaty ribs
• 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine
• 4 slices fresh ginger (~2cm by 4cm)
• 2 scallions/green onions
• 1 tsp. Sichuan peppercorns¹
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Dipping Sauce

• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp. sugar
• chili oil, to taste (optional)

Soup

• 450g pickled cabbage
• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 3 slices ginger (~2cm by 4cm), julienned
• 2 sallions/green onions, white parts julienned, green parts chopped
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 c. chicken stock (optional)
• 90g glass noodles
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper, ground

Optional Extras

• carrot, chopped
• zucchini, chopped
• tofu puffs
• kale, chopped
• mushrooms, sliced
• rice, cooked

Directions

Pork Preparation

1. Combine water, pork, wine, ginger, scallions, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, and salt in a pot, cover, and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
3. If using pork belly: Reserving the broth, remove the belly from the pot and set it aside to cool.
   If using ribs: Turn the heat off, but leave the ribs in the broth to cook some more while you prepare everything else.

Dipping Sauce

1. Combine all sauce ingredients and set aside.

Soup

1. Slice the pickled cabbage into 5 or 6mm pieces and place it in a metal bowl with fresh water.
2. Stir the cabbage around a bit, then drain it and squeeze well to remove as much residual liquid as possible. Set aside.
3. Once the pork is no longer hot, cut it into 5 or 6mm slices. Set aside.
4. In a heavy pot (something that retains heat well), heat the oil over medium heat.
5. Add the ginger, white parts of the scallions, and pickled cabbage and stir-fry for 5-7 minutes.
6. Strain the pork broth and add it to the pot.
7. Stir in the oyster sauce and chicken stock (if using).
8. Add the sliced pork and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.
9. Add the glass noodles and cook according to package directions.
10. Add the white pepper and green parts of scallions.

Serving

1. This can be served as a hotpot. Make sure the broth is boiling and then toss in any veggies or proteins you'd like. Once everything is heated through/cooked to desired doneness, you can fish it out and eat it with the dipping sauce, rice, and noodles.
2. Or serve it without any extra inclusions. Make sure it's piping hot and give everyone dipping sauce for the pork and rice.

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¹ It would normally be important to make sure you picked all the seeds out of the Sichuan peppercorns and only used the husks. However, since the broth is strained before adding it to the final dish, any seeds (or husks) will get filtered out so there's no need to worry about it in this case. ^Back

Sarson da Saag (Mustard Green Curry)

We got some fresh and very pungent mustard greens from Psyche and were very excited to try them in a curry. I picked this simple mustard and ghee curry because I wanted something that would really let the greens shine. Unfortunately, this particular variety seems to become extremely bitter when cooked. I think, in future, I'll enjoy those greens fresh and save the curry recipes for the milder store-bought greens.

Sarson da Saag

From 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-2 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 1-2 fresh green Thai chilies
• 450g mustard greens, rinsed and chopped
• 2 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 2 Tbsp. cornmeal
• juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the cumin seeds and sizzle for 10-15 seconds.
3. Immediately add garlic, dried chilies, and fresh chilies and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the mustard greens a handful at a time and cook until wilted.
5. Continue cooking, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 8-10 minutes.
6. Add water and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for ~10 minutes.
8. Transfer the curry to a blender and blend until smooth.
9. Return the blended mixture to the pan and add the ghee and cornmeal.
10. Cook, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, for ~15 more minutes.
11. Stir in lime juice and serve immediately.
12. Top each portion with additional ghee if desired.

Stir-Fried Mustard Greens (雪里红)

I love mustard greens, so when I saw this mustard green stir-fry recipe, I was all over it! I normally associate them with curries and Indian cooking, but I know they get used in lots of other cuisines as well. Outside of curries, I'm used to seeing them pickled. This was a new preparation for me, but I figured it was a pretty safe bet: stir-frying + mustard greens + lots of garlic and some chilies? Yeah, that sounds right up my alley!

Stir-Fried Mustard Greens (雪里红 xuělǐ hóng)

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. oil
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2-4 dried Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies, deseeded and coarsely chopped
• 550g fresh mustard greens (雪里红 or similar), chopped into 1cm pieces
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. chicken or vegetable bouillon powder

Directions

1. Heat wok over medium heat.
2. Add oil and swirl to coat wok.
3. Add garlic and chilies and cook for ~1 minute.
4. Add mustard greens, sugar, sesame oil, and bouillon powder and increase heat to maximum.
5. Cover and cook for 30-45 seconds.
6. Uncover, stir, and remove from heat.
7. Serve immediately.

Sarson "Murghi" Kebab (Grilled "Chicken" with Mustard Greens Sauce)

This recipe shows up in the appetizer section of 660 Curries, although Iyer notes that you can easily make it into a main course by doubling the chicken. (No need to double anything else.) I decided to try for a vegetarian main course and substituted tofu for the chicken. I followed the same procedure I normally use for Extra Delicious Tofu but switched up the seasonings a bit to try to bump up the umami and get it to look and taste even more like chicken. I'm quite happy with the results!

Sarson "Murghi" Kebab

Adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

"Chicken"

• 2 (350g) packages extra firm tofu
• 6 dried black mushrooms
• 1/2 c. boiling water
• 2 Tbsp. mushroom ketchup
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp. tomato paste
• 1 tsp. ketchup
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1/8 tsp. paprika
• 10-20 grinds black pepper
• 1 tsp. nutritional yeast¹ (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. Scallion Oil
• 1 Tbsp. chickpea flour (besan)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch

Sauce

• 200-250g mustard greens
• 3 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. dill seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. Punjabi Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
• 1/2 c. chopped red onion
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 medium-sized tomato, chopped

Directions

"Chicken"

1. Freeze the tofu.
2. Thaw and drain the tofu.
3. Cut into four thin slabs. (One vertical cut, then slice each brick in half horizontally.)
4. Wrap in tea towels and press for at least half an hour.
5. Cut into bite-sized pieces and freeze.
6. Meanwhile, pour the boiling water over the mushrooms and set aside.
7. Thaw the tofu again, place on a tea towel, and press out as much additional moisture as possible. (There shouldn't be much at this point.)
8. In a small bowl, combine mushroom ketchup, soy sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, garlic, paprika, and pepper.
9. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking water.
10. Add 3 Tbsp. of the soaking water to the ketchup-soy mixture.
11. Trim the stems off the mushrooms and discard. Coarsely chop the caps and set aside.
12. Pour the ketchup-soy mixture over the tofu and toss to coat.
13. Add nutritional yeast (if using) and toss again.
14. Drizzle scallion oil over the seasoned tofu and toss to coat.
15. Sprinkle with chickpea flour and toss.
16. Sprinkle with cornstarch and toss.
17. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet.
18. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20-30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Sauce

1. If you have a food processor, use it to finely mince the mustard greens. (You will likely need to work in batches.) Otherwise, simply chop the mustard greens and finely as you can.
2. Stir in 1 Tbsp. of the oil.
3. Add ginger paste, garlic paste, ground dill seeds, salt, garam masala, and cayenne and mix well.
4. Heat remaining 2 Tbsp. oil over medium-high heat.
5. Add onion and cook until lightly browned (2-3 minutes).
6. Add mustard greens and reserved mushrooms (from preparing the "chicken") and reduce heat to medium-low.
7. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for ~10 minutes.
8. Add 1/2 c. water and the chopped tomato and bring to a boil.
9. For a smooth sauce, either transfer to a blender jar or use an immersion/stick blender to purée the mixture at this point. If you prefer a chunky sauce, you may skip this step.
10. Pour the sauce over the "chicken" and serve.

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Variants

Sarson Murghi Kebab (with actual chicken)

Ingredients

• bamboo or metal skewers
• 200-250g mustard greens
• 3 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 2 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 tsp. dill seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. Punjabi Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
• 900g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1" strips (or 450g if dish is to be an appetizer)
• 1/2 c. chopped red onion
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 medium-sized tomato, chopped

Directions

1. If using bamboo skewers, place them in a bowl of water to soak for at least an hour or two.
2. Prepare sauce through to the end of step 3 as above.
3. Add chicken strips to the sauce and stir to coat.
4. Cover and chill for at least half an hour, but not longer than six hours.
5. Preheat grill or broiler to high.
6. Remove chicken strips from sauce and thread onto skewers in a zigzag manner.
7. Cook the sauce as above. (Steps 4-9) There will, of course, be no mushrooms to add in this version.
8. If you are grilling the chicken, lightly grease the grill and cook (with the lid closed), turning occasionally, for ~8 minutes. If you're using the broiler, position rack so that top of chicken is 5-7cm (2-3") below the element. Lightly grease rack of broiler pan and broil chicken, turning occasionally, for ~8 minutes.
9. Remove chicken from skewers.
10. Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

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¹ I had intended to add a bit of nooch to my tofu. I was sure I had some in the cupboard. But, when I went to get it, it wasn't there. So I ended up just going ahead without the yeast. Still plenty tasty! ^Back

Saag Paneer

Often described as a spinach and cheese curry, the version in 660 Curries uses both spinach and mustard greens; personally, I like mustard greens so much that I think it's even better if you omit the spinach entirely and double the amount of mustard greens.

Ingredients

• canola oil
• 1 medium-size red onion, bisected and thinly sliced
• 6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 4 5x2cm slices of fresh ginger, coarsely chopped (or 64mL of ginger paste if you don't have fresh ginger on hand)
• 10mL Bin bhuna hua garam masala
• 2.5mL ground turmeric
• 32mL tomato paste
• 512g mixed spinach and mustard greens in any proportion you like, coarsely chopped
• 5mL coarse salt
• 550g paneer, sliced into 2cm cubes and fried
• 128mL whipping (35%) cream
• 2.5mL Punjabi garam masala

Procedure

1. Heat the oil over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, and ginger, and stir-fry until the onion browns, ~10 minutes.
2. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the Bin bhuna hua garam masala; the residual heat will be enough to cook the spices without burning them.
3. Transfer the mixture to a blender jar. Add the tomato paste and 64mL water. Puree, scraping the inside of the jar as needed, to form a smooth paste. Return it to the skillet. Rinse out the blender jar with 192mL of water and add that to the skillet too.
4. Return the skillet to medium heat. Pile some greens into it and cover until they're wilted enough that you can stir them into the sauce and add more. Repeat until all the greens are in.
5. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens break down and merge with the sauce, turning it dark green, 10-15 minutes.
6. Stir in the salt, cream, paneer, and Punjabi garam masala. Simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until the cheese is warmed through, 5-8 minutes.
7. Eat.