Mouri Phoron Diye Shaag – Sauteed Spinach in a Tomato Fennel Sauce
The summer project this year in our household is our little edible garden. This is the first time, we have invested a little time to pay attention to our little backyard. One of the first returns on investment is greens -lots of spinach to be exact. I personally love spinach so my husband planted tons of it. The result of the fruits of his labor is this Sautéed Spinach in a Tomato Fennel Sauce. Now this dish can be made with any combination of greens. I sometimes use spinach and sometimes kale and spinach. And then at other times an assortment of all the greens that I can find. You can see how I use beet greens, and this is very different from the North Indian way to cook greens.
Spinach and or mixed greens translate to shaag in Bengali. Shaag is a simple everyday item found along side, vivid yellow lentils on the Bengali platter. The lunch plate that I remember from childhood was often a bell metal one (at least in my grandmother’s house). It contained a small mound of steaming white rice, topped with a small amount of clarified butter or ghee. Alongside the rice were small amounts of greens and lentils. This was usually the beginning of the meal, following by meat or fish dishes.
It is the simple beginnings that remain vivid in my very nostalgic mind. Partly because it is these simple things that tend to be unavailable anywhere else. Over time the number of people who feed and satiate me with this simple fare have dwindled. As for that bell metal plate, it seems to have faded from the vestiges of everyday eating in Kolkata.
Anyhow, now with all the spinach in my life, I tried something different this time with the spinach. I actually cooked this in a fairly thick sauce. I first made the sauce and then folded the spinach into the base. The results were interesting. The most pronounced flavor here is the fennel, this recipe is pretty much a typical rendition of any kind of a Bengali stir fry. The exception is the use of tomatoes which add a new dimension of summer flavors to this dish. It also allows me to get by with calling this a vegetarian entrée. This is different from a side dish, which just does not happen on a weeknight for me.
A soft lightly seasoned spinach dish in the tradition of Bengali style stir fries.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 small red onion, cut into a coarse dice
- 2 dried red chilies
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 large tomato cut into a dice
- 2 green chilies, finely chopped (optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups of washed fresh spinach leaves or a combination of spinach and kale
Instructions
- Heat the oil and add in the fennel and cumin seeds and wait for them to sizzle.
- Into this mixture add in the red onion, ginger, garlic and mix well. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft and just beginning to turn golden.
- Add in the tomato, cinnamon and the chilies (if using) and salt and cook this mixture for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. At this point, you should have a fairly smooth and dry gravy, with the onions soft and melted into thick sauce
- Fold in the spinach leaves and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the spinach is just cooked through. The spinach should absorb the sauce into a thick soft mixture.