24 November, 2019

SARSON KA SAAG & MAKKI KI ROTI

Sarson da saag te makki di roti – as they call this in Punjabi… is a very classic, popular, delicious winter special dish you can find all over Punjab, Delhi – N C R during winter season. The word sarson translates to mustard leaves/sasive soppu and the word makki ka atta translates to maize flour/musukina jolada hittu.

Actually this saag is made using greens like mustard, bathua (chenopodium album), Spinach/palak mainly. But we can also put radish leaves into it.

Though we are not much familiar with mustard greens in south India, I make this saag since long time. Actually the mustard greens has a very strong smell, so we can not eat it more, so what I do is I put little more amount of palak/spinach leaves than mustard leaves and I also put some amount of mint leaves along with radish and bathua leaves, so that the aroma and flavor are balanced and we do like it in this particular way.

Ingredients : measuring cup used – 250 ml , serves 3 to 4

Sarson/mustard greens – 1 cup (tightly packed)
Spinach/Palak – 1&1/2 cup
Mint leaves – 1/4 cup
Radish leaves – 1/2 cup
Bathua/chenopodium album – 1/2 cup
Water – 1 cup
Maize flour/makai ka atta – 2 to 3 tbsp

Others :

Ghee – 1/2 tbsp
Finely chopped onion – 1/2 cup
Green chili – 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder (less hot) – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 tbsp (julienne)
Salt to taste

PROCEDURE :

Rinse and wash well all the greens and chop them
Boil the water in a cooker, put all the greens and cook until 1 whistle, once cooled, strain all the water (reserve the water/stock for later use) and grind the cooked greens into a coarse paste and set aside

Heat ghee in a pan, put green chili & onion and saute until light brown, add in required salt, turmeric powder and red chili powder and combine everything well once and then put in the ground greens paste and again add salt as needed

Now stir in the maize flour in the reserved water/stock and pour it on the mixture in the pan and combine everything well, let it boil well until the mixture becomes thick, then add in the ginger julienne, combine once and remove from the heat