Spinach Curry, uncharred

You can read about my misadventures with this recipe last night here, on the comments section of Suze's blog. But at the request of Jennifer, I'm gonna post the recipe. She and Jamethan love spinach.

Here's a note for all indian recipes I'm gonna post on this blog. They almost always call for ginger and garlic, so Daniel and I have a jar of "Ginger Garlic Paste" in the fridge, and we usually use an equivalent amount of it, instead of actually mincing the ginger and garlic.

Oh, and on the same token, since most indian recipes we cook require cooking oil, we keep ours in the kind of a bottle you'd use to take mustard/ketchup to a picnic, and just squirt it around the pan. We keep a bottle of Canola and POO or EVOO right by the stove.

My adjustments to the original recipe, found randomly online, are in blue. (As if you couldn't figure that out.)

Ingredients:

1/2 bag washed and ready to eat Spinach......I used a whole bag of frozen
6 big garlic pods.......I used about one garlic pod
1/2 inch ginger
4 TBS tomato puree......I used one plump plumb tomato, a "roma", I think, and chopped it
2 tsp Cumin powder
1 tsp Chilli powder.........most people will want to use less than that
1/2 tsp Garam Masala.......this is basically just a spice mixture, and can be bought or made
1 pinch of Asafoetida
1 pinch Cumin seeds
Salt to taste............I used about a tsp
4 TBS oil............you really just need a little

Method:

1. Chop the spinach. (Obviously, if you use frozen, you can ommit this step.)
2. Grate garlic and ginger. (Same goes here with ginger garlic paste.)
3. Heat oil in a skillet on Medium heat. Add Asafoetida and Cumin seeds.
4. When the seeds start to pop ("when it sputters"), add the ginger and garlic.
5. When light brown (less than a minute), add the tomato.
6. When mushy, ("Let fry.") add cumin powder and chili powder. Mix.
7. Add spinach.
8. "When the water from the spinach dries up and the spinach becomes soft", (Fry it til it no longer smells like spinach, maybe 15 or 20 minutes), put the salt and garam masala.
9. Serve hot with roti or rice. (I have no idea what roti is. I guess I could look it up. We used rice.)

Since it just makes about three handfulls of spinach curry, it doesn't work the way americans usually eat entrees. You're not just gonna plop a big glop on your plate and eat it with a fork. It's gotta be mixed with rice to stretch it. Of course, you can still eat it with a fork, and of course you can make more than this and plop it in a big glob if you want to.