food talk
Palak for your palate
The light and tasty palakwale
chaawal is a one-dish meal fit for a prince and pauper alike in
summers
Pushpesh Pant

Pushpesh Pant
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Remember
how Popeye used to devour the green stuff by cans full and acquire
superhuman strength to vanquish the baddies in a blink or with a wink
at Sweet Pea? Who doesn’t know that spinach, loaded with iron and
other nutrients, is good, nay great, for us?
It’s only those who
have to watch their blood pressure or have a problem with kidneys are
advised to go slow with it. Fortunately, we have never had a problem
with palak — it was served at home in the hills in myriad
forms — thick broth-like kaapha, tempered with whole red
chillies fried in ghee or as tinariya-tapkiya where the
individual leaves preserved their identity and that tasted divine with
steamed rice and ghee.
The
passage of time brought us in contact with many fancy dishes — green
pasta, coloured and flavoured with spinach, and eggs Neapolitan,
served on a mossy emerald bed, not to forget the desi fare like
saag gosht. We do enjoy the other saag (sarson) and
relish with gusto the methi greens but none can replace the
palak preference on our plate. We take equal pleasure in a spinach
quiche and palakwali dal.
A large leaf offered as
a bhaja, peeping through a thin batter veil, is irresistible.
We continue to remember gratefully our friend Sudhir Tandon of TV, who
introduced us to the joys of palak-laced paneerwale chawal chhole in
Hauz Kazi some years back. We felt that delectable as the dish was, it
skimped on palak.
The present recipe seeks
to do justice to palak and dispenses with chhole and paneer to lighten
the one-dish meal fit for prince and pauper alike in summers.
Palakwale
chaawal
Ingredients
Palak (washed
and chopped) 1 kg
Green chillies
(deseeded) two
Ginger-garlic
paste 1 tsp
Bay leaf one
Laung 2 cloves
Brown cardamom
two
Cinnamon piece 1
inch
Ghee 2 tbs
A cup of rice
(washed and soaked for half an hour then drained)
A small sprig of
fresh mint leaves
Salt to taste
Method
Puree the palak
leaves, green chillies and mint leaves in a mixer. Keep aside.
Heat ghee in a thick-bottomed pan. Put the bay leaf and other
whole spices. Reduce heat. Wait till these change colour. Add
the garlic ginger paste. Stir-fry for a minute. Then pour in
the palak puree and salt. Continue to cook for another minute.
Add the rice. Carefully stir to mix, ensuring that the rice
grains don’t break. Cover on cook on a low flame till the
moisture is absorbed and rice is done. Sprinkle a little
water, if necessary. Enjoy with curds and pickle. |
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