Palak / Spinach Curry

I have published some recipes using Spinach / Palak in this blog like Palak Paneer, Dal Palak, etc. In all these recipes Spinach / Palak is infused with another ingredient to make it even better.

Today I am going to share a recipe in which Spinach is the main ingredient and solely cooked with Onion Tomato gravy and very few Indian spices to form what is called Palak Curry and this is quick and easy to prepare.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 2 bunches of Spinach / Palak, cleaned and chopped

(2) 2 large or 3 medium sized Onions, finely chopped

(3) 2 medium sized Tomatoes, finely chopped

(4) 4 Green chillies

(5) 10-12 cloves of Garlic, minced

(6) 3 tablespoons of Cooking oil

(7) 3/4 teaspoon of Mustard seeds

(8) 1 teaspoon of Cumin / Jeera powder

(9) 1 teaspoon of Coriander / Dhaniya powder

(10) 1 teaspoon of Garam Masala powder

(11) One fourth teaspoon of Turmeric powder

(12) Half teaspoon of Kashmiri lal mirch / Red Chilli powder

(13) Salt to taste

All ingredients set together for the preparation of Palak Curry

Cuisine : Indian 

Serves : 4 persons 

Time required : 20 minutes for preparation (Chopping spinach, onions, garlic, tomatoes and green chillies) and 20 minutes for cooking = 40 minutes. 

METHOD :

(1) Rinse the Spinach / Palak thoroughly in running water till all the dirt goes away and cut off the stem part. Then, chop them into medium sized pieces as shown in the image.

(2) Chop the Onions, Tomatoes and slit the green chillies. Mince the garlic cloves.

(3) Heat 3 tablespoons of cooking oil in a kadhai / wok on a low flame. Then add 3/4 teaspoon of Mustard seeds to the warm oil and allow them to splutter. Once the spluttering stops, add Onions and green chillies and sauté till the Onion turns golden brown in colour.

(4) While sautéing Onions, add minced garlic and sauté along with the Onions.

Take cooking oil in a Kadhai / Wok

Add Mustard seeds and allow them to splutter

The mustard seeds finished spluttering

Add chopped Onions

Add green chillies

Mix well and saute

Add minced garlic and keep sauteing till the Onions turn golden brown

Onions have turned golden brown

(5) Add Tomatoes and sauté till they turn soft and mushy.

Sauteing Onion Tomatoes will take 5 minutes in all.

Add chopped Tomatoes

Stir fry till the tomatoes turn soft and mushy

Onion Tomato Garlic mixture is ready

(6) Add all the dry Indian spices like Cumin / Jeera powder, Coriander / Dhaniya powder, Garam Masala powder, Turmeric powder and Kashmiri red chilli powder in measures as given in the ingredients list.

Mix well and stir fry for 2 minutes till the spices get cooked.

Add basic dry Indian spices

Mix well and cook for two minutes

(7) Add chopped spinach to the Onion Tomato garlic mixture and mix well.

Add Spinach / Palak to the Onion Tomato Garlic mixture

Mix well

(8) Add salt as per taste required and mix well. Cook covering the lid of the wok. The Spinach will release water and in that water itself it will get cooked. If needed you may add a little water to cook the spinach.

Add salt and little water if required, cook with lid covered till spinach is cooked

(9) Once the spinach is cooked, turn off the gas stove.

The Spinach / Palak Curry is ready.

Spinach / Palak curry is ready

(10) Transfer the Palak curry into a serving bowl.

(11) Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Egg Curry (Yogurt based curry, without tomatoes)

It is a delicious spicy curry in which eggs are hard boiled and peeled, slightly browned, then added and simmered into a curry prepared from Onions, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, curd and basic Indian dry spices. The eggs and the curry when simmered together forms a good flavour and is enjoyed by those who don’t eat meat but are bored of the daily dal and curry and want a change. It can be included in lunch or in dinner as a curry recipe. 

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 6 Eggs (Boiled and peeled)

(2) 100 gms / 1 bowl of Yogurt (Well beaten, if using thick yogurt then, blend with 4 tablespoon of water)

(3) 2 large sized or 3 medium sized Onions, finely chopped or grated

(4) Cooking oil 

(5) 1 teaspoon of Cumin seeds

(6) Cinnamon sticks / Dalchini - 2 pieces

(7) 2 Bay leaves / Tej patta

(8) 1 teaspoon of Ginger Garlic paste

(9) 1/2 teaspoon of Turmeric powder / Haldi

(10) 1 teaspoon of Cumin / Jeera powder 

(11) 1 tea spoon of Coriander / Dhania powder

(12) 3/4 teaspoon Kashmiri lal mirch powder / Red chilli powder 

(13) 3/4 teaspoon of Garam Masala powder

(14) 1/4 teaspoon of Amchoor powder

(15) Coriander / Cilantro leaves for garnishing

(16) Salt to taste

(17) Water for cooking

PREPARATION :

(1) Put 6 eggs in a large or medium sized pot and fill it with water so that there is atleast an inch of water above the eggs. Add a pinch of salt. Heat the pot on a low heat for 15 minutes to hard boil the eggs. Adding salt while hard boiling eggs will make peeling the eggs easier.

Turn off the flame after the end of 15 minutes. Transfer the eggs into a utensil containing cold water as soon as you take them out of the pot to stop the cooking immediately. Otherwise, the eggs will continue cooking even after you have taken them out of the water. Then peel the eggs and keep aside. 

6 eggs taken in a pot/utensils

Add water and 1 teaspoon of salt

Hard boil the eggs for 15 mins on a low flame

Hard boiled eggs

Hard boiled eggs peeled

(2) Mince the Onions using a food chopper and collect in a bowl as shown in the image.

Minced Onions

METHOD :

(1) Heat oil in a kadhai / wok. Add Bay leaves / Tej patta and Cinnamon sticks / Dalchini to the warm oil. After 30 seconds, add 1 teaspoon of Cumin seeds. When these start spluttering, add chopped Onions and sauté till they turn light brown in colour (4-5 minutes).

(2) Add all the dry spice powders like Turmeric powder, Cumin powder, Coriander powder, Garam masala powder, Kashmiri lal mirch powder, Amchoor powder in measures as given in the ingredients list and fry the Onion mixture for 1 minute. 

(3) Then add Ginger Garlic paste to the Onion mixture and fry for two minutes.

 (4) Add the well beaten yogurt to the Onion mixture and mix well.

(5) Add salt to taste, approximately 1 teaspoon and mix well.

(6) Add two glass of water to it and allow it to simmer for 10 minutes on a low flame.

(7) In the meantime, one by one take the boiled and peeled eggs, and with a fork, prick the eggs to form small holes at one or two places on the surface of each egg. This will prevent the spluttering of the eggs when you fry them in a oil for browning the eggs.

In a separate kadhai / wok take 6-8 tablespoon of oil. Add a little amount of salt and half teaspoon of turmeric powder. Then put the boiled and peeled eggs (after pricking with fork) in the warm oil and roll gently to brown it a bit on few sides of the surface. Don’t brown too much as it may cause the surface of the egg to become rubbery and unpleasant in taste. I did the process in two batches, three eggs in each batch.

You can see that as this was my first try of the recipe, the eggs were not peeled perfectly and were ripped off at some parts and I still went ahead and fried it. It still tastes good and appears good after browning a bit.

(8) Add the browned eggs to the curry and simmer again for 5 minutes. Depending upon the consistency of the curry required, adjust the quantity of water added. Once the eggs absorb the curry and the curry reaches the desired consistency,  turn off the gas flame. Egg curry is ready.

If gravy looks watery and you are not serving immediately then let it sit. 

The gravy will get thicker as eggs absorb the water. 

(9) When ready to serve, transfer the Egg curry in a serving bowl.

(10) Garnish with Coriander leaves.

Egg curry can be served as a main course dish along with phulkas / rotis / any Indian flat bread or along with Rice.

An Aloo / Potato bhujia along with these add to the taste.