I discovered Madhur Jaffrey who makes far Eastern dishes many years ago when I purchased a book titled 'Bloomingdale's Book of Entertainment' or something similar. I no longer have the book but I do remember that Ms. Jaffrey had a recipe for little pastry patties called Samosas that was absolutely delicious. The recipe below combines spinach and mustard greens for a tasty side dish.


Madhur Jaffrey's Mustard Greens

18oz spinach, very finely chopped

18oz mustard greens (just their leaves with their stems), very finely chopped

5 tbsp coarsely chopped garlic

4-6 fresh hot green chilies

1½-2tsp salt

about 5-6tbsp cornmeal flour

3 tbsp ghee* or vegetable oil

1 medium-large onion (115g/4oz), finely chopped

2in piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin long slivers

2 medium-sized tomatoes, finely chopped

a generous dollop of unsalted butter

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1. Combine the spinach, mustard greens, garlic, chillies, salt and 1½pt water in a large heavy-based saucepan. Set over high heat and bring to the boil. Cover, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 1¾ hours or until even the stems of the mustard green leaves have turned buttery soft. With the heat still on, add 5tbsp of the cornmeal flour, beating constantly with a whisk or traditional green masher as you do so. Using the same whisk or masher, mash the greens until they are fairly smooth (a little coarseness is desirable). The greens will thicken with the addition of the cornmeal flour. If they remain somewhat watery, add another tbsp or so. Leave on very low heat.

2. Heat the ghee* or oil in a separate pan or wok over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the onion. Stir and fry until it turns golden-brown. Add the ginger. Keep stirring and frying until the onion is medium-brown. Put in the tomatoes. Stir and fry until the tomatoes have softened and browned a little. Now pour this mixture over the greens and stir it in.

3. Empty the greens into a serving dish, top with a dollop of butter and serve.

Serves 6



*Ghee is clarified butter. You can make it yourself but I have seen it in supermarkets. Ghee or clarified butter has no water water content in it. This is accomplished by taking a pound of good butter and bringing it to a boil in a saucepan until the butter boils away all of the water, turns a clear gold and starts to foam. Once this is done the remaining golden liquid is clarified butter and may be poured into a jar after it cools. Ghee is usually in the ethnic foods sections at supermarkets.



For more information contact
Vannie@ Hot & Spicy

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Vanette (Vannie) Ryanes is CEO of Spices Plus E-Zine for Women
"Who says you can't have it all?"

August 16, 2003