Spinach with ginger, fennel, and black cumin

6 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
3 tablespoons Vegetable oil
3 tablespoons Unsalted butter
½ teaspoon Fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Black cumin seeds
2 mediums Onions; peeled and cut
Fresh ginger; one-inch piece
3 pounds Fresh spinach; washed and trimmed
1 Fresh long hot green chili OR 1/3 jalapeno; cut into thin rings
1 teaspoon Salt; or to taste
⅛ teaspoon Cayenne pepper

Directions

PREPS: Cut the onion in half lengthwise, and cut crosswise into thin half-rings. Peel ginger and cut into thin strips.

1. Heat the oil and butter in a large saute pan set over medium-high heat.

When hot, add the fennel and black cumin seeds. Stir, and add the onions and ginger. Stir-fry until the onions turn a rich brown color, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Add the spinach. Cover pan, and cook until spinach has wilted completely, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. When the spinach has wilted, reduce the heat to medium. Add the chile, salt, and cayenne pepper, and stir. Cover pan, and cook for 25 minutes more.

3. Uncover skillet, and stir. Cook until there is hardly any liquid left in the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes more. Serve.

*Recipe adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking 1983. Barrons. Martha Stewart Online: TV cooking: 09/24/98 with Madhur Jaffrey.

Notes: This side dish is flavored with simple seasonings that are intensified by first frying the fennel seed and cumin seeds in oil—this method of coaxing more flavor out of the spices by heating them is known as tarka. The spicy spinach is delicious with chicken, lamb, beef, or rice.

Recipe by: Stewart and Jaffrey

Posted to KitMailbox Digest by Pat Hanneman <kitpath@...> on Sep 24, 1998, converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.

Related recipes