Saag aloo

As soon we will be getting lots of new potatoes soon I thought that this is a good way to use them and it makes a change from just boiling them.

For this curry you will need

55ml/2fl oz vegetable oil
1 onion
2cm/1in piece fresh root ginger
1 tsp black mustard seeds
5 fresh or dried curry leaves
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp fenugreek
1 or 2 green chillies depending on how hot you like it
½ tsp chilli powder
12 or 20 new potatoes all depending on their size
450g/1lb baby spinach leaves
250g/8oz tomatoes, chopped
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
55ml/2fl oz water
salt and freshly ground black pepper
squeeze lemon juice

Start by heating up the oil in a nice big pan on a nice low to medium heat. Then add the onions, ginger crushed, mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric, fenugreek, green chillies sliced and chilli powder. Now you want to cook all this nice and slowly so the spices start to work together. Just watch out for the mustard seeds popping and keep stirring it as it cooks.

Take the new potatoes and wash them and slice them in to in to the same size and shape so they all cook together at the same time.   Add them to the spices in the pan and stir them in to the mix so they get a good coat of the spices.

Cut the tomatoes in half and get them cooking down then add the sugar and water. Bring all this to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes. Finally add the spinach leaves and season to taste with salt and ground black pepper. Squeeze of lemon juice and it is ready to go.

All you need now is some good basmati rice and a nice cool beer or a German hock goes well with this sort of dish.