Pui Saag/ Poi Saag (Malabar Spinach) with kushi kerao (dry green peas)

• Servings: 5-6
• Soaking time: 5-6 hours.
• Preparation time: 8-10 minutes.
• Cooking time: 9-10 minutes.
• Total time: 20 minutes. 

I was very happy and fascinated to see the ‘pui saag in Hindi or Tsuru-Murasaki’ in Japanese at peacock store near our house in Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan; a leafy vegetable often eaten in salad, tempura, light steamed with a bit of soya sauce or tossed into soup in Japanese cuisine. In India it is cooked in many ways.

Today I would like to share you the ‘Pui saag’ verdant green leaf with ‘kushi kerao (dry small green peas)’is the traditional recipe cook on occasion of putra jitiya festival.

It is celebrated mainly in India and Nepal; on this day mothers do fast; not to eat or drink anything whole day and night, performed for the long life and well being for their children.

“Happy Putrajitiya” festival to all my viewers…

Ingredients:

• Pui Saag (Malabar Spinach): 300-400gm
• Kushi kerao (dry green peas): 50 gm.
• Red chilli: 1 no.
• Onion: 1no. (Small)
• Garlic: 3-4 flakes
• Ginger: 2” piece
• Mustard oil: 2 tablespoon
• Cumin: ½ teaspoon
• Bay leaf: 1 no.
• Mustard seed: ½ teaspoon
• Chilli powder: ½ teaspoon
• Turmeric powder: ½ teaspoon
• Coriander powder: 1 teaspoon
• Salt: 1 teaspoon

Preparation:

1. Soak peas overnight or at least 5-6 hours.
2. Do fine chopping of Pui leaves and soft stem (discard hard stem) as well as onion, ginger and garlic. Keep aside.

Method:

1. Take a kadhai/wok, heat oil, let oil start to smoke, add mustard seed, cumin, red chilli and bay leaf. Sputter for few seconds, add chopped ginger and garlic stir properly and fry for a minutes.
2. Add chopped onion; fry for couple of minutes till onion gets translucent, add soaked peas, stir fry for a minute, add chopped Pui saag, stir fry for couple of minutes on medium flame.
3. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt, continue to cook on medium low flame, keeping lid on until done and desired consistency reaches. Stir occasionally, so that it does not burn.
4. Put off the flame, add Garam masala powder.
5. ‘Pui Saag/ Poi Saag (Malabar Spinach) with kushi kerao (dry green peas)’ is ready to be served.
6. Transfer it into serving bowl.
7. Serve with “Steamed Rice” and “Chana Dal Tadka”.

Pui Saag/ Poi Saag (Malabar Spinach) with kushi kerao (dry green peas) by Nag Ratna Sahu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.