Purple Mustard Greens and Potatoes – Rai

I was lucky enough to get my hands on some purple mustard greens at the farmer market (this was a couple weeks ago, but Im just getting around to posting now!). The color was so gorgeous and intense that I wanted something that would showcase its flavor, but I couldn’t decide what to do with it. I had gotten a cookbook from the library “Purba: Feasts from the East” by Laxmi Parida. It is filled with delicious Oriya recipes. One of the recipes is called poi saga rai. Poi saga is a type of green pictured here, but I am substituting for the mustard greens. Rai is described as a “moderately spicy and slightly moist entree”. I worried that it may be a bit bitter as mustard greens sometimes are, but it wasn’t at all. It was quite mellow and this was a very tasty dish. Unfortunately they did not retain their purple color after cooking, however, the color did transfer to the potatoes!

Here is what I did:

this photo doesn't do it justice

• 1 bunch of purple mustard greens
• 2 potatoes
• salt

Sorisa masala:

• 2 pods garlic
• 1cm ginger
• 1tsp mustard seeds
• 1tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• pinch of turmeric

Rasuna(garlic) baghar:

• 1-2 pods garlic, crushed
• 1tsp mustard seeds

For the masala, crush together ginger and garlic and mustard and then mix in the other ingredients to form a paste using little water if necessary. Separate the stems from the leaves and finely chop the stems. Roughly chop the leaves. Peel and dice the potato and put into a pan with enough water to just cover them. Add the stems and the sorisa masala and salt. Bring to a boil. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add in the green leaves. If there is excess water in the pan, turn up the heat to evaporate it.

Heat a small bit of oil or ghee  and add in the crushed garlic and the mustard seeds until they pop. Pour this seasoning/baghar  slowly over the potatoes/greens. Garnish with grated coconut(optional).

I am sending this to Aipi’s Bookmarked Recipes

And Only Greens by Sara and Pari.