Spinach and Chickpeas

Saturday April 19

It was Findlay market day, and we bought a bag of spinach like a king-size pillow from the Goniffs for a dollar. Some of it was dark and icky, but by assiduous bathing and picking we salvaged at least half the bag, which was quite a heap. Of course, it cooks down considerably, but it certainly made a meal's worth.

We chose to do it Indian style, with chickpeas (which we boiled up in the pressure-cooker while we were picking over the spinach). Madhur Jaffrey is our go-to girl for Indian cooking, but the recipe with the most appealing spice mixture was Saag gosht, in a recipe apparently found all over the web, usually unattributed. Her recipe calls for beef or lamb instead of chickpeas. Rather than thickening it up with yoghurt, we added a dollop of cream towards the end.
The result was tasty, but to be frank a tad dull. Even though we used the full panoply of spices for a half recipe, we'd double them next time.