We Bangladeshis love mustard in almost any vegetables and fish. The pungent taste and spicy flavor of mustard satisfy and amuse our taste bud in a way that no other spices can do it! Today I am here to write another delicacy yet simple mustard recipe and this time, it is with Malabar Spinach twigs! It is one kind of food scrap recipe because I have taken only twigs of Malabar Spinach and used the leaves for another dish. But it is also mustard recipe, so I am bit confused which category to put them under – Mustard or Food Scrap?

As you can see, I have harvested my home grown Malabar Spinach for the fourth time this year! However, I have realized that the brunch or twigs of my Malabar Spinach plants are getting really starchy and fibrous and are not edible along in a curry or with spinach stir fry.

That’s why I have decided to separately cook the leaves and twigs. I cooked the leaves in traditional way, which you can read it here, and I cooked the twigs in another traditional way with mustard!

Besides the Malabar spinach twigs, we need mustard (seeds or paste), black cumin seeds, turmeric and chili powder. Mustard oil, bay leaves and chili are optional, and you can use any vegetable oil here, but for flavor you may need some heats of chili!

First thing I did was to cut the twigs in 3cm long pieces. I did not shear the outer skin, as the twigs are not that thick, but in older plants, when twigs are much thicker, you can need to shear the outer skins.

Next in a pan, I boiled some water first with some salt in. When water was boiling, I added twigs and cooked them for about 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the amount and thickness. We just need to cook them 80% or so. Then I drained most of the water, saved some for later and kept the boiled twigs on a colander to drain excess water.

Now its time to cook the main part. In a fry pan, I heated two tablespoon or 10ml Bangladeshi Mustard oil and added dried red chili, a bay leaf and half a tea spoon of black cumin seeds. These need to cook until they start popping and releasing nice aroma, but that would be around 10-12 seconds only.

Then immediately I added boiled spinach twigs, turmeric and chili powder. The purpose is to shallow fry them and increase the taste. If you skip this step, the twigs might end up as soggy and tasteless. I shallow fried the twigs until they changed their color and slightly golden on outside.

While spinach twigs were being fried, I made a paste of mustard powder and green chili paste. I ground some mustard seeds before and saved for occasional use. Same thing I did with green chili, I blended them and made a smooth paste. Green chili paste adds a really nice flavor to any dish! So I took three table spoon of mustard and a tea spoon of chili paste and made a thin paste with 2-3 table spoon of water. You can always make the chili and mustard paste immediately while you cook, as it i always suggested from old kitchen that blending chili and mustard together decreased the bitterness mustard. However, I did not have a nice blender or traditional pata-puta (morter and pestle), I had to make two separate powder/paste. Luckily the mustard was not that bitter, so that was a relief!

The spinach twigs are nice and golden on the outside. Please make sure to keep the temperature in low heat.

I added the mustard chili paste to the pan and gave them a good stir to coat twigs with mustard paste! I kept the temperature low as this paste tend to splatter. If you prefer, you can cover with lid.

When all twigs were well coated with mustard paste, I have added the water that I saved from boiling the twigs. But I have added just enough to cover the twigs, not over flooding them.

Then I covered the pan with lid and let them simmer in low heat and let the twigs absorb all the flavors! It depends on you how much gravy or how dry you want the dish. I like mine pretty dry, so I let the twigs simmer for more than 5minutes.

Now as all the waters are reduced and the gravy looks desirable to me, I checked the salt and saw if the twigs are thoroughly cooked!

The whole process took only 20 minutes, from prepping to cooking. So if you are in hurry, this can be really easy dish to make. I know this can be little different to the western taste bud, but hey, it does not hurt to try new dishes once in a while, right?

Recipe: 3 Servings Prep time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients: 250g Malabar Spinach Twigs Spices and condiments: 3 tablespoon Mustard seed paste or puree or powder 2 Green Chili or 1 tsp green chili paste 1/2 teaspoon Black cumin 1/2 teaspoon of Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon of Chili powder 10ml Mustard oil/Vegetable oil 1teaspoon Salt 1 Bay leaf 1 Dried Chili

Instruction: 1. Wash and remove spinach leave from twigs. Cut spinach twigs in 3cm long pieces. 2. In a pan, boil water with a table spoon of salt. Add spinach twigs when water is boiling. Cook twigs for about 80%. Save some water and keep the bolied twigs separated. 3. In a fry same pan, add nigella or black cumin seeds, dry chili and bay leaf. When popping, add cooked spinach twigs, salt, turmeric powder, chili powder and mix well. Cook for 4-5 minutes with lid on low-medium heat until the twigs starts to change color to golden. 4. Make a thin paste with mustard and green chili and add to the pan with twigs. Cover the pan with lid and simmer in low heat for another 4-5 minutes. Check salt and add more if needed. 5. When excess water is reduced and the gravy gets in your desired consistency and spinach twigs are cooked thoroughly, turn off the heat and serve warm with rice or flat bread!