Introduction: Aloo Sag Pie

This makes rather a lot but it's rather tasty too! A delicious curried potato and spinach filling, covered in delicious shortcrust pastry. Aloo means potato in Indian and sag means spinach in Indian. I have served this with a cucumber raita- just some natural yoghurt mixed with grated cucumber, fresh coriander, and a little cumin. It works as a sauce essentially, and stops the dish from being too dry. But you can be more than welcome to serve this with gravy and veg if you like. Plus its suitablke for vegetarians! If you want US conversions, give me a shout and i can convert it for you- a vote would be fabulous please! XxX

Aloo Saag Pies (makes two large pies, serves 8)

1250g potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3cm cubes)
2 tbsp olive oil
8 spring onions, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp crushed ginger
3 tbsp Pataks Korma Curry Paste
100g diced ripe tomato
300g roughly chopped true spinach (or baby spinach)
2 large sheets ready rolled puff pastry
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg (for egg wash)- optional

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add a bit of salt and boil the potatoes for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a large frying pan sauté the spring onions in the olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and chilli flakes, and cook for a further two minutes.
3. Add the crushed ginger, curry paste, and diced tomato, and cook for two minutes. Begin to gradually add the spinach, adding more as it continues to wilt. Cooking all the spinach until it wilts and is well combined with the rest of the ingredients usually takes about 10 minutes.
4. Take the spinach mixture off the heat and mix in the potatoes. You want to mash the potatoes a little, but you still want a few chunks of potato here and there. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Lay out the two sheets of puff pastry onto separate baking trays that have been lined with greaseproof paper. Pour half of the mixture onto each pastry sheet, fold the pastry over the topping, and crimp at the edges to seal.
6. Brush with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve with a cooling cucumber raita!