ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: With the onset of winter season, citizen especially Punjabi families still love to eat traditional dish ‘Sarson-Ka-Saag’ during the season with its mouth-watering taste.
Punjabi cuisine is incomplete without the mention of Sarson-Ka-Saag with makki-ki-roti (maize flour flat bread) and lassi (buttermilk). Infact, it is a seasonal specialty of Punjab.
Sarson-Ka-Saag is a nutritional blend of sarson (mustard leaves), palak (spinach), bathua (chenopodium), methi (fenugreek) and spices.
“November, December and January are the months when the saag is available in plenty. And nothing can beat the taste and nutrition of seasonal greens, said a citizen Faisal Iqbal.” “This is mother-food”, he added.
Hamid Saad, who works at a stall selling makai ki roti and saag said that many people liked to have saag in the summer too.
“Makai ki roti is difficult to make at home so people prefer to buy it ready made,” he said.
Most people who liked saag, he said, adding, came to his stall for Sunday lunch.
“We add spices as per the taste of the customer, as some people like spicy food and others prefer it lightly spiced. Everyone wants butter for the topping as well,” another customer Imran Ali said.
With the passage of time, the younger generation had forgotten how to make saag and makai ki roti but they still love to eat traditional food in winter season, said a housewife Shama Amir.
The additives may vary from family to family but one thing is common while cooking saag and that is that it has to be cooked on low heat for hours, she added.
A student Aliya Kamran said these days we grind it by using a hand blender. But care must be taken that it should not be ground to a fine paste, rather a coarse paste.
