12th
Indian Cabbage Two Ways
I am in love with India’s Vegetarian Cooking - a Regional Guide by Monisha Bharadwaj. After buying the book (which our excellent friend Christine Craven recommended), we made an extremely enjoyable $18 trip to the Indian grocery on Lamar just north of Rundberg for some specialty items. We have cooked about a third of the recipes in it so far—and have literally never failed. Granted, we have not attempted to feed our home-cooked Indian food to anyone else, let alone our Indian friends. Yet. But we really like the flavors we’ve been able to usher out of some common ingredients. They taste enough like ones we have had in Indian restaurants and homes that we feel… smug.
Because many of us are likely hoarding Green Gate cabbages in our crisper drawers, here are two options for simple, delicious Indian dishes with cabbage as the main idea. This first recipe is a dish from the Indian state of Gujarat, and the second—um, I can’t remember right now and don’t have the book in front of me. But I’ll report back. Both of these can be served with rice—Basmati is the traditional, but any rice will do.
Gujarati Cabbage and Peas Stir-Fry
Ingredients:
- 2 fresh green chili peppers (like jalapeno or serrano)
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 2 tablespoons safflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- pinch asafoetida (you can skip this if you don’t have it, but if you can track some down it really makes a difference)
- 1 tbsp tumeric
- 10-11 ounces cabbage, finely shredded
- 5-6 ounces fresh or frozen peas
- salt
- 2 tablespoons grated coconut (unsweetened!)
How to:
Pulse ginger and chili peppers to a paste in a food processor or with an immersion blender—or mash them together with a mortar and pestle.
Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add cumin seeds, asafoetida and chili pepper/ginger paste and stir for a few seconds. Add tumeric powder, then immediately add cabbage and peas at once. Season with salt. Cook, stirring, until the cabbage starts to turn translucent. Add a few tablespoons of water, reduce heat and cook the water off. Sprinkle with coconut and serve.
Cabbage with Five Spices and Ginger
OK, so this one involves a spice mixture called panch phoron that you’ll probably need to pick up on a pilgrimage to the Indian grocery—you could make it yourself, but a couple of its integral spices are ones you’d also need to pick up at the Indian grocery, so yeah, this becomes a little circular. It contains equal amounts of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, black mustard seeds, and nigella seeds. In a pinch, grind some cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and black mustard seeds (all of which you can get at the H-E-B) in your spice or coffee grinder.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoon grated or finely minced ginger
- 4 dried red chili peppers soaked in water and drained
- 3 tablespoon safflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
- 1 large onion, finely sliced
- 10-11 ounces cabbage, shredded or finely sliced
- salt
- 2 tablespoons panch phoron (see above) or some semblance of it
How to:
Process mustard seeds, ginger and drained chili peppers in a food processor with 5 tablespoons of water to make a fine paste.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy skillet and add onion. Fry until golden, then add the cabbage. Stir-fry until just translucent and sprinkle in the spice mixture and salt. Add 4 tbsp of water and cook uncovered until cabbage is tender but not mushy. Remove the mixture from the pan and reserve in a bowl.
Heat remaining oil (1 tablespoon) in the pan and add panch phoron. When it crackles, you know it’s done—pour the oil and seeds over the reserved cabbage. Toss well and serve.
