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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Curried cabbage and coconut

Got a big white cabbage that needed eating fast from last week's Alvin farmshare. Turned over a few ideas in my head: perhaps Polish style stuffed leaves (had been talking about these with my labmate who made them with his Polish-descended mother recently)? Or pickled? But then the idea of a dry, yellow curry with coconut came into my head and seemed so delicious I couldn't drop it.

I more-or-less followed this recipe, because it seemed to be quite straightforward and almost exactly what I had in mind - even including curry leaves, which I bought a bag of a month or so ago and had been storing in the freezer until an opportunity to cook them arose.

3 tbsp safflower oil (or other non-flavoured, high temp cooking oil)
1/4 tsp brown mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 heaping tsp mung dal, urad dal or small yellow lentils
1-2 small green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
10-20 fresh curry leaves (used 11)
1 small onion, finely sliced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 a medium white cabbage (approx 1 lb), cored and shredded
1 piece fresh ginger, 1-inch long, peeled and chopped or cut into matchsticks
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp finely grated fresh coconut or grated dried coconut

Heat the oil in a large, tall saucepan over med-high heat. When it’s hot and shimmery add the mustard seeds. When they have almost all popped (30 sec or so), remove the pan from the heat, then turn down to medium, put pan back on, add cumin, dal, chilli, curry leaves, and saute until everything looks lightly golden (~ 45 sec). Add the onion and cook, stirring, until it’s soft and limp but does not change colour: two to four minutes. Add the turmeric and stir well to mix. Add the cabbage, ginger and salt, and mix thoroughly. Reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, until cooked through, slightly translucent, tender, still crunchy but not mushy: about seven minutes. Add the coconut, and mix well. Taste for salt. Let sit for at least 5 min before eating.


This is really delicious, and makes a beautiful pan of yellow shreds studded with brown seeds and dal. The curry leaves lend a very particular aroma and flavour which I like, and the combined dal, cooked cabbage and coconut make a wonderful set of contrasting textures. Yum.
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