I have a problem with cabbage. I like it. It is one of those foods which effectively classify me and my younger sister into two different clusters along with capsicum, okra (ladies finger), and cooked onions. The problem is that it contains goitrogens and I have hypothyroidism. So, to cut a long story short, the only cabbage that is good for me is "cooked" cabbage. And the only way I like cabbage is "barely cooked" (raw is fine too). Pavel, on the other hand, loves cabbage cooked in Bengali style , really and truly cooked till not a single crunch can be coaxed from it. So, cabbage is usually cooked for lunch in our household by my mother-in-law on days when I am safely eating out at work.
But I do love cabbage in stir-fry and cole-slaw and figure that an occasional suppression of the thyroid gland is well, kind of ok. The other day I found (almost by accident) this wonderful recipe for Burmese Spicy Cabbage from Leon: Naturally Fast Food Book 2 by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, and it sounded fast and interesting and not-cooked-to-mush. Problem#1 No Peanuts in the cupboard (these are usually stock item in my store), #2 No Fish Sauce (kind of hard to come by in India but since then I have actually found a bottle at Thom's) .
So, here's what I did:
Shredded a small cabbage very finely. Sliced 1 onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic, and a good 3" cube of ginger as thinly as possible. In a wok (kadhai), I heated normal cooking oil and stir-fried the onions, garlic and ginger. When the onions turned translucent, I added the cabbage and stir-fried it for about 1-2 minutes. Then I added the warm water (100 ml) with a pinch of turmeric and cooked the cabbage till it was just done (you can cook it longer or shorter depending on your view on crunchy veggies) . Then I added 1 tbsp heaped with peanut butter (I had the unsalted smooth version), 1 tsp Soy Sauce and 1/2 tsp Vinegar. Mixed it all well with a pinch of sugar and took it off heat. Right at the end, I added a tsp of roasted sesame seeds and a fistfull of chopped coriander.
We had this with roti for dinner and the leftover with rice and daal for lunch. I had the usual thing about adding chillies but I think this is one dish where some heat could only add to the taste. So, go ahead, sprinkle some red chilli pwd or mix in some sliced green chillies or add dried whole red chillies to the oil at the start.
But I do love cabbage in stir-fry and cole-slaw and figure that an occasional suppression of the thyroid gland is well, kind of ok. The other day I found (almost by accident) this wonderful recipe for Burmese Spicy Cabbage from Leon: Naturally Fast Food Book 2 by Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent, and it sounded fast and interesting and not-cooked-to-mush. Problem#1 No Peanuts in the cupboard (these are usually stock item in my store), #2 No Fish Sauce (kind of hard to come by in India but since then I have actually found a bottle at Thom's) .
So, here's what I did:
Shredded a small cabbage very finely. Sliced 1 onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic, and a good 3" cube of ginger as thinly as possible. In a wok (kadhai), I heated normal cooking oil and stir-fried the onions, garlic and ginger. When the onions turned translucent, I added the cabbage and stir-fried it for about 1-2 minutes. Then I added the warm water (100 ml) with a pinch of turmeric and cooked the cabbage till it was just done (you can cook it longer or shorter depending on your view on crunchy veggies) . Then I added 1 tbsp heaped with peanut butter (I had the unsalted smooth version), 1 tsp Soy Sauce and 1/2 tsp Vinegar. Mixed it all well with a pinch of sugar and took it off heat. Right at the end, I added a tsp of roasted sesame seeds and a fistfull of chopped coriander.
We had this with roti for dinner and the leftover with rice and daal for lunch. I had the usual thing about adding chillies but I think this is one dish where some heat could only add to the taste. So, go ahead, sprinkle some red chilli pwd or mix in some sliced green chillies or add dried whole red chillies to the oil at the start.
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