Especially for my friend Agnes, here is my take on a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey from her perfectly titled “Quick & Easy Indian Cooking.”
Stir-Fried Red (or Green) Cabbage with Various Seeds
Take your cabbage in hand with confidence. Remove its outer layer of leaves which can be a bit coarse. Firmly place the cabbage on a cutting board and, with a large chef’s knife, split the vegetable in half. Carve out and toss the core away. Pick up a long, serrated bread knife and shred the beast. Remove the shreds to a big bowl.
Now, prepare yourself to cry. Take a large-ish onion (red onion for red cabbage, yellow onion for green cabbage) and use your very sharp chef’s knife to peel, halve, core and slice the onion into fine half rings. (Come on! Let yourself cry!) Remove the shreds to a medium bowl. Wash the knife, the cutting board and your hands to remove all traces of tear-inducing fumes. Do like I do and dab at your eyes with a cool, damp paper towel. So genteel.
Measure out a teaspoon each of the following spices into a small bowl: cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, black mustard seeds and sesame seeds. The essential seeds being cumin, fennel and black mustard seeds IMHO.
Keep handy a teaspoon of salt, a tiny amount of garam masala, and about 2 tablespoons of lime or lemon juice.
Get ready to move quickly.
I use a big pot. Set it over medium-high heat for a minute. Pour in some vegetable oil without much flavor. I use walnut oil because it’s good for me. (My nutritionist, Rebecca Snow, noticed that I was relying on olive oil all the time. She suggested changing up the oil I use in salads and cooking. In our cupboard, we’ve got coconut oil, olive oil, walnut oil and avocado oil.)
Sprinkle in the seeds. Give a stir.
When you hear the seeds begin to pop, grab the onions and throw them in. Give them a stir. Fry those onions for 3 to 4 minutes.
When the onions begin to brown, toss in the shredded cabbage. Stir and toss and stir and toss, mixing the cabbage, onion and seeds.
When the cabbage has browned a little, add your salt and turn down the heat to medium-low.
Stir now and then and cook for no longer than 6 minutes… until the cabbage is just soft enough, but still with a little crunch.
Add a tiny sprinkle of garam masala. A little goes a long way. You could even be daring and add a tinier sprinkle of cayenne for spicy heat. Add the lime or lemon juice. Stir to mix.
Take off the heat and pull your Bhumi Bandh Gobi into a serving bowl.
This is going to be good.
Enjoy!
Love & Light,
Valerie
Photo by…Adam Milliron©
I like your “cookbook”. It’s funny!
Thanks, Mom!
Not only does this sound absolutely yummy, it was fun to read. It was light and punchy – painting great pictures in my head.
Thanks Valerie!!!
Hi Luanne,
So glad you enjoyed my silliness!
I’ll be attending the Capital Coaches Conference next week and expect to see a few from our Newfield cohort. It would be so sweet to see you, too.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Say, “Hello!” and a big hug to all. Wish I could be there.
Hi Luanne,
We will keep you with us in Spirit!
Hugs all around,
Valerie
ha, i had a red blue cabbage in my frig and had contemplated fixing it for Sunday in May in Millville. I sprinkle spring onions or chives on top , on the plate. love and peace
love and peace
Ha!
Nicola, you do such beautiful things with food.
I love the simplicity of what you prepare.
I can imagine lovely photos of your composed plates.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Fun to read! Sounds yummy!
Hi Pattie!
Thanks for the compliment.
Yup! Yummy is the word.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Thank you Valerie. It was delicious and perfect for last night’s diner. The colors were gorgeous and the mix of spices very much fun. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Agnes,
You are very welcome!
Thank you for the request. You inspired me to write when I needed to spark some creativity.
So glad we got to sit together. Always an interesting conversation.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Sounds delicious and a little daring! If you were to add a teaspoon of coriander seeds to your mix, voile`! you have that magical mix for maximum digestive power, CCF: cumin, coriander and fennel; and they are major yum factor when toasted. Can’t wait to give this recipe (I love how you tame that beastly cabbage and that soul-searing onion:)), and this Jaffrey cookbook, a passionate
try!
Oh! Cathryn, I must now edit the post to include coriander seed… which I do love.
I was thinking of you fondly while yoga-ing this morning.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Valerie –
Thanks for the inspiration. Can’t wait to give it a try.
I know what you mean about mixing up the various oils and fats we use. So easy to fall in a rut.
Awhile back I discovered coconut butter (not to be confused with coco butter). Wow, delicious … and a nice peanut-buttery consistency. Also fewer calories and lower fat than coconut oil. Not for salads though, I guess. Heh.
http://www.artisanafoods.com/coconut/coconut-butter/
Hi Em,
Wow! Very interesting. Made from whole coconut flesh — not just the oil. I’ll look for it. Do you use it in cooking? Must make a nice curry.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Hi Valerie –
Well, I haven’t had much call to use it for cooking, but I’ll bet it would be good in curry. Mostly I use it on things like my hot cereal, where it adds a really nice taste, or on certain vegetables.
The thing to remember is that it separates in the jar, like peanut butter. So you have to stir it to keep it emulsified and avoid getting oily stuff at the beginning and dry, caked stuff at the end.
Ha! I just got some tahini that was separated. I put it all in my mini Cuisinart and gave it a whirl. It emulsified and the jar says once it’s in the fridge it will stay emulsified. Excellent!
Wow, I hadn’t realized that was what was going on with my tahini … I just automatically refrigerate it.
I notice the label on my Artisana coconut butter says to just warm up the jar and then stir, but I don’t know why you can’t just give it a whirl. It does say “Refrigeration not recommended” though. My open jar stays in the cupboard for months at a time.
Had some on my hot cereal this morning … forgot how really luscious it is. Yumm!