I've got a cabbage head! Anybody interested?

I want to be smart. And I still believe (hopefully not in vain! *wink*) that a quality of being smart is something you can acquire rather than get it inherited from your smart parents. *smiles* So I want to be smart, thus I eat lots of cabbage. Why? Well…I simply follow Alexander Makedonsky’s advice (not to me, but to his soldiers) to eat cabbage to get a good stamina (why the way this word sounds always frightens me? *an interrogative question on my face*) and be very smart consequently. Ta da!

So I’m obsessed with cabbage. I really am. *L, do you remember how I left a cabbage head in your fridge when I was staying at your lovely home and then we left for a few days? What did you find when you came back home - a rotten cabbage head? You were so noble not to comment on it, thanks! And sorry for the cabbage invasion! *wink, wink, wink*

Within the last few years I learnt there are thousands of recipes that feature different sorts of cabbage cooked in various ways (I’m telling you I am not always in the loop, so what might be novel to yours truly isn’t necessarily a discovery to you *a sheepish expression and a smile from ear to ear*). On a daily basis my personal preference goes to raw cabbage (sliced into thin stripes) for use in salads. But there are absolutely no limits in my relations to this glorious vegetable, so lately I’m hooked on this dish…

****PEPPERY HOT CABBAGE SALAD****
(the original recipe you can find on Anjum Anand’s site)

Ingredients I used:

Half a white cabbage head (finely shredded)
A handful of (chopped) peanuts
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
a pinch of fenugreek
1 tsp turmeric
10-15 dried curry leaves (crashed)
1 can boiled chickpeas
2-3 small dried red chillies (crashed)
salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan.


2. Add mustard seeds and fenugreek and fry for about 30 secs (or until they start popping)


3. Add the crashed chillies, chickpeas (make sure you rinse them well before cooking) and peanuts. Turn the heat down and fry just until the peanuts start to colour.


4. Add the curry leaves, cabbage, turmeric and salt to taste.


5. Fry for about 5 mins until the cabbage has wilted but still crunchy.


6. At the end I added a pinch of ground cinnamon and juice of ½ lemon (to my mind, or to be more precise to my taste, cinnamon matches well with the soft flesh of chickpeas and lemon pairs nicely with the peppery taste of the cabbage).



*****

The dish is now one of my favourites. It’s healthy, flavourful and filling (Are you not convinced yet? *wink, wink, wink*). In fact I’m already having it for three days* in a row. *wink, wink, wink* It’s just so good that I can’t help but cooking it over and over. And people don’t you forget that I’m gonna be smart? *a happy smile*



*On day 2 I even suffered a chilli attack. It was pretty hurtful, believe me! I decided to play it coolI and add more chillies to the dish than featured in the recipe. And what do you think? Errr...I knew I could cry much after deseeding fresh chillies (an observation from my life experience), but I did not know I could COUGH that much because of the chilli fumes when evaporating. Well, now I know. *a proud smile*