Neverending Winter Cookies

After a 23 month hiatus, Hungry in Halifax is back, dear readers! There will be an update and new project news coming soon, but in the meantime, my friend Jacqueline has shared this post for almond flour chocolate chip cookies--a recipe that can be made with little ones. I'll post an update when I make a batch myself.

Thanks, Jacqueline!

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Life in Halifax this winter has had its challenges. It has been long, cold, snowy and icy. Being home on maternity leave, with two little ones, in the dead of winter is not always as much fun as it sounds. Not to mention our family is missing some special friends that moved away last year, that we love to cook and dine with. What else is there to do than take to the kitchen? 

So I’ve been trying out some new baking recipes with my daughter Clara. Most days we are going for healthy, butter-free, sugar-free and white-flour-free sweets. 

Here's a recipe we have been enjoying that I am so glad to share on this blog. I think I originally found it on a paleo-diet site, but I can’t remember where exactly. This recipe is easy, chewy and delicious – especially still warm from the oven. If you don’t feel like chocolate, try substituting something else for the chocolate chips, like dried cranberries or blueberries. Enjoy!

Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

Takes 30 minutes

Makes 2 dozen cookies

2 cups almond meal

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

¼ cup coconut oil, softened

3 Tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp vanilla

½ cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Mix the dry ingredients together, add the wet, mix it all up, and fold in the chocolate chips. 

Roll them into flattened balls, and bake on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet for 8–9 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges. 

 

So easy, healthy and delicious!

Jacqueline

Spicy Cashews

Rajbhog Foods makes Indian sweets and snacks on the East Coast.  When I lived in New York, a couple of times a year I would head to Jackson Heights for a big grocery shopping trip to buy Indian vegetables and lentils and spices.  There were smaller Indian grocery stores nearer to my apartment, but it was always worth the trek to be surrounded by south Asians and the languages and the smells.  And there was always a good lunch!  I would often bring back sweets, like the cashew katli or the special burfi, and always, always the spicy cashews!  I am not sure what goes into them, but they are the perfect snack, a little spicy, a little salty, so good!

Other versions do not come close to those Rajbhog spicy cashews.  Sometimes you will see spicy nuts that look like Flaming Hot Cheetos, covered in atomic red powder and just wrong. This is a really good approximation, not too spicy, just a little sour, and just a little of that black salt sulfur.  You can buy citric acid in most big grocery stories in the spice aisle. It's also an essential ingredient for preserving tomatoes.  Black salt is harder to find, and I've only bought it in Indian grocery stores.  It goes into all kinds of foods, especially chaats!  And some people sprinkle it on fruits.  Once you try these spicy nuts, you might find a use for the whole bag of black salt...

Cashews are expensive.  You can use raw peanuts or any nut you like, really.  You can adjust the spice blend to your taste.  If this isn't spicy enough for you, lower the amount of salt.  Too spicy!? Substitute paprika for half of the chili powder.  Maybe you want to throw in some black pepper, or cumin, or smoked paprika! 

Spicy Nuts

Takes 15 minutes

Makes enough for a party

1 teaspoon black salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon citric acid

2 cups raw cashews
oil
 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grind the black salt, chili powder and citric acid in a mortar so that it is a very fine powder.

Coat the cashews in oil, grape seed oil or something else that doesn't have a strong taste. Spread out on baking sheet in a single layer, toast for 5 minutes, mix them around, bake for 2 minutes more, mix them around and bake for a further 2 minutes.  You want them to be evenly browned.

Turn the cashews out onto paper towels.  Coat with half of the spicy powder and toss around so the nuts are evenly coated.  Let cool completely.

Keep the rest of the spice mix until it's time to make spicy nuts again.  The cashews will keep for a few weeks in an air tight container.  But you will eat them before you start to wonder if they are going bad.

Socca

This is my new favorite recipe, a great snack that is sort of like a cracker, sort of like a crepe, sort of like a flatbread.  I get especially excited about it because it's made of chick pea flour and therefore gluten-free!  Readers will know that I am always trying to make food that the largest amount of people could eat.  This is the best kind of inclusive eating, a snack that stands on its own and no one misses what isn't there.

It's also an incredibly easy and forgiving recipe.  The only thing you need to remember is 1 cup of chick pea flour (called besan in many Indian languages and available at any Indian grocery store), and 1 cup plus of water.  Sprinkle the salt and the black pepper in.  Give it a good glug of olive oil. Experiment with spices or herbs.  Mark Bittman throws onion into his recipe. No matter what you try, it will be delicious.  I promise.

Socca

Based on David Lebovitz's recipe

Takes 15 minutes (plus waiting for batter to rest)

Makes enough for 8 people

1 cup chick pea flour (besan)

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons water

3/4 teaspoon salt

freshly cracked black pepper

11/2 Tablespoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients together to make a wet, runny batter, about the consistency of crepe batter.  Let sit for at least two hours or even overnight.

Turn on broiler (high if you can control the temperature), and put a lipped baking tray in the oven to get hot.  Cover with olive oil and pour half of batter in, swirling so that pan is evenly coated.

Let cook for 5 to 7 minutes, turning the pan so it gets evenly browned (I prefer my socca browned not burned, but it has to get crispy!  Those are the best parts).  My oven is very uneven so I turn it every 2 minutes.

Turn out onto cutting board and cut into pieces.  Eat immediately!  And make the second pan, scraping out stuck bits, pre-heating the pan in the oven, covering in olive oil.

Share with friends if you have to, but I've been eating an entire pan by myself!

Koo koo for Kuku Paka

I've been reading The Settler's Cookbook: A Memoir of Love, Migration and Food by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Yasmin was born in Kampala, Uganda, and her parents' families were originally from South Asia. She writes about coming of age in the 1960s, the era of decolonization and youthful rebellion. It's a great book, a peek into the life of the south Asian settlers who lived in East Africa for generations before they were harassed into fleeing Kenya and Uganda. Yasmin tries to be fair to the settlers, who attempted to find a place between the exploitative British and the resentful Africans, but ultimately made allies with neither group. It's a great first-person story about how colonialism divides people who should be able to find common ground.

She remembers her mother as an amazing cook who kept her family together in tough financial times.  Yasmin shares some of her mother's recipes, but also some of her own, made in Britain but recalling her former home. She writes so evocatively, I've been excited to try one of her recipes since I first started reading the book.

Here's my vegan version of Kuku Paka, a coconut milk and chicken stew, made with what I had in the fridge. Yasmine writes "Sometimes Mum bought a kuku paka and on those nights I went to bed with my nightdress splashed with pale yellow sauce and smelling of coconut, dreaming of the next time, possibly!"

I can understand why young Yasmin would dream of the next time, kuku paka is spicy, creamy, tangy, tasty delicious! I think this would be great with a lot of different vegetables: Squash, broccoli, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms.  See where it takes you!

Disclaimer: as this recipe is written it is not hot!  It is very flavorful and spicy in the full of spices sense.  If you want it hot, throw a couple more chiles in!

Kuku Paka

Makes 4 servings

Takes 2 hours

1 small bunch cilantro, chopped

1 giant garlic pod, minced fine

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and minced fine

juice of 1/2 lime

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 carrot, cubed

1 block of tofu, cubed (all should be the same size)

3 potatoes

1 large onion, diced

1/2 cup raw cashews

1 stick of cinnamon

2 cloves

1 cardamom pod

1 dried red chili (or fresh)

1 tsp. tumeric

1 14 oz. or 400 ml can tomatoes

1 14 oz. or 400 ml can coconut milk

In a bowl, mix together half of chopped cilantro, all of garlic, ginger and lime juice.  Add about a tablespoon of oil and toss the sweet potatoes, carrots and tofu with the marinade. Let soak together while the oven heats up.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.

On a baking sheet, spread the sweet potatoes, carrots and tofu out evenly. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Lower the oven to 325, turn the veggies/tofu over and bake for 10 more minutes.  When they are finished, put them on paper towels to drain the oil.  Save the marinade, and keep the heat on!

Parboil potatoes.  Cut them into even-sized quarters and put them in a pot with salted cold water.  Bring to a boil and boil for 6 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  Cut them into cubes that are about the same size as the roasted veggies/tofu.  Set aside.

In an oven proof pot, saute onions on medium high heat until they are nice and browned (stir occasionally so they have time to brown but do not burn).  Turn heat down to medium, add cashews and spices and saute for about 10 minutes, until it is really sizzling.  Add tomatoes and cook for a further 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are completely broken down and it is a thick paste.  Add coconut milk, turn down heat to a low simmer and let everything come together. Add salt to taste and Indian red chili powder or cayenne if you want it spicier.  Turn off heat, and stir in the roasted vegetables/tofu and parboiled potatoes.  Top with remaining marinade. 

Put into hot oven, and cook for 15 minutes.  Turn oven to broil and brown the top for 5 minutes.

 

Sprinkle the remaining cilantro over it.  We ate this intense curry with simple steamed spinach and rice.  And hot sauce!  I'll bet it would be good with Aloo parathas too!

Vegan Vegan Kim Chi!

It is here!  The long-awaited kim chi post.  It has now been fermenting in the fridge for 15 days, and it is delicious!  I can't detect a difference in taste over the past week of fermentation, but we'll see how it does in the next week when kim chi recipe writers warn of its growing pungency.  The only concern is that there may not be much left for the taste test!

This recipe is super easy and only requires time.  The kim chi is so tasty, and we've been eating it with so many different things. I reduced the amount of sugar in David Chang's recipe, so the chili flavor is super mellow and secondary to the nosy tingle of the fermented vegetables.  I cut the daikons and carrots into ribbons, and left the garlic and ginger in slices, so that they could be enjoyed for themselves in addition to adding to the over all flavor.  The garlic slices are a real winner!  Although the ginger is a little overpowering for me.  There are many for whom I know that would be a real plus though!

It's amazing to see the pictures from when all the vegetables first went into the jar to the vegetables now! From this:

To this!:

Can't wait to hear about your experiences trying this great recipe! 

Enjoy!

Kim Chi

adapted from David Chang's Momofuku recipe

Takes 1 hour active time, 2 days to 2weeks fermentation time

Makes about 1 liter kim chi (about 1 quart)

1/2 of a large head of napa cabbage, discolored or loose outer leaves discarded

2 Tbsp. kosher salt

1/2 cup of sugar (I used palm sugar, which I had left over from making the fish sauce)

1/2 cup Korean chile powder (if you don't have it, some combination of hot chile powder and paprika would work--Korean chile powder isn't that spicy.  Armenian, or Kashmiri chile powder would work too)

1/4 cup fish sauce (or vish sauce)
1/4 cup light soy sauce

2 teaspoons vegetarian shrimp paste

20 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

20 thin slices of ginger (about 2 inches of ginger, peeled)

1/2 cup 1-inch pieces of scallions (about 8 scallions)

1/2 cup carrot ribbons, sliced with a peeler (about 3 small carrots)

1/2 cup daikon ribbons, sliced with a peeler (about 6 inches of a daikon)

Cut the cabbage in half, lengthwise, and then cut each hemisphere into 1-inch wide pieces.  Separate the leaf-pieces and toss in a large bowl with the salt.  Let sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Combine chile powder, fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp paste, and sugar in a large bowl.  Add 1/3 cup of water to make a thick, salad dressing-esque liquid.  Add the garlic, ginger, scallions, carrots and daikons.

Drain the cabbage, and add to the big bowl.  Stir thoroughly.  

Place it in a large jar (I used a 3 liter jar), and press the mixture down to release the juices of the cabbage.  I found this slotted spoon best for the pressing.

Make sure as much of the vegetables are under the brine as possible.  Cover and refrigerate.

Will keep indefinitely, but good luck keeping it beyond 2 weeks!

Kim Chi Update--Day 5

Readers of my last post on vegetarian fish sauce will know that a big jar of kim chi has been brewing in my refrigerator.  Today is Day 5, and we took a little out today to eat with our hot lunch--whatever's in the fridge jap chae!

I will post a recipe for this bowl of yummy sweet potato noodles as soon as I remember to write down what I did, but in the meantime, the kim chi is amazing!  I will post a recipe for that soon too, but I mostly followed David Chang's recipe, veggifying it.  It's so good!  Not too spicy or too salty, and just starting to develop that awesome fermented flavor.

We ate it on little fried tofu squares, too.

So good!!!

Nothing Fishy

 

I am committing myself to making more delicious Asian-inspired foods this winter.  I love the care that goes into making beautiful Japanese food.  I love the flavors of Korean and Vietnamese and Thai food.  To get myself started, I looked for a recipe on the web for vegetarian fish sauce.  There are quite a few!  As far as I can tell, fish sauce serves to add salt and umami complexity to recipes.  Most of the time, when I see fish sauce in a recipe, I just add extra tamari.  We'll see what happens when I add my special phish sauce to Veggie Pho, and all the curries and soups I plan on making this winter.

Fysh sauce?  It tastes gingery and sour and sweet and salty all at once.  My first use of the fish sauce is in a big batch of vegetarian kim chi I am fermenting in the fridge.  I'll let you know how it turns out in a couple of weeks!

Vegan Fish Sauce

Based on Ms. Nadja Dee Witherbee's recipe

Takes 1 hour

Makes 1 3/4 cups of sauce

2 cups wakame seaweed, broken up (I think I would use kombu next time)

3 dried shitake mushrooms

4 cups water

4 cloves garlic, smashed

1 1/2 TBSP black peppercorns

1/2 cup tamari

2 tsp. lime juice

2 tsp. lemon juice

2 TBSP rice wine vinegar

3 tsp. palm sugar

1 tsp. fresh grated ginger

1/4 tsp. chili powder

In a large pot, bring seaweed, mushrooms, and water to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer again, and cook for 30 minutes.

Let cool.  Strain into a clean bottle.  Store in the fridge, for up to 1 month.

Your house will smell intense while this is cooking!  Moste Potente!

Let me know if you have a good name to call this stinky sauce by!

Happy Diwali Pistachio Ice 'Cream'

This year for Diwali, we had a few friends over for masala dosas and sambhar.  Friends brought a salad and chutney and some tapioca payasam!  We had an amazing gluten-free, vegan meal to accommodate everyone's issues, and no one thought for a second that anything was missing.  My contribution to the desserts, because sweets are the most important part of any Diwali celebration, was a Pistachio Ice 'Cream' adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe.  With real nuts and a can of coconut milk it is so rich!

Enjoy, and Happy Diwali everyone!

Pistachio Ice 'Cream'

adapted from David Lebovitz

Makes 6 servings

Takes 1 hour active time (plus cooling and ice cream churning time)

1 14 oz. can coconut milk (make sure it's good and doesn't have any additives)

5 1/2 tsp. corn starch

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup raw pistachios (shelled)

1/2 cup raw cashews

4 cardamom pods, shelled and crushed to a powder

Mix 1/4 cup of coconut milk with the corn starch to make a slurry, taking care to whisk out the lumps.

Heat rest of coconut milk and 1/4 cup of sugar on medium high heat.  Just as it begins bubbling, turn down the heat to simmer, add the slurry, and mix constantly for 3 minutes.  It will thicken right away.  Turn off the heat, let cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a thick skin from forming.  When it's cool enough, put it in the refrigerator.

Bring the raw pistachios, cashews and 1/2 cup of water to a boil.  Remove from heat, and when cool enough, begin removing the skins from the pistachios.  This is tiresome.  You should be able to squeeze the pistachios and the skins should come off neatly, but some times you need to scrub with your finger tips a little for the thin skins.  It's helpful to keep another bowl of water handy to wash your hands. Return the skinned pistachios to the cashews.

When you have skinned all your pistachios, place the pistachios, cashews, powdered cardamom, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in the bowl of a food processor.  Process, adding the reserved nut-boiling water as necessary to make a smooth paste.  Add this paste to the chilling coconut milk and stir until well-combined.  Chill until you are ready to make your ice cream, or overnight.

Make ice cream according to your maker's directions.  Freeze the ice cream after churning for 30 minutes or so for really nice consistency.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Home Preserving: Tomatoes

We've done it!  Our annual push to preserve as much as we can.   We've already done roasted red peppers, cucumber pickles, and we have dilly beans to do this week!

Our big challenge is always tomatoes.  We try to can at least 25 pint jars of tomatoes each year, and this will last us through the winter for pasta sauces, channa masala, and whatever else we can think to make.

Canning is always better with a friend.  It is madness.  It took about 4 hours on two separate occasions this year.  The tomatoes are first peeled and seeded.  Then, we pack them into jars and cover them with the juice recovered from the seeding.  I make sure everything is as clean as it can be to ensure as many jars stay safe as possible.  In three years of canning, we've never had a bad jar.  This year though, some of the jars that we've been reusing broke during processing.  They must have been slightly cracked or something.  It's so sad to see a floating ghost jar in the water!

It can be scary to can.  It's involved and time consuming, and if you don't do it right, you could have a jar of botulism.  But!  You can do it!  With equipment you probably already have in your kitchen or could borrow from a friend.  Just pay attention and take your time.  It is worth it.  You will have the beautiful tomatoes available now at the farmer's market, all winter long.

There are still fresh tomatoes at the market, but soon, we will be so thankful for these jars!

Whole Tomatoes in their Juice

This is the basic recipe that you will find from the USDA or from contemporary canning mavens like Eugenia Bone
Makes 6 pints (~500 ml)

Takes 3 hours

Ingredients
About 15 pounds ripe and firm roma or plum tomatoes, rinsed and clean
citric acid (available in most grocery stores or health food stores)
basil leaves, oregano, or whatever you wish

Equipment
6 pint jars, with new bands and lids
One very large pot--your jars need to be submerged in water and covered by at least an inch.
A metal tray to fit in the bottom of the pan so that the jars do not directly touch the bottom--they will break from rattling around and the heat of the bottom of the pan.
A very good pair of rubberized tongs, or a jar lifter
One large strainer
One pitcher
One smaller pot
Three large bowls
A knife
One chopstick

Fill your very large pot with water and place the tray inside.   Place your jars inside, standing upright, and make sure the water comes over them.  Now you know how many jars will fit in at once.  Ours holds 8.  Maybe you are lucky to have two very big pots and you can have two going at once.  Bring the water to a boil with the lid on.  This will take awhile, and the jars will be sterilized as they sit in the pot.

Fill your smaller pot, big enough to hold 6 or so of the romas comfortably, with water and bring to a boil.

Prepare one of the large bowls as an ice bath.  Get the other bowl ready for peels and seeds by placing the strainer over it.

When the water in the smaller pot is boiling, add the tomatoes, six or so at a time, and cook for 30 seconds or so, just enough to loosen their skins.  Remove them and place in the ice bath.  Keep on doing this until you have gone through all of the tomatoes.

Remove the tomato skins, the cores and any blemishes.  The tomato skins can go into the strainer, throw the cores and bad spots out!  Get your fingers in the cavities and get out all of the seeds and put those into the strainer.  The seeds make the tomatoes bitter, so getting as many of them as you can out is good.  Place the prepared tomato in the third large bowl.

 
Continue doing this until all of the tomatoes are prepared.  When the strainer gets heavy, press down and agitate to get out all of the juice.  Pour the juice into the pitcher.

Remove the jars from the big pot, very carefully draining them, and place them on a clean towel.  Place the bands in the hot water, and put the lids in a heat-safe bowl.

Place 1/4 teaspoon of citric acid in each of the pint jars.  Add basil leaves or what you wish.  I keep my tomatoes simple because I don't know what will happen to them.

Pack the jars with the tomatoes, pressing them down as you do so, until they reach the shoulders of the jars.  Cover the tomatoes with the tomato juice.  Using a chopstick, or a bread knife, poke around the tomatoes until you are sure that there are no air bubbles.  Fill the jars with more juice if necessary so that there is 1/2 inch of room at the top.

Wipe down the tops of the jars with a wet paper towel so that they will make good contact with the lids.  Pour a few ladle-fulls of simmering water onto the lids to soften the rubber bands.  Place them on the jars, and screw the bands on finger tip tight.  It is the lids that create the seal, not the bands, but the bands have to keep the lids on during the processing time.

Now, carefully, so carefully!, place the jars into your canning pot.  Wait for the water to come to a boil again, now start your timer for 40 minutes.  Keep an eye on the pot so that there is always at least an inch of water above the jars.

When it's time, remove the jars, very, very carefully!  Place them on a towel on your counter (not a wooden surface, we have stains from our first attempts).  Now the fun part, they should all pop!  The most satisfying sound, letting you know that your jars have sealed, and you have tomatoes waiting for you.  Let them sit untouched for 12 hours, and check the seals.  They should be concave and not move when you press them down.  Then store them in the dark for up to a year.

Enjoy your labors!!

Lemon rasam

I can't believe I've never posted a recipe for rasam.  It is one of my favorite foods, eaten every day in Tamil Nadu, where my family is from, and now I eat it at least once a week.  There are many different varieties: thakkali rasam, made with tomatoes and tamarind and the most basic; garlic rasam; jeera rasam, made with cumin; milagu rasam, made with lots of black pepper; and some people even make pineapple rasam!  I'm not into it, I have to say.

My favorite is lemon rasam, made with limes, but in my family always called lemon. In India the lemons are small and yellow, kind of like key limes, but in America, we buy limes for rasam.  This rasam is very light, but when well made, it has a perfect balance of salty, sour and spicy.

Now I remember why I have never written a recipe for rasam: no matter how determined I am in the beginning of cooking to keep track of what I am doing, I always forget in the final stages when I add a little more salt, and then a little more sambhar powder. This recipe is a guideline, but you will have to trust your tastebuds to get the flavor just right.  Good luck!  It's worth it.

Lemon Rasam

Makes 2/3 servings

Takes busy 30 minutes

1/2 cup toor dal

2 medium tomatoes, cut into eighths

4 1/2 cups water

2 dashes asafetida

1 1/2 teaspoons sambhar powder

2 teaspoons salt

12 curry leaves (one sprig)

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

big handful cilantro, washed and chopped

1 lime, halved

On high heat, bring toor dal and 2 cups of water to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover and let cook until lentils are done, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a pot, bring to a boil tomatoes, water, asafetida, sambhar powder, salt, and curry leaves.  When it boils, turn it down a little, and let boil until it has reduced a bit and the tomatoes are cooked, about 15 minutes.  You will have to taste it: it should taste both spicy and salty, but not too much of either.  You might need to put in more sambhar powder, then it might need more salt.  When it tastes balanced to you--the right amount of salty and the right amount of spicy but not too much of either--then it's done.

In a little pan, heat oil on high.  When the oil is hot, put the mustard seeds in the pan, and when they pop, take off heat and pour into rasam.  

When the lentils are cooked, drain if necessary, and pour into rasam.  Squeeze one lime half into the rasam.  Taste.  Maybe it will need more lime, squeeze another half in.  Taste it again.  Good?

Then you are done!  Top with cilantro.  Rasam is good on its own, or you can eat it with rice and vegetable curries.  My favorite combos are lemon rasam and Green Beans Parappusili, or Spinach and carrot salad!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  It's been a busy summer!  More soon.

The Last of the Winter Cabbage

Readers in the northern hemisphere, maybe you too have been struggling all winter to cook the cabbage that comes in your CSA boxes, that is the only local vegetable in the market, that is cheap and fresh-looking in a sea of expensive and sad vegetables.  I have been experimenting with cabbage recipes all winter, and have to say, have not been excited with the results.  There was cabbage in Japanese-inspired soups, a failed attempt to make sauerkraut, and all varieties of curries!   At last though, an unqualified cabbage success!  Here is a great cabbage and lentil curry that is so yummy and satisfying with rice, with some of Manjula's parathas, or even, thinned out as soup.  Now that other vegetables have returned to the northern hemisphere, the recipe is, perhaps, a season too late.  Because cabbage is cheap and available, it has a reputation as a vegetable of last resort, but, undeserved!  You could save this recipe for next winter, or better yet, even though there are other, more exciting vegetables in the market, choose reliable, delicious cabbage.

Cabbage Curry with Lentils

Inspired by Plantain Leaf's Andhra Cabbage and Channa Dal Curry

Makes 6 servings

Takes 1 hour

1 1/2 cup channa dal

salt

turmeric powder

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

asofetida

10–12 curry leaves (from one sprig)

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

1 green chili, sliced lengthwise

2 tomatoes, chopped

1/2 a giant head of cabbage, washed and chopped (easily 2 pounds or about 6 big handfuls)

red chili powder

garam masala or sambhar powder

Soak the channa dal in water for about 30 minutes.

In a sauce pan, bring channa dal, some salt (1 teaspoon for now), and some turmeric (1 teaspoon) and a lot of water to a boil.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until channa dal has softened (they will still retain their shape and be a little tough in the middle.  this is ok).

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan or a stock pot, heat some vegetable or canola oil (to cover the bottom of the pan) on high heat.  When it's hot, add the mustard seeds.  When they begin to pop, throw in the cumin seeds.  When those begin browning, add a couple of shakes of asofetida and the curry leaves.  Let saute for just a minute and then add the onion, garlic and ginger.  Saute until soft and let sit for a bit so that the bottom begins to brown, it makes it better!

Add green chili and tomatoes, some turmeric and chilli powder to taste, and saute, until the tomatoes break down, making sure to scrape up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.

Add the cabbage, some salt, and one cup of water, carefully stirring the cabbage into the masala.  When it is all combined, lower heat, cover, and let simmer until the cabbage is softened, 10 to 15 minutes.  Keep checking and turning the cabbage to make sure it cooks evenly.

Check on the chana dal.  Once it is ready, add the dal, and as much of the dal water as necessary to the cabbage to make a saucy curry.  Add more dal water if you would like to eat as soup, a little less if you are eating it with rice or parathas.

Stir it all together, check for salt and spice.  When you are happy, sprinkle with garam masala or sambhar powder, whichever you prefer (I used sambhar powder).  Top with cilantro if you have it.  Enjoy!