Cabbage thoran ( cabbage stiry fry in Kerala style )

One of my good north Indian friends was curious about our cabbage thoran (in other words cabbage stir fry in Kerala style) recipe a couple of days backs, from then I have been thinking of blogging about it. Cabbage thoran is a must have dish in the menu of kerala sadya as well.

and also one of the favourite dishes of my family too

Ingredients

Cabbage – 250 gms

Onion (chopped) – one medium sized

Green chillies (finely chopped) – 2

Turmeric powder - ½ tsp

Salt – as required

Grated coconut – ¼ cup

For seasoning

Oil - 1- 2 tbsp.

Mustard - 1/2 tsp.

Urad dal - 1 tsp.

Curry leaves – one or two sprigs

Dried red chilies – one or two

Ginger (optional) – ½ inch ( finely chopped)

Method

• Chop the cabbage fine (cut the cabbage vertically and slice using an adjustable slicer, I find this way easier).
• Please make sure the cabbage is not very wet (that will make the thoran soggy).
• Mix the chopped onion, cabbage, ginger and green chilies in a big bowl.
• Add the turmeric powder and salt to the above vegs and mix gently.
• Now keep a kadai/wok/pan on the stove, add oil and when the oil is hot add the mustard seeds, and wait to splutter, add the urad dal, dried red chillies and curry leaves, once it’s all crackled well add the chopped and mixed vegetable mixture into the seasoning. 
• Mix well again and let it cook.
• So at this stage if you find your vegetable mixture have very less moisture cover and cook and if you feel the vegetable has more moisture let the lid be open. We don’t want a sogy thoran anyway.
• Stir once in a while, it won’t take much time to cook (also depends on how fine or thick you have chopped the cabbage)
• Once cooked, sprinkle the grated coconut on top and mix well again (or you can mix just before serving)
• Serve hot with a bowl of rice, sambhar and curd.

My husband and kids loves this with plain rotis ;)

Thanks

Chaithanya

Appam and Kadala curry recipe

Thought of enjoying the long weekend with a typical Kerala breakfast of appam and kadala curry, its been long that I have made this. 

I have another  recipe  of appam in my blog which has no yeast this one is a recipe with yeast and then of course the recipe of the kadala curry in the pic will also be posted.

Ingredients for appam

Rice (good quality – sona masuri, basmati) – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Paper poha (thin beaten rice) – ¾ cup

Yeast – a pinch (yes, just a pinch)

Sugar – 2 tbsp.

Method

• Soak the rice for about 3 hours.
• Grind all the ingredients for the appam together well, smoother the better; the batter has to be slightly thinner than dosa batter.
• Keep the batter to ferment for few hours or overnight.
• After fermentation add salt and mix well and leave it to rest for another 15 mins. The batter will puff up again, yes and that very important for good appams.
• Meanwhile take the appa chatti (I use the cast iron chatti) on the stove and heat on lower medium flame.
• Sprinkle few drops of sesame oil and then sprinkle little water so that the oil is dispersed and also the heat of the chatti is maintained. (My personal trick and suggestion)
• Take a ladle of batter and pour in the centre of the chatti and without waiting or wasting time hold the handle of the pan and swirl so that the batter spreads around the edges of the pan and the excess batter accumulates at the centre, cover the appam with a lid.
• Open the lid after few seconds .
• Wait for few seconds before you remove the appam for the pan. You needn’t flip the appam.

Recipe for kadala curry

Ingredients

Brown chana – ½ cup

Onion- one med sized

Green chillies – one or two

Ginger – about an inch

Grated coconut - half a cup

Jeera (cumin)- ½ tsp

Saunf ( fennel seeds) – ½ tsp

Pepper powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – 2 tsp

Cardamom – 1 or 2

Cloves – 1-2

For seasoning

Oil

Mustard

Dried red chillies

Curry leaves.

Method

• Soak chana overnight.
• Cook the chana with sufficient water, onions, ginger and green chillies.
• Take a pan, add little oil and add the grated coconut, sauté until golden brown and then add all the remaining spices and spice powders.
• Once cooled grind the coconut mixture to a fine paste (as fine as possible).
• Add the ground coconut spice mixture and salt into the chana and mix well and bring it to boil.
• Season with mustard, dried red chillies, curry leaves

Notes

I used one cup of unpolished red rice and one cup of ordinary sona masuri rice.

I used thin red poha instead of white poha.

Thanks 

Chaithanya