Recipe Time - Simple Cabbage Palya

Cabbage is a vegetable that is available all through the year here in Singapore, and the quality that you get her is excellent. Even when there are no other vegetables available, we'll always find fresh cabbage ! So much so that R brings home cabbage every week.....when I start complaining about too much cabbage, he stops bringing it for a week, but then its back to cabbage the week after. Though can't say I blame him..as I said, this veggie is available all the time !
I keep trying various ways to use cabbage...from paratha, to kofta, to cabbage rice, to soup, to sambhar..and even muthias (though I'm not a Gujju :)). One evening, after a tiring day at work, I raided my fridge to see what I can prepare quickly for dinner. And sure enough, sitting in our veggie tray was the unexciting cabbage. Too tired to go out and get something else, I decided I'll make a simple cabbage palya, though without the usual "palya pudi" or curry powder that we use normally. Just with 3 to 4 ingredients, this palya turned out to be a keeper ...so much so that, nowadays R brings cabbage so that I can specifically make this palya :))
Here's what's needed :
- Finely chopped cabbage -3 cups (this reduces in size once cooked)
- Grated ginger - 3 tbsp
- Green Chillies - 2 -3 chopped as preferred
- Salt to taste
- Lime juice - 1 tsp
- Oil - 2 tsp
-Jeera - 1 tsp
Method :
- Heat oil in a kadai and add in jeera. When it splutters, add the ginger and green chillies and saute it for sometime. Then add in the cabbage and a little water and allow the cabbage to cook till done. Alternatively, the cabbage can be cooked in the microwave for 3 - 4 mintues till done. I did it this way. Once the cabbage cooks, add salt and lime juice and tada...that's it. Can garnish with coriander.

What is good about this is the combination of ginger with cabbage - it's really an unusual, yet wonderful taste. R and I loved it !

Stir Fry Sweet Beans

It is my husband, R, who usually buys veggies and sometimes he brings something which I have not seen before, forget about even cooking it !

One such thing that he picked up is Sweet Beans
Now, I thought this was the regular peas with the skin and was removing the seeds one by one, all the time cursing R since we have enough frozen peas at home. R saw what I was doing and almost screamed !
R : "That's not the way to do it...you have to use the whole pod and not deseed it"
Me : "Are you sure ?" (in my mind - like hell you do...you've never even made tea before marriage !)
R : " Yes - use the whole pod. Trust me."
Me: (reluctantly) OK. But if the whatever I make does not taste good, you have to eat the whole thing anyway !
So, after thinking a while, I decided to make a simple "stir fry" and this it turned out is in the above picture...
Ingredients :
Sweet Beans : around 200 gms cut into bite size peices
Salt, Pepper to taste
Garam Masala or Kitchen King Masala : 1 tsp
Oil : 1 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin Seeds : 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Method :
In a kadai/pan, heat oil for a second or two and add jeera and hing till it splutters/crackles,. Then add the cut sweet beans and fry for around 5 mins. Can add very little water (just a sprinkle) if required. Once you feel that the beans are slightly tender, add salt and pepper to taste. Finally add garam masala or Kitchen King masala, stir the pan and keep it closed for another 2 minutes. Then turn off the gas and viola !, the stir fry is ready. Simple, very quick and quite tasty, I must say.
As a variation and to give it colour, can also add in some grated carrot !
And of course, R loved it and then had to say...I told you so !!!!

PS : Please, please, ignore the quality of the picture. I'm just a novice ...working towards improving my food blog skills

A cooking faux paux

First a preamble......I think I'm pretty ok cook. Sometimes I dish up something absolutely delicious, much to my own surprise, and at the othertimes, I come up with some equally fantastic duds !
For the past 1 year, I've been hooked on "food blogs" ...mostly Indian food blogs. With so many recipes posted topped up with the wonderful pohtographs, it was not a surprise that I got tempted to try them one by one. Most of the times, I just jot the recipe down on a post it and then keep it my little recipe book. I must say that most of the recipes tried out like this turned out to be quite good.
And then disaster happened ...
And like they say, pride comes before a fall and so it happend. I browsed a recipe of Ragi Idlis from aayisrecipes and thought that this would be a good one to try as I'm always in a fix on what to cook for breakfast. But, instead of jotting the recipe down, me the great, just read through the recipe and figured that this recipe has only 2 items ....so, what''s the big deal..I can remember this much, can't I.
So, I went about cooking this breakfast this morning. Even while eating it, I did not realise that I made a mistake...though I did not like the taste too much, I thought it was because I do not like idlis too much. But then, when I came into the office this morning, I checked the recipe again and realised that while I had got the proportions right, I got the ingredients mixed up...instead of 1 1/4 of ragi flour to 3/4 of urad dal, I did 1 1/4 of urad dal !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was not there to hear my DH's comments on this as I left early....guess I'll hear it when I go back home. Sigh !
I hope I've learnt a lesson now !