Cabbage Usili/ Cabbage lentil curry/ Cabbage Archu kalaral

I thank Lavanya Balaji for this dish. I never knew we can make cabbage usili.  It was simple and much easier than the other veggies.

Ingredients

Toor dal : 1/2 cup

Channa dal : 1/2 cup

Red Chilli : 2

Salt to taste

Turmeric

Mustard seeds

Curry Leaves

Urad dal : 1/4 spoon

Oil

Asafoetida : a pinch

Cabbage - Well chopped

Place the cabbage in a microwave bowl  with a lid, sprinkle little water  and microwave for 7 minutes.

Soak Toor dal, Channa dal for half an hour. Then, grind them coarsly with minimum water after adding salt, red chilli , asafoetida.

Heat 6 spoons of oil in a skillet. When it fumes, add mustard, allow it to spurt and then udad dal, curry leaves roast until the dal is golden brown add the dal mix and turmeric stir thoroughly, close the skillet with a plate and allow it to cook . The mixture separates well like sundal. Add the cooked cabbage to this and mix well. 

That is all to it. This dish takes just 15 minutes including the time taken to cut the cabbage. 

As always I love this with Rasam 

Mint Rice/ Pudina Sadam/ Mint pulav/ Pudina bath

I suddenly fell in love with mint. The taste and aroma was  just too irresistible, I had a couple of dishes lined up that were flavored with mint or should I say bathed in mint.

So this one goes to one of the captivating culinary herbs.

Things we need


Mint - 1 bunch  (wash and have the leaves plucked)
Green chillies - 4
Shredded coconut - 2 spoons
Onion - 1 chopped
Grated ginger - 1 spoon
Cloves - 4
Cardamon - 2
Bay Leaf - 1
Aniseed - 1 flower
Cinnamon powder - 2 pinches
Cashews
Cilantro - chopped (for garnishing)
Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil - 1 1/2 spoon
Ghee - 1 spoon

How to make it
Cook the rice in a electric rice cooker with 3 cups water. Once the rice is cooked, transfer it onto a big plate so that it becomes a little less hot sp that the rice won't be sticky.

Grind a paste of mint leaves, green chillies and the coconut.

In a spoon of ghee, fry the cashews and keep them aside.

Have the oil heated up in a big skillet then add the bay leaf, Cinnamon powder, cardamon and aniseed. When they begin to spurt, add the onions and saute well.  Add the ginger paste and saute for a minute. Add the mint paste and fry till the color changes. Be watchful not to burn it. Turn off the stove and mix this masala with the cooked rice and salt.  Garnish it with chopped cilantro leaves and the fried cashews.

I just loved to have this with some potato chips and some cucumber raitha.

Pudina Paratha/ Mint paratha/Mint wheat flat bread

My Muse, mint...continues to linger its effect one me..


In this post I am posting how my trial worked. well it had 2 outcomes, both of them were  great.


Things we need
Mint -  a bunch (Washed and leaves plucked)
Green chillies - 3 Well chopped
Salt
Ajwain / Til seeds /carom seeds/ Omam - 1 spoon
Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Gram flour - 1/2 cup
Ghee
Chaat Masala


Trial 1
Chop the mint leaves. Take the wheat flour, gram flour, salt, mint, green chillies and the carom seeds and knead it into a dough and set it aside for half an hour.


Make small ball of the dough and roll them out into parathas. Have a skillet ready and hot and place the paratha on it. Set the flame to a medium heat. Flip the paratha over on the other side and spread a little ghee. Do the same on both the sides. Browny on both sides, the paratha is ready to eat.
This one was great to make & it tasted yummy with just some pickle and curd.

Trial 2
Its a very slight variation. I did not mix the mint and chillies with the dough


Take the wheat flour, gram flour, salt and the carom seeds and knead it into a dough and set it aside for half an hour.


Make small ball of the dough and roll them out a bit. Do not make it too thin. At this stage, sprinkle some chopped mint and green chillies and roll the pin on top of it a bit. I also sprinkled a pinch of Chaat masala on it for a little different twist. 


Now make the paratha the same way but the side with mint, just be watchful that you don't burn the mint. That is all. 
The second method looked a lot like the ones served in restaurants.