I have had a good break in some sunshine at home in Pakistan and now I am back to brave the cold frosty climes of Scotland. It is a reality check, when the airplane door opens and you are greeted with a blast of unforgiving cold air. But Scotland is particularly delightful at this time of year for me; as I love some of the seasonal vegetables I find in mid winter. I have always found it curious to find an array of brassica vegetables, ones I never grew up with. Savoy cabbage comes at the end of the year, one can find them early in January and February too, and this is my personal favourite – and I find Savoy’s fascinating crumpled beautifully robust and full of moreish bitterness.
You can almost never over cook it if you treat it with some stir frying, the colour stays bright and beautiful as long as you keep it moving in a pan. My preference is to cook it with a little South Indian flavour; and this recipe makes a quick and easy mid week meal and leftovers are great in weekend eggs.
The next few weeks are going to be hectic, with a launch of my cookery school in Glasgow this month (more information below), time is short and meals must be quick, this is a go to recipe for the days ahead. Come and learn this recipe and more at my Indian Vegan cookery class on 6th February 2019, and support my non-profit cookery school, all profits of our commercial classes fund out cookery projects with the community. (for booking details see kaleyard.org)
Savoy cabbage bhujia with mustard seeds, curry leaves and coconut
Serves: 2-4
Prep and cooking time: 15-20 minutes
3-4 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tsp mustard seeds (brown)
½ tsp Nigella seeds (onion seeds)
1 tsp cumin seeds
¼ tsp asafoetida (hing)
4-5 fresh curry leaves
1 dried red chilli or ¼ tsp dried red chilli flakes
2 tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 large Savoy cabbage, leaves finely chopped (removing hard stems)
¼ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tbsp unsweetened desiccated coconut
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
Heat oil in a shallow sauté pan, once hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and allow to pop. Once they begin to pop, add asafetida and fry for about 10 seconds. Add curry leaves and when they begin to splutter, add red chilli and tomatoes.
Fry tomatoes until soft and until their liquid is dry. Now add the chopped Savoy, turmeric and salt, and stir. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until Savoy is half cooked through, add the desiccated coconut and chopped coriander leaves and stir through, turn off heat and serve warm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here