Purple Cabbage and Stir-Fry Curry

Apart from its color, purple cabbage exhibits significant differences from the common white or green cabbage. It is very densely packed, and quite crisp when chopped. The leaves are quite thick and fleshy even well inside the cabbage and for this reason purple cabbage is often used in salads (see photo 1). Those of you that do not appreciate the strong aroma that white cabbage exudes after cooking, are bound to find the aroma conspicuously missing in purple cabbage. Upon cooking, unlike the white cabbage, the purple variety stays somewhat firm and crunchy. The purple color does not change much upon cooking and but it may slightly intensify. I made a stir fry curry with purple cabbage, carrots and peas. The dish is quite colorful (see photo 2) and is easy to prepare.
Ingredients: 3 cups of chopped cabbage, 1 cup of sliced carrots, 1 cup of frozen peas, half of a good sized red pepper, canola oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, sambar powder , dried chillies, and salt
Heat a couple of tablespoons of canola oil in a frying pan. Add two teaspoons of mustard seeds and urad dhal (black lentils) and a couple of small dried red chillies. Transfer the chopped cabbage and carrots ( 4 cups) and a teaspoon of cumin seeds in the pan when the mustard begins to pop. Stir with salt and a teaspoon o f sambar powder. Cook at medium-low heat for 10 minutes. After this, stir in a cup of frozen green peas and pepper slices and leave the pan closed on the stove at low heat for another 5 minutes. After this the stir-fry curry is ready to serve.

Bhaingan Bhartha

Bhaingan Bhartha (Spicy Eggplant Curry)
This is a popular Indian dish and often encountered in restaurant menus. Here is a simple-to-execute recipe that I have followed when I prepared this with the Turkish Orange Eggplant, but should work equally well with other kinds of eggplant.
The ingredients are: 1 pound of eggplant, ½ a large onion (white or red), 2 medium size tomatoes, 6 teaspoons of Canola oil, 2 teaspoons of garam masala, 1-2 teaspoons of salt.
The eggplant is washed, wiped and placed in a baking dish ( glass or metal) and sprayed with a little bit of canola oil ( photo 1). The eggplant is then “broiled” for 20 minutes in an oven until it begins to shrivel (Photo 2). I used the GE Advantage Microwave /Convection oven; any oven with a “broil” setting should serve our purpose. Upon cooling, the skin of the eggplant is discarded and the fleshy part is then mashed well ( photos 3, 4 and 5). Have the onions and tomatoes chopped up while the eggplant is broiling ( photo 6). The canola oil is then heated in a pan and when the oil just starts to vaporize, toss in the chopped onions and sautee them for about 5 minutes until they start turning slightly brown (photo 7). Then add the chopped tomatoes and continue sautéing for about 15 minutes with the stove at the “medium-low” setting till the tomato softens and blends with the onions ( photo 8). Then add the garam masala, and let it sit on the stove for another 5 minutes at the “low” stove setting. Then add the mashed eggplant to the sautéed mixture of onion and tomato( photo 9), add the salt, and mix it up in the pan while it is still on the stove. Keep the mixture covered for about 5 minutes on the stove at a “low” stove setting, and then adjust salt levels to taste .The mixture is now ready to be served (photo 10). Enjoy with rice, chapathi, roti, naan or even Lavash bread!

If you enjoyed this dish, I encourage you to make a contribution to the LA Foodbank at http://www.lafoodbank.org

Turkish Eggplant

July 12, 2009

Here are some pictures of a recent harvest of Turkish Eggplant, also called Orange Eggplant. This is my first time growing this type of eggplant. The plant has large leaves and looks really robust. It took 60-70 days before fruits appeared. The fruits look more like tomatoes in size and shape and turn bright orange when fully ripe; it is however an eggplant (see image on right). Fruits are ready for picking when they start to acquire a slight orange tint. The fully bright orange-red ones turn soft on the vine and they are not desirable for cooking. We made a stir fry curry from our first harvest but it tasted quite bitter; some tamarind could have helped annul the bitterness. Then we discovered that the bitterness originates from the skin. If you broil or grill the eggplant and use just use the fleshy part , discarding the skin, it should make a flavorful "babaghanoush" or "baingan bartha".