You may have noticed that I have not been
actively posting over the past few weeks. This is because we have moved to a
new country(in the middle of Europe). I am still
adjusting to my new surroundings and tied up with the post-move chores. As a foodie this
means tasting new food and experimenting. Unfortunately I still have not
started taking photos in new place, as we are still in a temporary place with limited
cooking space. But I'm eagerly waiting to capture and share all my new
experiments with you all. God willing we hope to move into a permanent place
soon.
This recipe is called varai in Tamil, is a Sri
Lankan style stir fry. Similar dish is prepared in Kerala cuisine and is called
"Thoran". It simply means stir fried vegetables mixed with shredded coconut,
dry red chili and curry leaves. You may use mustard and orid dhal or bengal
gram to add color and nutty flavor to this stir fry. (Imagine carrot stir fry,
with dark green curry leaves, red chilis and yellow gram. Wow what a healthy
treat to your eyes and body!) You can make similar stir-fry with all kinds of
vegetables. Some vegetables that I have
used are leeks, grated beet root, grated carrot, square beans, long beans,
green beans, green plantain, boiled potatoes, boiled tapioca. So that's why I say you can do this stir fry with any
vegetable of your choice. Also you can do this with any type of
greens. One of my favorite greens ares kang kung cooked in this style. I serve
it with rice.
Serves 2-3
2 tbsp Indian sesame
oil (or any vegetable oil)
1 onion diced
Few curry
leaves
2 red chilis
diced
1 tsp of each
mustard and cumin seeds
1 tbsp yellow
gram
400g cabbaged
thinly sliced ( you can also use purple cabbage or savoy cabbage for this
recipe)
Pinch of
turmeric powder
Salt
Method
Heat oil in a
non-stick pan, sauté onion, curry leaves and red chili for a minute till they
are aromatic. Add mustard, cumin seeds and yellow gram. When mustard seeds start
to splutter add cabbage, salt and turmeric.
Stir cabbage for 5 minutes
till its cooked and water is evaporated.
Note : You may add shredded coconut to this
stir -fry. Add them at stage 1, after you saute the aromatics. It gives mild
sweetness to this dish.
Serving Suggestion : You can serve a good
balanced meal by plating one cup of rice, a vegetable or green stir fry (varai)
and a protein gravy curry. Here are some protein curry suggestions.
Dal Makani - Black Lentils in spicy cream sauce
Soy Marinated Curry Chicken
Please bear with me for the time being as I'm not going to be a frequent blogger, until we settle down in a permanent place...God willing, hopefully soon.
Soy Marinated Curry Chicken
