Sunday, February 8, 2015

Cabbage Dom

Today I thought it would be a good idea to go through my rather tatty recipe card collection. This collection dates from the 1970s and is written on catalogue cards, some of which came from the Victorian Railways technical library. So for example on the verso of French Bean Stew we have the entry for the title 'Recommended practice for the prevention of electric sparks that may cause fires in tanks or tank cars containing flammable liquids or flammable compressed gases, due to proximity of wire lines. Rev. ed., 1975. (Association of American Railroads Bureau of Explosives Circular no. 17-E)'.

Recipe cards
Recipe cards

The idea is to transfer the recipes to the Paprika app, or to discard them if I think I will never make them again (if I ever did). But I am finding it difficult to be ruthless with this little piece of history, so it looks as though the collection will remain unweeded for another day.

However the Cabbage Dom recipe is one that I still make frequently so I will add it to Paprika, even though I may keep the original cards for old time's sake. This recipe has quite a long list of ingredients (luckily I chose a blank card and not one with a railway engineering title on the verso). Its origin is unknown but it has been a great favourite since a friend passed it on all those years ago.

Cabbage Dom

Ingredients

1 lb cabbage
1/2 lb potatoes
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cummin powder
1 tsp sugar
few bay leaves
2 tsp ginger juice
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 cup oil
2 tsp turmeric
few cinnamon, cardamon
1/2 tsp cumminseed
1/2 cup curd
2 tsp flour
2 tsp butteroil
salt to taste
fresh chilies

Method

Cut cabbage in big pieces and potatoes into small. Wash and drain.

Heat oil and fry potatoes until slightly brown. Remove from oil. To same oil, add cumminseeds, cinnamon, cardamon, chili, cumin powder, turmeric, sugar, ginger juice, bay leaves. Add 1/2 cup water and fry until mixture is dry. Add cabbage and fry for a while then add curd, salt and potatoes and stir well, adding a little water if necessary, and cover pan.

When cooked and liquid gone, add garam masala, fresh chilies, a little flour and a little butteroil. Stir well and remove from heat.

Note

I usually use curry leaves instead of bay leaves. I assume that curd is yogurt, and find that mixing the flour (or arrowroot) into the yogurt before adding it to the pan is a great way to stop it from curdling. I assume that butteroil is ghee, but don't necessarily add it. How many fresh chilies? Up to you!