Cabbage, carrot and coconut stir fry

 Cabbage is eaten either raw as in salads or cooked. Coleslaw or cabbage salad is shredded raw cabbage with a salad dressing like vinaigrette or mayonnaise. It is usually served as a side dish to fried chicken or as a sandwich filler. Cabbage is also pickled to make sauerkraut or kimchi. Sauerkraut or sour cabbage is thinly cut cabbage that has been fermented by lactic acid bacteria. 

Here we are cooking cabbage along with carrot in a traditional Keralite style with coconut. Cabbage and coconut stir fry is an usual accompaniment in sadyas.

The additives of Mom's delish stir fry...

Cabbage - 200g

Carrot - 1

For the grind,

Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - a tad

Chili powder - 1/4 tsp

Shallots - 3

Salt - 1/4 tsp

For the tempering,

Vegetable oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaf - a sprig

Raw rice - 1/4 tsp

The modus operandi...

Peel carrot. Chop carrot and cabbage into small pieces. Add in the melange of coconut, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, chili powder, salt and shallots in a blender jar and grind for 2 seconds. Keep aside.

Heat a deep-bottomed pan and dribble oil. Throw in mustard seeds, curry leaves and raw rice. When the mustard starts crackling, cast in the vegetables. Stir and cover with a lid so that it cooks in the steam. After a few minutes, prepare a well in the center of the vegetables by pushing most of it to the sides of the pan. Add in the coconut potpourri in the middle and cover with the vegetables pushed to the side earlier. The coconut mishmash will cook in the steam produced as the vegetables dry up. Stir after a few minutes to intermingle everything. Set out the thoran along with red rice. Whoop it up!