Cabbage and pea bhaji
This dish is meant to be comfort food with lockdown ingredients. However the way you cut and cook your vegetables especially the cabbage will make all the difference to this dish. Most people cook this dish down to a slush making it very unpalatable. You may not have peas with you in which you case you can use par boiled diced potatoes. These guys should be tiny and elegant. Alternatively you could also fry these potatoes and add them to the dish.
Cabbage – medium sized about a kilo
Peas – one large handful
Onion – one large, thinly sliced
Tomato- one large, chopped
Green chillies – two, minced
Mustard seeds – 1 and a 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Pepper powder – 1/4 teaspoon
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
How to cut cabbage?
This is key to a great cabbage bhaji. Most people just cut the cabbage into half and then continue slicing it finely. This will leave you with uneven slices and you will constantly slice the rib of the cabbage. Technically, there is nothing wrong in this method for home cooking or in eating the rib of the cabbage. However, if you would like it to look nice and even taste better then I recommend you knock off the rib.
How do you knock off the rib of the cabbage ?
Turn the cabbage head down which means that you are faced with the central spine, the hard part of the cabbage. Now using your knife and in a circular motion cut of the Central spine. With, your hands ease out the leaves from the spine area. Do this gently and patiently. You might have to continually keep trimming the spine to ease out the leaves. The leaves in the middle are the hearts of cabbage which I use for the presentation of salads. They make for natural cups.
Fr. Warner D'Souza is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He has served in the parishes of St Michael's (Mahim), St Paul's (Dadar East), Our Lady of Mount Carmel, (Bandra), a ten year stint as priest-in-charge at St Jude Church (Malad East) and at present is the Parish Priest at St Stephen's Church (Cumballa Hill). He is also the Director of the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum and is the co-ordinator of the Committee for the Promotion and Preservation of the Artistic and Historic Patrimony of the Church.
