Wafola : Cabbage Cake

When i sent this picture to my sister in law in US, she said "Looks like dhokla"!! Well, yes, it surely looks like one, but this is more denser. Moreover, though the name suggests it to be steamed (Waaf in Marathi means Steam), this one is baked. Hence i think it is known as a Cabbage cake.

The recipe was new to me, i had not really heard about this one! We make "Kobichya vadya" with almost similar ingredients but we steam it. The tempering and garnishing remains the same. Here, in the cookbook of "The essential Marathi cookbook", this cake is baked. The author, Ms. Kaumudi Marathe, says - "During the years of food rationing around the Second World War, when semolina and refined wheat flour were hard to come by, gram flour based snacks were a great alternative. Traditionally, wafola was cooked over an open charcoal fire but these days, a conventional oven works just fine".

Wafolas make a perfect tea-time snack or a good breakfast dish too! What more? It is baked!!! That makes it super healthy too :) The addition of tempering on top takes the dish to a completely new level of flavours!!

Ingredients:

Green cabbage : 1 n 1/4 cup grated

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece grated or made into a paste

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste

Green chillies - 2 (The recipe said sliced, but i prefer making a paste in a mortar and pestle)

Ajwain - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Besan (gram flour) - 1 cup

Soda bicarbonate - 1/4 tsp (optional)

1/8 cup yogurt + 1/4 cup warm water

To garnish:

Ghee - 1/2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

Grated fresh coconut - to garnish

Corriander leaves - to garnish

Lime juice - to taste

Recipe:

Mix together cabbage, green chilli paste, ginger paste, salt, turmeric, ajwain and sugar in a bowl.

Heat 1 tbsp oil and add asafoetida to it. Mix this in the cabbage mixture.

Slowly add the gram flour and keep mixing it well.

Add the soda bicarbonate in the yogurt mixture and add this to the cabbage mixture stirring well.

If the mixture is too thick, add water as required to make the consistency as thin as a cake batter.

Grease a 9 inch baking tray with 1/2 tbsp oil. Put the batter in the baking tin.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake the wafola for about 20 minutes. Now brush a little oil on top and bake again for another 10 minutes or till the toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Now cut the cake into squares or as desired shape.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok for garnishing. Add mustard seeds and let them pop. Then add the turmeric and chilli powder. Stir well and pour over the cut square cakes. Sprinkle coconut and corriander leaves on top.

Add lime juice if and as desired.

Tastes best when served with green chutney - Corriander chutney, mint chutney but i served it with Peru chi chutney (Guava chutney). I will upload the recipe in next post!

Serve the wafolas warm, and am sure they will be relished by everyone in the family :)

Happy Cooking! :)

Cabbage Foogath

Goa!!! That word surely make my eyes shine as my love for that place grows each and every time i visit it. I must have visited Goa every year before i shifted to Delhi, and each time i have come back a little happier, a little wiser. Yes, Goa has a lot to offer than just beaches and beer. There is so much to learn about the history, culture, traditions and of course cuisine. Though Goa is known for it's seafood, there is a wide variety of choices for vegetarians too. Not to miss the amount of spices and variety of vinegar available there only adds to to the variety of dishes.

Though world cuisine has taken it's spread in Goa, there is still an immense influence of Portuguese food in a lot of traditional dishes served. We all know the famous Vindaloo. Traditionally, the name was Vin-dahlo (meaning vinegar and garlic). So, the basic recipe of Vindahlo was with Garlic, shallots, sea salt, pork, some khada masala as cinnamon, black pepper, cloves and of course vinegar! That's it! It was slow cooked on wood-fire in clay pots for hours together which would be carried by people travelling in ships from one place to other.

Less spices (majorly whole spices), slow cooking (usually on traditional stove-tops of wood or coal) and using what was available locally together amalgamated this wonderful fusion cooking. So, East Indian cuisine has a lot of influence of British, Portuguese and Maharashtrian cuisine. I will have a different post about it someday. But just for the information, East Indians were the original inhabitants of Mumbai !! The details caught my eye on a recent television show i saw recently and hubby gifted me this amazing cookbook by Chef Michael Swamy :

Cabbage Foogath is a recipe i adapted from this book. Foogath is a Goan word that came from the Portuguese word " Refogar " meaning "to fry with oil or butter and seasoning". So, foogath is basically a vegetable side dish that is cooked with minimal ingredients and is ready within minutes. It is extremely easy and extremely flavourful. Foogath can be made from french beans, ivy gourd or even capsicum. Some add curry leaves, some add fresh grated coconut on top. I didn't have both, so i skipped (neither has it been mentioned in the recipe book). Some even add cashews or vinegar for a different taste.

Ingredients:

Cabbage : 250 gm

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste (Sea salt or rock salt tastes great, but normal salt would do too)

Pepper - to taste

Garlic - 8-10 sliced thinly

Poppy seeds (Khus khus) - 1 tsp

Onion - 1 small (chopped) The recipe didn't call for it, but i added for a different taste.

Recipe:

Wash and Grate/ shred the cabbage finely.

In a pan, heat ghee. You can use oil too.

Add poppy seeds. When they splutter, add the garlic. Saute till they are brown.

Add the onions and saute till they are translucent.

Add in the cabbage , salt and pepper.

Mix well and saute for about 5 minutes.

Cover the pan with lid and steam cook for another 3-5 minutes. Keep stirring in between to avoid burning and ensure even cooking.

Traditionally, it is served hot with rice, but tastes great with a roti or paratha too. 

Happy Cooking :)

Cabbage Cucumber soup

As i have mentioned before, cooking is an art learnt through observation, sharing and practicing. Once you learn the basics, the sky is the limit. There are times when a dish goes wrong - it turns out too salty, or too sweet or little too hard or little too bland. But there are always some additions or subtractions that can be done to make it right! Or altogether make it into a new dish :) But that's how one learns, isn't it?

Writing this blog is not only giving me immense happiness but has changed my eating habits too. The desire to make something new, or to keep on upgrading my cooking skills (Majorly to get that smile of a full satisfied tummy on hubby's face) has resulted in me starting to eat ingredients that i was not much fond of, a few years back! I don't know whether i have developed that taste, or my palate has changed, or its excitement of trying something different... but it surely is all happening for good and i am thoroughly enjoying this journey.

Just as i was not much fond of soups except the regular Tomato soup or Sweet corn soup, these days i enjoy gulping down a bowl of different varieties of them. And more so, to make and try them at home! I tried the spring onion soup recently, of which i haven't taken a pic, so i will make it again and post the recipe. This cabbage cucumber soup is one rich, creamy thick soup and has mild flavours. It is filling and goes absolutely great with a salad, noodles or a sandwich.

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 1 n half cups chopped

Cucumber - 1 medium chopped

Salt- to taste

Garlic - 6-7 chopped

Onion - 1 small chopped (optional)

Pepper - to taste

Cream - on top to garnish (I used homemade cream - just whisked it smooth)

Butter - 2 tbsp

Corriander powder - 1 tsp

Bay leaf - 1

Cumin powder - to garnish

Water - about 2-3 cups (Add more if required)

Recipe:

Wash and chop the vegetables well.

In a pan/pot, add butter. Now add the bay leaf. 

Add the garlic and saute till they turn brown. Add in the onions (if adding) and saute till they are translucent.

Add cabbage and mix it all well. Cabbage will start leaving water slowly and cook it its own steam. Keep stirring, so it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn. If you find it happening so, add in a little water or vegetable stock. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes.

Add the chopped cucumber, salt, corriander powder and pepper. Mix it all well. Cover the pan with lid and cook for about 2 minutes.

Now add the vegetable stock or water and let it come to boil.

Cover and cook till the vegetables turn soft.

Let it cool. Remove the bay leaf.

Make a smooth paste of the cooked vegetables in a mixer-grinder or with a hand blender.

Put this creamy rich soup back in the pan and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add more water if the soup is too thick. Check for seasoning.

Garnish with cumin powder and cream.

Happy Cooking :)

Stuffed Cabbage Roll : Something "Exotic"?

Honey, Make something Exotic : When i keep watching some cookery show program on TV, or some food channel, my husband always asks me to make something "Exotic" like they show on the TV...There were a few recipes that i tried after noting them down, but the presentation shown on television is somehow always better than the one we make at home... The same way, i had always wondered why home cooked food doesn't taste like the ones served in restaurants. There is always a taste difference...No doubt, that home cooked food is always healthier and delicious, we still love to eat out, for the change of taste and for the excitement of trying something new and "exotic" ! Exotic literally means "Out of ordinary" or something "different". Exotic in cooking would mean, making something which we don't eat everyday or cooking something with ingredients not commonly found. And yes, i always wanted to make something like that....

Inspired by Little MasterChef : The show on one of the leading Indian television channel is a hit with all the foodies and the Mommy's. With cute little kids posing as chefs and cooking a given dish, putting in their creativity and managing to make something different everytime in a given period of time is fun to watch! Kids really add a different taste to the whole show. On one such show, i saw the kids making red cabbage rolls with prawn filling. And though, they don't show the recipe anytime, i just put "2 and 2" together and thought of trying it at home with my version of vegetables. And not only did it taste good, it looked "Exotic" too :) That's something that made my husband happy :)

We are not much of a "Cabbage sabzi" fans, so when we buy cabbage, we normally make Cabbage Parathas or this dish now. Red cabbage is hard to find here, so i tried it with the green cabbage. This is like a complete dish in itself ( when served with sauce ) and filling too, or you can serve it as a starter( without the sauce), or as a dish to be eaten with Rotis or Parathas. Stuffed Cabbage rolls is a common dish in eastern Europe and the stuffing varies from region to region, with the dominant ingredient being meat. You can also add chicken or any other vegetable of your choice to the stuffing. Be as creative as you can :) 

Ingredients :

Potatoes - 3 medium sized ( boiled and chopped )

Carrots - 1 small ( chopped into dices and boiled )

Cauliflower florets - 1 cup ( boiled )

Green peas ( 1/2 cup boiled ) - optional.

Onion - 2 medium size ( chopped finely )

Garlic - 5 ( chopped finely )
Milk - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp ( you can alternatively add green chillies chopped finely )
Cabbage leaves - 6 big ones ( make sure when you take out those leaves, they are not torn and stiff)
Cream - 1/2 cup
Tomato paste/Ketchup - 1/2 cup
Corriander leaves - to garnish
Thread - to tie the leaves
Salt - to taste
And of course Pepper.... It makes any dish yummy :) Add according to taste

Recipe :

When you boil the vegetables, save the vegetable stock. We would require it later ( around 1/2- 3/4 cup).

Heat Butter in a pan, add milk to it. Add the boiled potatoes and mash it well. Cover and cook it for 2 minutes. 

Then add the boiled cauliflower and carrots ( and/or any other vegetable of your choice) and mix it all well. Let it cook covered for another 2 minutes. 

Then add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Mix it all well and then add the chopped garlic and half of the chopped onions. Let it cook till everything mixes well. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.

Boil water in a big bowl, and put the cabbage leaves in it.( Make sure the leaves are entirely immersed in water). Allow it to cook till the leaves soften ( takes around 10-12 minutes )... don't boil the leaves too soft, otherwise it would be difficult to make a roll later on. The leaves start changing colour, that's when you see that they are cooked.

Take them out and place them under cold water for a minute.

Now, as shown, take the cabbage leaf and put around 1-2 tbsp of stuffing in the center.

Fold the side leaf from both sides into center, so the stuffing is packed inside well. Make sure you do it carefully without tearing the leaf apart.

Now wrap the cabbage roll with a thread in the middle and around the sides.

Once you make all the rolls ready, heat a pan with 1 tbsp oil or butter and place the rolls into the pan, fry one side till it gets golden brown colour and turn and fry on the other side well till it gets the same colour. Remove the rolls when done.

In the same pan, add half of the onions kept aside. Add around 1/2- 3/4 cup veg stock, and the tomato paste. Let it come to a boil. Then add the cream and some salt and pepper. Cook till it becomes a nice creamy thick sauce.

Place the rolls in a plate and put the sauce on top. Garnish with some Corriander leaves :)

Your "Exotic" dish is ready!!!!

Happy Cooking :)