Bandhkopir Charchari | Cabbage Fry

Cabbage is an extremely versatile vegetable. When cooked correctly, it can hold its own to pretty much any other vegetable. This of course means  - no boiling cabbage. I had read about boiled cabbage in so many English books but could never actually fathom how the vegetable could be eaten in this form. In my humble opinion, cabbage is not a vegetable that takes kindly to being boiled. It tends to wilt in the most unsavoury fashion and acquires the most unappetizing grey pallor!! To make matters it tastes pretty much like nothing on earth, a fact that I discovered in person when attending a conference in Northern England not too many years ago! Needless to say the experience confirmed my belief that soggy cabbage is inedible, but it did not dent my love of this vegetable.

Whenever I do a grocery round, I make a point to buy a nice head of cabbage, but I always try and make a different recipe with it. As cabbage is pretty much generic to cuisines across the world. especially India, this is not at all a difficult task. Today I am sharing a recipe that I have wanted to share for a long long time. It is Bandhkopir Charchari, a Bengali classic!! A simple and delicious vegetable to accompany Indian flatbreads, particularly the sinfully deep fried pooris!!

More Cabbage Recipes @ Annarasa
Patta Gobhi Aloo | Cabbage Potato Stir Fry
Til Tarka Patta Gobhi | Sesame Tempered Cabbage
Patta Gobhi ki Bhurji | Creamy Scrambled Cabbage
Patta Gobhi Nariya | Sauteed Cabbage with Coconut

Ingredients:
1 small cabbage, shredded
1 medium onion, sliced fine
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp ginger, grated
2 red chilies

For Tempering:
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp panch phoron

Method:

1. Heat the two tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add the sliced onions and fry on a medium heat, stirring occasionally until they turn transparent.
2. Add the shredded cabbage to the pan, stir until it is well coated with the oil.
3. Allow to cook for 3 minutes, stir, cook for 5 minutes.
4. Grind the mustard seeds, ginger, and red chilies until you have a coarse paste.
5. Add this to the cabbage with a couple of tablespoons of water.
6. Stir and cook for another 3-4 minutes or until the cabbage is cooked but still crunchy.
7. Add salt to taste. Mix well and cook until the oil begins to separate from the vegetable.
8. For the tempering, heat the oil in a small saucepan until it reaches smoking point. 
9. Reduce the heat and immediately add the panch phoron.
10. Turn off the heat and pour the tempering into the cooked vegetable, stir, and enjoy hot with pooris.

Good to Know

• Adjust the number of chilies as per taste. I find that the unique taste of mustard and ginger gets lost if you add to many chilies, hence only two in this recipe.
• While making the tempering, make sure you exercise precaution by standing well away from the pan. The spices will pop and sometimes fly out of the pan.

Vegan Recipe

Like this recipe. Tried it. Leave me a comment:) 

All content, text and photographs in this blog, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright of © Annarasa 2007 - 2013. All Rights Reserved. Kindly do not reproduce without permission.