Cabbage Rice (Kai Sasive Anna)

Ok, I had a long ‘vacation-of-the-year’ and back. After the vacation, it was my BIL’s engagement, which took most of my time with preparations, shopping, etc! I’m now ‘Badi Bahoo’ :P, so more responsibilities!

In between all these, there was also this Bangalore Food Bloggers’ meet last Saturday, where some 20+ people met up, ate and had fun! Thanks to Madhuri who arranged it all. Here’s a pic of all of us :)

Now I’m back to routine, but still not been able to catch up with so many things! With full time office, and so many hobbies and activities, I feel I hardly get enough time for anything! Wish there were many more hours in a day ;)

Now to today’s recipe.... this is one very simple and wholesome rice item, with lots of cabbage in it. Chop the cabbage fine or even shred it, which is the only time consuming part. I use the hand held vegetable chopper esp for this and I get very finely chopped cabbage in a few minutes! Makes a good lunch box item.

Here’s the recipe...

Cabbage Rice (Kai sasive anna)

Preparation time : 10 min, excluding time to prepare rice
Cooking time : 15 min
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 4 cups, sona masuri variety
Cabbage - 2 cups, finely chopped
Grated coconut - 2-3 Tbsp
Green chilies - 5-6, as per taste
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Tamarind - a small marble sized ball (optional)
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Coriander leaves - for tempering
For tempering:
Cooking oil - 1-2 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Peanuts - 2 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 Tbsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste

Method:
• Spread the cooked rice in a wide bowl and add a teaspoon of oil so that the grains do not stick
• Keep aside for 5 minutes to cool
• In a pan, heat oil and make tempering:
• Add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
• Add groundnut seeds and fry for a few seconds
• Add Bengal gram dal and urad dal and fry till golden
• Add curry leaves and turmeric and fry for a minute or two till all the ingredients are crisp
• Transfer the tempering to a bowl and pour back only the oil into the pan, carefully
• Add finely chopped cabbage and cover with a lid and let cook on low heat
• If needed, sprinkle some water and stir occasionally
• Meanwhile, grind the green chilies, coconut, tamarind, salt, ½ tsp of mustard seeds in a mixie to form a coarse mixture. Do not add any water
• Add the ground mixture to the cooked cabbage and mix thoroughly, with the heat on
• Once the mixture is well sautéed, turn off the heat
• Add this and the reserved tempering to the spread rice and mix thoroughly
• Serve warm or pack it off for lunch box!

Notes:
• Make rice with a bit lesser water, so that the grains are separate and not sticky