Cabbage Parcels

       During my overdue lunch last week with a group of friends, two of them asked me to mail few healthy recipes. Then came the suggestion from a family member that instead of sending them to individuals, why don’t I post them on my blog. Few other friends who did not want to do hit and trial methods, before standardization, immediately appreciated it. I decided to go ahead with this idea, since cooking is an acquired hobby for me, which is always appreciated and encouraged by family and friends for obvious reasons.  

I decided to go for something very easy, tasty and healthy as my first step. This starter is very easy and convenient to cook. You can prepare it before hand. Just steam it when you want to serve and gaze the surprise in everybody’s eyes when different flavors hit the taste buds. So this is for Sumita and Parab and other friends……………

Cabbage Parcels

Ingredients

         Cabbage-1 (try to get fresh one of medium size)

        Keema-300gms. (Whatever meat your taste buds prefer)(boiled soya keema for vegetarians)

        Thai red chillies-2

        Garlic cloves-2

        Ginger- 1 inch piece

        Light soya sauce-1 Tbsp.

        Fish sauce-1 Tbsp.( one can use oyster sauce also but I prefer Fish sauce because  of my daughter’s allergy)

        Sesames Oil-1 Tbsp.

         Brown Sugar-1 and ½ Tsp.

     Ground nuts-1/4 cup

Make a paste (not very fine) of Thai chilies, garlic and ginger.

Roast the groundnuts in a dry pan. Remove the brown skin and make coarse powder of them.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the paste of chilies, garlic and ginger when it is hot. Stir it and roast it a bit till the flavor starts coming. Now add the keema and start cooking it. It will start releasing water. Add soya sauce, fish sauce and brown sugar. Keep cooking till the water evaporates and meat is granular. It will take 7-8 minutes.Remove it from the heat.

Separate the cabbage leaves from the bud in a manner that whole leaf is separated. Discard first 1-2 leaves. Take out 12-15 leaves for 300 gms. Keema. Take a big pan and boil enough of water in it. Now dip one leaf at a time in water while the water is still boiling. Dip it for two or three minutes and remove from the boiling water with the help of a tong. Put it on a dry kitchen towel and repeat the same procedure with another leaf. Basically this is to make the cabbage leaves tender so that they can be folded easily. You have to make all the leaves tender this way and let them dry on a towel.

By this time your keema mix is at room temperature. Add the groundnut powder to the mixture.

Take one leaf at a time. Trim the hard part of the leaf from where it was attached to the bud. Put 2 teaspoons full of mix on the leaf and fold it like a parcel. If your leaf is not tender enough and parcels are opening up, you can secure them with the help of a toothpick.

 Make all the parcels this way and steam them for 10-12 minutes in a steamer. Serve them hot with any sauce or dip of your choice, though I prefer hot garlic sauce or a mix of sweet and hot chili sauce.

 You can also store them in a box in the fridge and steam them when you want to serve. That is what I usually do.