Green cabbage and coconut mallung

This is a swift and easy side dish to make. The cabbage is crunchy and the turmeric gives a lovely earthy flavour and turns it all an excellent shade of yellow. Perfect as part of a curry meal but also very appropriate served with a chargrilled piece of fish.

Credit: Sharyn Cairns

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 medium French shallots, finely sliced
• 3 small garlic cloves, roughly bashed
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• ⅓ cup curry leaves
• ⅓ cup grated fresh coconut (see Note)
• 1 long green chilli, cut into thin rounds on an angle
• 1 tbsp ground Maldive fish (see Note)
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 300 g green cabbage, cut into 3 cm strips
• a squeeze of lime juice
• river salt and black pepper, to season

Instructions

Heat a large frying pan on high heat. Add the ghee and, once melted, add the shallot, garlic, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Season with a little salt, stirring as you go. After a moment add the coconut and chilli. Fry until the coconut starts to brown.

Add the Maldive fish and turmeric, give it another quick stir, and then add the cabbage. Stir vigorously for a moment or two so the cabbage gets nicely coated in all the pan bits and then throw in 80 ml (⅓ cup) water. Give it another stir and then let the cabbage sit for a moment on the bottom of the pan until slightly charred. Continue doing this (moments of stirring with moments of sitting), for about 5 minutes, until the cabbage is softened.

Remove from the heat, add a squeeze or two of lime juice, season and serve.

Notes

• If you can’t get fresh coconut, use the same amount of desiccated coconut.

• Maldive fish can be found at Sri Lankan grocers. If you can’t find it, simply omit and this dish will still be delicious.

• This dish is just as good served at room temperature as it is hot.

Photography by Sharyn Cairns. Styling by Lee Blaylock. Food preparation by Rachael Lane.

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This recipe is part of The Seasonal Cook: Cabbage column.

View previous The Seasonal Cook columns and recipes.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.