Seasonal recipe No 28 – Fried cabbage with juniper
“A wonderfully healthy and delicious lunch. Have the cabbage on its own, or on top of a bowl of rice,” says Sarah Raven in whose Garden Cookbook this recipe appears.
Serves 4-6
Preparation time 5 minutes
Cooking time 15 minutes
Ingredients
1 small savoy cabbage
1 tbsp dry-fried sesame seeds (you can mix in sunflower seeds too)
1 tbsp juniper berries, crushed
2 garlic cloves, chopped
sea salt
2 tbsp ground nut oil
1 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced (green would do but red better for colour)
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh root ginger
1 tbsp runny honey
splash of Japanese soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper
bunch of coriander, coarsely chopped (optional)
Method
Cut the cabbage into four and discard the hard white centre and leaf midribs before shredding finely. Dry-fry the sesame seeds on a gentle heat until they’re golden brown. This will take about 5 minutes, but don’t let them burn. Then put them to one side. Crush the juniper berries and garlic with the sea salt, using a pestle and mortar.
Heat a tablespoon of the groundnut oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the chilli and cook for 1 minute on medium heat. Scoop the chilli out of the oil, leaving the spicy oil in the pan and add the sesame seeds. Add the rest of the groundnut oil and the sesame oil to the same pan and then the cabbage, salt, juniper berries and garlic. Turn up the heat. Stir every minute or so for 5 minutes and then add all the other ingredients except the coriander. Stir for another couple of minutes and remove from the heat. The cabbage should still be crunchy. This tastes lovely with coriander leaves – add some chopped over the top.
