Gujarati sambharo

This is one of the best side dishes there is!!
I first savoured this dish when I was younger, from a restaurant in Leicester. It was a really hot summers day and we had been shopping down the "golden mile". This is an area in Leicester which is dripping in beautiful jewellery shops, saree shops and sweet marts. For me it is such and amazing place to shops. Anyway back to what I was saying!! I was shopping down Belgrave road and we stopped at one of the sweet marts to get some savoury snacks and they gave us two little pots with the snacks. In one was an amazing green chutney and in the other one was some sambharo. I loved it from the first mouthful. The lady who I was with noticed how I had woffed the whole lot down in one nearly, so she told me about her family recipe and wrote me a copy. When I cooked this recipe for the first time I did not follow her instruction to draw out the water from the vegetables with salt and the end result was still nice, but it did not taste anything like the real thing so I really do recommend that you follow that step, otherwise you will end up with a stir-fry!

Ingredients:-

1/2 white cabbage, stem removed, or 1 whole small cabbage
2 carrots peeled,
1 small onion or 1/2 large, peeled,
2-3 fat green chillies,
1 tsp
3 tbs oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds,
a pinch of cumin seeds,
1/4-1/2tsp asafoetida ( hing )
5-7 curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric powder,
1 tbs lemon juice,
fresh coriander.

Directions:-

1) Shred all of the vegetables separately in an electric chopper.

2) Put the carrots and the cabbage into a large bowl and set aside for at least 1/2 hour.

3) After 1/2 hour, pick up large handfuls of the cabbage and carrots and squeeze out as much of the water as you can and put aside in a dry bowl. Continue this process until all the veg have been squeezed.

4) Heat a wok over a medium to high heat with the oil and add the mustard seed. Wait until they pop and then add a pinch of cumin seeds and the asafoetida.

5) Take the pan off the heat and add the curry leaves.

6) Add the onion and the chillies and return to the heat. Fry until the onions turn translucent.

7) Turn the heat down to low and add the turmeric and the lemon juice.

8) Add the vegetables and mix in on a low- medium heat for a few minutes.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot or cold. This recipe is really nice with mixed vegetable pakora's, or aloo paratha and yoghurt.

Please feel free to post your opinions or advice. Thanks!! :-) :-) :-)

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