Kerala Cabbage Thoran
Cabbage cut fine, cooked just past raw, tossed with coconut crushed with garlic and cumin, and a spoon of raw coconut oil poured over at the end.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 500 g cabbage, chopped fine (about 4 cups)
- 2 tbsp Cold Pressed Coconut Oil, plus ½ tsp to finish
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 2 dried red chillies, broken
- 1 sprig curry leaves (10 to 12 leaves)
- 4 shallots or 1 small onion, chopped fine
- ½ cup (50 g) fresh grated coconut
- 2 green chillies, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 2 tbsp water
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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Lunchtime in a Thrissur house. The rice goes on the plate first, then the sambar, and the thoran is spooned quietly on the side. It never gets talked about, and it is the thing your hand keeps going back to. Cabbage chopped as fine as anyone has the patience for, cooked five minutes under a lid, then the coconut mixture folded in and warmed through. Total time, half an hour.
Wooden cold pressed coconut oil is not a substitute in Kerala, it is the taste itself. Ours is pressed from copra, dried coconut, in a slow wooden ghaani, the way the old mills do it. In the pan it takes the mustard seeds and urad dal to a proper crackle, and then half a teaspoon goes in raw right at the end, off the heat. That last spoon does not cook, it only smells, and it is what makes the plate smell like a Kerala kitchen.
The one thing that decides thoran is how coarse you keep the coconut. Pulse it with the green chilli, garlic and cumin three or four times, no more, or pound it in a mortar. It should stay rough and flaky. Grind it smooth and the thoran turns into a pasty coat instead of loose flakes clinging to crisp cabbage.
How to make it
- Chop the cabbage as fine as you can. Rinse and drain well.
- Put the grated coconut, green chillies, garlic, cumin and turmeric in a mixer. Pulse 3 or 4 times without water, till roughly crushed. Or pound them in a mortar. Keep it coarse.
- Heat the coconut oil in a kadhai on medium. Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add the urad dal, dried red chillies and curry leaves. Fry for 30 seconds till the dal turns golden.
- Add the shallots. Fry for 2 minutes till soft.
- Add the cabbage and salt. Stir to coat it in the oil. Sprinkle 2 tbsp water, cover, and cook on low for 5 to 6 minutes. Stir once in between.
- Uncover. The cabbage should be tender but still have a little crunch. Add the coconut mix and stir well.
- Cook uncovered for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, till the coconut warms through and any water dries up. Switch off.
- Drizzle ½ tsp raw coconut oil on top for aroma, the Kerala way. Serve hot with rice and sambar, rasam or moru curry.
Tips
- The same method works for beans, carrot, beetroot or a mix. Cut them small and give harder vegetables 2 to 3 minutes more under the lid.
- Fresh coconut is best. Frozen grated coconut works too, thaw it first. Skip desiccated coconut, it turns dry and chewy.
- Thoran is best eaten the same day. Make what you will finish, it only takes 30 minutes anyway.
