Muttar Keema Gobi - Shredded Cabbage with Minced Meat & Peas

Shredded Cabbage with Minced Meat & Peas

This is another dish inspired by Mum. She would take a whole cabbage, remove the core and stuff it with spiced, seasoned and browned ground meat. The cabbage would then be bound with kitchen twine so it wouldn't fall apart and browned on top of the stove. From the frying pan, the bound cabbage would be transferred to the pressure cooker with a wee bit of water, brought up to full pressure and cooked over medium-low heat for about half an hour. The yummiest stuffed cabbage there ever was!

I deconstructed it and made a stir-fried, shredded cabbage with ground sausage meat. The longer the cabbage is cooked, the sweeter it tastes, so take the time to simmer and stir till the cabbage turns golden brown.


Ingredients:
1 lb. ground hot Italian sausage meat
1 cup frozen peas
2 large onions, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. ginger paste
1 large tomato, diced
3 green chilies, minced
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. panch phoron (Bengali 5-spice)
1 tsp. roasted panch phoron powder
1 tsp. Kashmiri mirch/paprika
1/2 tsp. Bengali garam masala powder
1 tsp. ghee

Directions:

1. Heat oil and sputter cinnamon stick, star anise, bay leaves and panch phoron.
2. Add hot sausage meat, break up the lumps and brown.
3. Toss onions into the pan along with minced garlic and ginger paste.
4. Stir-fry until onions turn translucent, add tomatoes and chilies, cover and simmer until tomatoes soften.
5. Add shredded cabbage to pan, season with salt & sugar to taste and stir well.
6. Sprinkle roasted panch phoron powder and Kashmiri mirch over the cabbage.
7. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until all liquid evaporates and cabbage turns golden brown.
8. Pour peas into pan and stir again, sprinkle with garam masala and garnish with ghee. 

Serve with hot rice or chapatis.