Cabbage Fry With Onions

For a long time, my Mom used to make cabbage curry with coconut, which was mostly sweet and went well as a side dish with rice. Although that style of cooking cabbage tasted good, it was sort of boring. That was the only method that she knew to make a dry cabbage curry and it was always either that or the cabbage koottu. One fine day, she amazed us with this really yummy cabbage fry with onions, which she had learned from a colleague at work. She didn't ask us like she normally does, if we would like to try a new dish with cabbage since she knew we would be reluctant to try any dish with cabbage ;-). Whenever I cook cabbage, my first option would be the fry with onions and only very rarely do I make the other varieties.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cabbage (any variety) - 1 small cut very finely (it should look like it has been grated into thin pieces)
Onion - 1 small or medium sized sliced into thin pieces
Green chillies - 2 slit into half (vary this to suit your taste)
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Red chilli powder - 1 full teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After they splutter, add urad dhal, asafoetida, slit green chillies and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. Immediately after step 1, add onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the cut cabbage, mix everything well, put a lid on and cook the contents on low heat until the cabbage get cooked half way through.
4. When the cabbage is half cooked, take the lid off, add red chilli powder and salt and keep frying the contents until the cabbage cooks well. This roughly takes about 15 minutes and the cabbage will turn light golden brown during the process. Turn off the stove and you have the yummy cabbage fry!

This goes very well with chappathis/rotis. The sweetness of the cabbage and onions together with the spiciness of the green chillies and red chilli powder gives it a great taste. I love it with plain curd rice as well.