I love this blog so much, thank you for writing it!
I just made this and found that I could barely taste the mustard seed, so the dish just tasted like...salted cabbage?
I even went back and redid the recipe with 3x more seeds and re-cooked the same cabbage and the taste is still very subtle (occasionally I bite a seed and get a hit of ~poppy seed flavor) - is that right?! Maybe my seeds are old or something!
Amazing job trying it and then redoing with 3x more seeds! That's exactly the kind of investigation that I love to see.
How long did you let the mustard seeds cook in oil? Did they spatter, swell, and sizzle? Did some of them pop like popcorn and jump out of the pan? You should have a tiny bit of a mess in the kitchen afterwards with little black seeds on the floor and the counter and maybe even the ceiling! You should also be able to smell a warm toasty aroma.
If the mustard seeds don't react this way regardless of how long you let them hang out in the oil, they're likely old.
If you buy new mustard seeds and they do all the above when you heat them in oil, and you still find it subtle, then that's Just Fine -- this dish is pretty subtle! It's a gentle side dish, and the mustard seeds are there to provide a slight accent to the basic cabbage flavor. It's not a Big Flavors Showstopper, for sure.
My seeds definitely sizzled and I *think* jumped out of the pan, but they're also pretty old and my tongue is used to being blasted with flavor 😅 I'll do this again and experiment with longer times (at the risk of burning); thank you again!
Oh and wow thank you for the praise :O I hope I live up to your expectations! Oh and you know Priya and Andrew, that's dope! I love them and they're pretty much directly responsible for my class and this blog happening. Thanks Priya and Andrew!
I recommend that you burn the spices at least once! I'll write a post about this soon, but one of the first things we do in my in-person class is that we deliberately burn the spices to see what that tastes, smells and looks like. The idea is that you'll eventually burn spices anyway just in the natural course of cooking; might as well do it early, in a controlled setting, with low stakes and cheap ingredients. By burning them you learn how much runway you have. If you've never burned spices then you're probably not being aggressive enough at coaxing flavor out of them!
Spices being old: yeah this is real. Powdered spices lose flavor fast, whole spices more slowly, and whole spices in the freezer slowest of all. I don't know where you're located but in most North American and Western European cities you can usually order mustard seeds online for a reasonable price.
1) would it mess things up to add salt almost immediately after adding the cabbage from the pan? I know the water will come out faster but is that a bad thing?
2) if I buy mustard seeds at a standard US grocery store, will they be the right kind? I know there’s black and yellow varieties. What’s the difference (besides the color)? Does it matter which one I get?
1. No, it will not mess things up at all! In fact it is a good idea. You're right that it will make water come out (due to osmosis) but that is desirable and will in fact make the cooking go faster. You will see many grandmas and Indian YouTube chefs add salt when they're sauteing onions to "make them cook faster". This is because the water heats faster when it's not insulated by the plant cell walls and other plant material. The higher temperatures make the plants break down and get soft and translucent more quickly.
2. Yellow mustard seeds are milder but have a pretty similar flavor profile, so they're a workable substitute. Just add more, maybe 1.5-2x as much. In US gorcery stores, Morton & Bassett brown mustard seeds work great for Indian food but they're very expensive and not any better than what I can get online or from an Indian store. I will use either in a pinch!
There are also brown vs. black mustard seeds. People claim that the difference between them is important but I feel confident in publicly stating that the difference is negligible. I'd be happy to be challenged to double blind taste test between black and brown mustard seeds!
I don't even bother putting (un-chopped) cabbage in the fridge. It's quite happy to sit on the kitchen counter for a week. Sometimes the part exposed to air goes a bit soft or whatever. I just cut it off with a knife and it's all good.
I love this blog so much, thank you for writing it!
I just made this and found that I could barely taste the mustard seed, so the dish just tasted like...salted cabbage?
I even went back and redid the recipe with 3x more seeds and re-cooked the same cabbage and the taste is still very subtle (occasionally I bite a seed and get a hit of ~poppy seed flavor) - is that right?! Maybe my seeds are old or something!
Amazing job trying it and then redoing with 3x more seeds! That's exactly the kind of investigation that I love to see.
How long did you let the mustard seeds cook in oil? Did they spatter, swell, and sizzle? Did some of them pop like popcorn and jump out of the pan? You should have a tiny bit of a mess in the kitchen afterwards with little black seeds on the floor and the counter and maybe even the ceiling! You should also be able to smell a warm toasty aroma.
If the mustard seeds don't react this way regardless of how long you let them hang out in the oil, they're likely old.
If you buy new mustard seeds and they do all the above when you heat them in oil, and you still find it subtle, then that's Just Fine -- this dish is pretty subtle! It's a gentle side dish, and the mustard seeds are there to provide a slight accent to the basic cabbage flavor. It's not a Big Flavors Showstopper, for sure.
My seeds definitely sizzled and I *think* jumped out of the pan, but they're also pretty old and my tongue is used to being blasted with flavor 😅 I'll do this again and experiment with longer times (at the risk of burning); thank you again!
(said some nice things abt this blog here :,)
https://twitter.com/not_a_hot_girl/status/1782707956124950871
https://twitter.com/not_a_hot_girl/status/1782707960235401607
Oh and wow thank you for the praise :O I hope I live up to your expectations! Oh and you know Priya and Andrew, that's dope! I love them and they're pretty much directly responsible for my class and this blog happening. Thanks Priya and Andrew!
I recommend that you burn the spices at least once! I'll write a post about this soon, but one of the first things we do in my in-person class is that we deliberately burn the spices to see what that tastes, smells and looks like. The idea is that you'll eventually burn spices anyway just in the natural course of cooking; might as well do it early, in a controlled setting, with low stakes and cheap ingredients. By burning them you learn how much runway you have. If you've never burned spices then you're probably not being aggressive enough at coaxing flavor out of them!
Spices being old: yeah this is real. Powdered spices lose flavor fast, whole spices more slowly, and whole spices in the freezer slowest of all. I don't know where you're located but in most North American and Western European cities you can usually order mustard seeds online for a reasonable price.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J5SCO48/ is good and so is https://www.amazon.com/Swad-Seeds-Mustard-7-OZ/dp/B004A1A31G
Look for black or brown mustard seeds! The yellow ones work but are less flavorful.
Questions:
1) would it mess things up to add salt almost immediately after adding the cabbage from the pan? I know the water will come out faster but is that a bad thing?
2) if I buy mustard seeds at a standard US grocery store, will they be the right kind? I know there’s black and yellow varieties. What’s the difference (besides the color)? Does it matter which one I get?
Thanks for these questions!
1. No, it will not mess things up at all! In fact it is a good idea. You're right that it will make water come out (due to osmosis) but that is desirable and will in fact make the cooking go faster. You will see many grandmas and Indian YouTube chefs add salt when they're sauteing onions to "make them cook faster". This is because the water heats faster when it's not insulated by the plant cell walls and other plant material. The higher temperatures make the plants break down and get soft and translucent more quickly.
2. Yellow mustard seeds are milder but have a pretty similar flavor profile, so they're a workable substitute. Just add more, maybe 1.5-2x as much. In US gorcery stores, Morton & Bassett brown mustard seeds work great for Indian food but they're very expensive and not any better than what I can get online or from an Indian store. I will use either in a pinch!
There are also brown vs. black mustard seeds. People claim that the difference between them is important but I feel confident in publicly stating that the difference is negligible. I'd be happy to be challenged to double blind taste test between black and brown mustard seeds!
I don't even bother putting (un-chopped) cabbage in the fridge. It's quite happy to sit on the kitchen counter for a week. Sometimes the part exposed to air goes a bit soft or whatever. I just cut it off with a knife and it's all good.
nice