Stir Fried Cabbage

I love stir fried veggies, whether they're combination type or single veg one, they're welcome to my stomach any time (well probably not at breakfast). This dish is a singleton - featuring the irrepressible cabbage. The humble cabbage has a lot of health benefits like helping in preventing cancers (stomach, colon, breast), prevents ulcers, stimulates the immune system, etc. Although, like most anything in life I would suggest moderation in eating cabbage because it can also block the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland which results in reduced secretion of the thyroxin hormones which in turn regulates metabolism in our body. How do I know? I have hypothyrodism (means: my thyroid is too shy to give out enough hormones) and I know from the PGH Internal Medicine team's (or whatever they were called) research of farmers in the area of Baguio, Philippines that the cause of the high incidence of hypo/hyperthyrodism in the area is because cabbage is a staple food of theirs. So I wouldn't recommend eating cabbage 3 times a day but have it once in a while maybe once a week.

Now this is sounding like a medical blog ... let's get back into the cooking fire. The only problem I had when I cooked this is that the cabbages here in UK are quite tough compared to the one in Asia. The leaves are certainly thicker and the midrib much more. So much so that I have to trim the latter out otherwise I would have to boil it first before stir frying. Double dead. That would defeat the purpose of stir frying vegs, isn't?

This is adapted from the Chinese Cooking for Beginners by Huang Su-Huei.


Stir Fried Cabbage

450 g  cabbage - sliced to bite sized pieces
1 medium tomato - sliced
2 Tbsp cooking oil
3 Tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
2/3 tsp sea salt

1. Combine the water, sugar and salt in a bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt.
2. Heat the wok then add the oil. When the oil is smoking, add the tomato and stir fry lightly for about 30 seconds.
3. Stir in the cabbage and stir fry for about 1 minute or until a bit limp.
4. Add the water mixture and quickly stir fry until thoroughly mixed. Serve.