Mallum (Mallung)
-Sri LankaThis recipe is a delicious way to optimise your intake of green leafy vegetables. My favourite version is with silver-beet leaves, but it works very well with Kai-Lan (aka chinese broccoli), Kale, brussel-sprouts, broccoli, gotu-kola, cabbage... in short any type of leaf.
Ingredients:
1-2 tsp of oil
2cups -Leafy vegetable - chopped finely
1 handful -Shredded coconut
Salt to taste
1/2 onion -sliced finely
1-2 tsp Red chilli - dry flakes or chopped fresh chili
+/- black mustard seeds
+/- curry leaves
If using brussel-sprouts or cabbage also add a couple of teaspoons of black mustard seeds with the onion.
Make sure the leafy vegetable is chopped very finely. The easiest way is to arrange all the leaves into a sheaf and slice through the sheaf of leaves.
Use a large frying pan or wok. Make sure the pan is big or else the finished dish will be very watery. If you have a non-stick pan you can use very little oil. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion(+/-mustard and curry leaves) until starting to brown, then add the coconut followed by the leafy vegetable and chilli.
Stir the leaves-coconut mixture until the leaves are wilting, add salt, and move to a serving dish before the become over done. The tricky part is to judge when the leaves are cooked, but not to overcook them or else they will lose their colour. The Aim is to have an end-product which is even greener in colour than the fresh vegetable. Taste test and add more salt if necessary.
Enjoy with rice.
:-)
