Cabbage on sunflowers

Ingredients for 4 small plates or 2 bigger portions:

• 1 cabbage (Hispy cabbage, Taiwanese cabbage or any other non-purple one)
• olive oil

• 100g sunflower seeds
• 10g red onion
• 25g olive oil
• 25g mirin
• 5g tamari soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder

Methods:

• Cut the cabbage into wedges of similar thickness. They will have to fit into your frying pan in a single layer, so this could be 2-8 wedges depending on the size of the cabbage and your pan.
• Place sunflower seeds in a large frying pan and toast them on high heat. Toss them frequently until most of them turn golden or lightly brown.
• Once the seeds are out of the pan, arrange the cabbage wedges in a single layer, splash them with water, cover with a lid and steam on high heat. If one of the wedges didn’t fit into the pan initially, wait for the ones in the pan to soften and more space will appear.
• Keep adding more water until the cabbage softens and its green colour (if any) becomes brighter.
• In the meantime, roughly chop the red onion and place it into a bowl along with sunflower seeds, olive oil (25g), mirin, tamari soy sauce, chilli powder and 80g of water. Handblender everything into a sauce.
• Once the cabbage has softened, drain or evaporate all the water from the pan. Add olive oil in between the wedges and lift them slightly one by one to let the oil underneath. Fry until the edges of the cabbage start to char. Flip the wedges and wait for the other side to start charring.
• To serve, spread sunflower sauce on the plates and top it with cabbage wedges.

Notes: This recipe uses reverse sear technique, as described by Lan Lam.