This is a dish I cook fairly regularly with variations on the spices. This time around I'm using some Indian chile that the Tadjik lady at my local market said would be spicy.

Ingredients

• sunflower oil
• 5-6 small onions chopped coarsely (two ordinary onions)
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp of whole cumin seed, ground in a spice grinder or pestle
• 1 tbsp of Indian chile
• 1/4 of a huge head of cabbage (half of a medium head), chopped
• 750 grams of ground chicken (~ 1 2/3 lbs)
• 1 cup of boiling water
• 1 chicken bouillon cube

Method

1. Chop onions coarsely.
2. Pour enough sunflower oil into the bottom of a frying pan to cover it. I'd guess the pan can be from anywhere from nine to twelve inches in diameter. Put the frying pan on medium heat.
3. Pour in the onions. Stir occasionally so that they all approach transparency together.
4. Once the onions are barely beginning to brown, add the garlic and cook till fragrant, which should be about a minute, maybe two.
5. Add the cumin and chile. Cook for one minute or so, stirring, to release the flavors into the oil.
6. Add the ground chicken. Fry. Stir occasionally, breaking up the chicken into smaller and smaller chunks.
7. Pour the boiling water into a cup. Add the bouillon cube. Mix it up till it is a broth.
8. Once the chicken looks roughly cooked, add the cabbage. Add some of the broth. Cover. Let it cook a while.
9. Stir occasionally. Add more broth if it seems like it needs it. The goal is to get the cabbage cooked and all the flavors mixed.
10. As the cabbage approaches being done, remove the cover so that the excess broth begins to evaporate and concentrate. It's okay if there is some liquid left, but we aren't aiming at a full-fledged stew.
11. Once done, turn off heat. Cover with a splatter guard so that more liquid escapes and flies don't land on the finished product.
12. Once you think it's ready, serve.

Notes:

Any time a Russian tells you that something is spicy, don't believe ’em. This recipe did have a minor bite, but it was not as spicy as the spice lady at the farmers' market said that ?Indian chile? would be. Okay, she was actually a Tadjik, still...

Nonetheless, this dish turned out great.

I'm currently in Russia. Back in the States we often cook with neutral tasting oils like safflower oil or Canola oil or mixed vegetable oil. That's understandable. They allow the taste of the ingredients to come forward. But I find myself liking Russian sunflower oil more and more. It has a distinct odor as it cooks, and a pleasant, subtle flavor in the resulting dish. Frankly, I'm tempted to try cottonseed oil and mustard oil before I leave Russia. The latter is legal here, but not in the States.