One of my favorite cabbage recipes:

http://southanchoragefarmersmarket.c...it_mung_beans/

Especially if you're in a backwater Asian market though, be sure to read the package label on the split moong dal, because some of them have yellow food coloring in them. I would think you could make this with whole moong dal (mung beans) which you can find easily anywhere, but you'd probably want to soak them first.

But my favorite recipe for whole mung beans is Madhur Jaffrey's Filipino-style recipe: http://wegottaeat.com/wegottaeat/rec...es-philippines . You can use any greens, IIRC the original Filipino version uses something local, but milder flavored greens are better than stronger ones in this IMO. Red Russian kale works just fine.

Definitely get a pressure cooker and one of Lorna Sass's cookbooks. You could drop strong hints that either or both would be a great housewarming gift.