A Stir-fry of Cabbage, Tofu and Peppers

At this time of year, it’s good that I have a high tolerance for repetition and a knack for variety.  We’re – still – working our way through winter storage vegetables, which are thankfully now reduced to cabbage and a few roots. My excuse is that Easter is early this year, and the Christmas wreaths have just come down. The ground will be thawing enough for peas any day now (that’s late too) and it’s time to move on to food that I can associate with spring. So, I replaced the long-cooking roasts and stews and braises of winter’s dark days with a quick, light and healthy stir-fry that would at least taste and feel like a new season. 

The idea came from Martha Rose Shulman of the New York Times’ Health Section, who’s a pretty reliable barometer of seasonality.  In fact, so much so that I was recently in the middle of writing a post about greens and beans and she came out with one the same week. I shelved mine for a bit so that I wouldn’t seem like a poser.  

One of the considerations for weeknight cooking is timing. The more leisurely pace of the weekend allows me to cook serially, one thing after another, whereas during the week, I cook things simultaneously. I’m a natural multi-tasker anyway and I find it fun to cook what seems to be a complex meal in half an hour or so. This stir-fry calls for vegetable broth or chicken stock, neither of which I had on hand, and is accompanied by rice or quinoa. (I made quinoa for others but I preferred mine straight up, without the grain.) That meant that I adjusted the order of the tasks of a normal recipe.

During the first 20 minutes of my half-hour meal, I accomplished four tasks in the following order. (1) I washed and chopped vegetable scraps (the green ends of leeks, the last bit of a celery stalk and some small branches I had set aside, and half a carrot), placed them in a pot of salted water and brought it to a boil, reducing to simmer into a light and flavorful vegetable broth. (2) I put quinoa on to cook.  (3) I drained and sliced the tofu and placed it between towels to drain, changing the towels a couple of times.  I buy firm tofu in bulk so it’s not as waterlogged as the packaged variety, but either way it’s important to drain it well so that it will brown when cooked. (4) I prepped the vegetables and I assembled the bases for the sauce so that all I had to do was add the broth. 

The stir-fry occurred in two main steps. First, you brown sliced tofu in oil in a large sauté pan or wok, sprinkle it with soy sauce, and set it aside. Then, after adding garlic and ginger to a hot pan for seconds, in go the cabbage and peppers for couple of minutes of stir-frying. The two sauces (the second has cornstarch added to a little of the first) are added, and when everything is crisp tender, the tofu and nuts finish it off. (I would normally have used peanuts or cashews but Shulman suggested walnuts and I happened to have some. They added a pleasant crunch.) I varied the cut of Shulman’s vegetables and tinkered with some of the procedures but as usual, her recipes are simple and healthful and a pleasure to make.

And there you have it, a refreshing and flavorful meal in half an hour.

P.S. As a bonus, leftover stir-fry made for a delicious cold lunch.

Stir-fry of Cabbage, Tofu and Peppers adapted from Martha Rose Shulman, NYT

8-12 oz firm tofu (I used 8, Shulman used 12)

½ c vegetable broth (or chicken stock)

2 tbsp soy sauce, divided in half

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp rice wine or sherry

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp canola or other vegetable oil, divided in half

1 tbsp minced ginger

2 large garlic cloves, minced

½-1 red or yellow pepper, seeded, halved crosswise and sliced lengthwise into strips

½ medium cabbage (about 5 c chopped)

¼ c broken walnuts, unsalted cashews or unsalted peanuts

Hot red pepper sauce or flakes

Additional soy sauce to taste

Cooked rice or quinoa for serving

Cut the tofu into ½-inch slabs and then into 1×1-inch squares. Place between tea towels and press slightly to drain the water.  Repeat with additional towels.

In a small bowl, combine the broth, 1 tbsp of the soy sauce, sugar, rice wine or sherry and the sesame oil. Spoon 1 tbsp of the liquid into a small bowl and stir in the cornstarch until dissolved. Set aside at the edge of the stove.

Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or 12-inch skillet over high heat and add 1 tbsp of the oil. Add the tofu, turn down the heat slightly, and brown the tofu on both sides, about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and toss with the remaining 1 tbsp of soy sauce.

Add the remaining 1 tbsp of oil to the pan, add the minced ginger and garlic and stir for a few seconds. Add the sliced pepper and cabbage and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the broth and soy sauce mixture and stir for about a minute. Adjust the seasonings with hot pepper sauce or flakes and additional soy sauce. Add the cornstarch mixture and toss to glaze the cabbage slightly. Gently stir in the tofu and nuts.

Serve with cooked rice or quinoa. Serves 4.

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Ethiopian Smothered Cabbage and Carrots with Turmeric

I can’t think of any cuisine that does not embrace cabbage in one form or another. Fermented, raw, stir-fried, stewed, or “smothered,” a reference that comes from the Italian and introduced, at least to me, by Marcella Hazen in one of her early cookbooks. This version of a smother is Ethiopian in origin and includes liberal amounts of turmeric and ginger. Ethiopian cuisine is truly delicious, with dishes often eaten with crepes make of teff flour and water, called injera. A recent article in Food & Wine magazine entitled “A Lesson in Ethiopian Flavors” caught my eye, as it introduced Hiyaw Gebreyohannes’s version of several classic dishes, including this. I also made his brilliant spiced red lentils and served them both with injera, which is insanely easy to make. 

In both the cabbage and lentil dishes, the flavors become layered through combining spices, creating something that is both familiar and slightly exotic, rich yet simple.  For the cabbage, red onions are slow-cooked with ginger and turmeric. With the addition of water, carrots get a head start on roughly chopped cabbage, which is added after a bit. The pan of cabbage mixture is then cooked, covered, on the top of the stove for 45 minutes until the vegetables are thoroughly tender.  Still working on the cabbage distributed in the fall by our CSA, I made a batch of this and dipped into it all week. The amount in the recipe below is about one-third of the original version, and I tinkered with it here and there, just because I couldn’t help myself.

Ethiopian Smothered Cabbage and Carrots with Turmeric adapted from Hiyaw Gebreyohannes, in Food & Wine

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium red onion, finely chopped (2/3 c)

Salt

3 cloves garlic, minced

¾-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

2 tsp ground turmeric

1/3 lb carrots, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1½-inch pieces

2 lb green cabbage, cored, and cut into 3/4-inch squares

In a large heavy saucepan, heat the olive oil and add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and turmeric and cook for a few more minutes until aromatic.

Add the carrots and 3 tbsp water and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are just starting to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add the cabbage in handfuls, letting it wilt slightly before adding the next batch. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is very tender, about 45 minutes. Add a little salt if needed.

This can be made ahead and refrigerated for a couple of days and reheated gently.

Serves 3-4.

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Zesty Red Cabbage Slaw

No shrinking violet here. This red cabbage slaw has a pungent kick due to the abundance garlic and anchovies in its dressing. I tamed it down a little by gently heating some of the garlic and melting all of the anchovies in olive oil first. The slightly warm dressing helps to mellow the crisp raw cabbage, which retains its robustness but becomes more palatable. I freshened up the taste with vinegar, a small amount of crushed raw garlic and a big handful of chopped parsley. This keeps well for days and even improves. This is a great salad to perk up dull winter days.

Zesty Red Cabbage Slaw

½ small head of red cabbage

3 cloves garlic, divided (2 and 1)

2 tbsp olive oil

4 anchovies

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Sal and black pepper

Additional olive oil and vinegar to taste

¼ c chopped parsley or more to taste

Slice the cabbage as thin as you can and set it in a bowl. Chop 2 of the garlic cloves and warm them slowly in the olive oil over low heat to mellow them. Mash the anchovies in the pan and stir to combine them well with the oil and garlic. Remove from the heat and pour over the cabbage, stirring to coat the slices leaves. Add the red wine vinegar and let the mixture sit for 20 minutes or so to relax it. Crush the remaining clove of garlic in a garlic press and stir into the salad. Add pepper and more olive oil and vinegar to taste. It probably won’t need salt because of the anchovies, but that it up to you. Add a big handful of parsley, at least ¼ cup, right before serving. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator and even improve in texture and flavor.

Serves 4.

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Turkish-Style Pickled Cabbage

I could not bring myself to call this sauerkraut, despite a long association between Turkey and Germany and the resemblance of the result. The first time I went to Turkey, I took a plane that originated in Munich and stopped in Vienna, where I boarded it. It was full of Turkish men who had been working in Germany and were returning home. The entire time I was in Turkey, I was assumed to be German (which comports with my heritage so that was logical). The association of the two countries is still vivid for me.

This recipe from Linda Ziedrich’s Joy of Pickling, brought to my attention by blogger Tigress in a Pickle, combines two beloved ingredients: pickled cabbage and dark Aleppo pepper. I know, Aleppo is technically in Syria today, but this particular condiment is shared by Syrian and Turkish cuisines. It used to be hard to obtain but even Williams Sonoma carries it now, though theirs is much less intense than the preferable versions from Kalustyan’s in New York or Savory Spice Shop. Ziedrich’s version simply calls for red pepper flakes; it was Tigress who suggested this type of pepper. A good alternative would be Korean red pepper paste, since the recipe’s methodology is more like kimchi than sauerkraut. 

November is my month for fermenting cabbage. Not only because of the abundance of beautiful heads of just-harvested heads but also because I need to clear my refrigerator for Thanksgiving. I was amused by the New York Times’ Melissa Clark’s recent advice in the run-up to turkey day: clear the condiments from your fridge since the vinegar and sugar will allow them to survive a few days on the counter. With an overload of vegetable matter for a couple of weeks, in mid-November, I have every cooling triage strategy in mind. The great outdoors? The office refrigerator?  However, using this time period to ferment cabbage solves a  problem of time and space and prepares us for the winter pantry. 

Turkish Pickled Cabbage adapted from Linda Ziedrich, Joy of Pickling

3 lb cabbage, cored and shredded

4 tbsp pickling salt, divided in two equal parts

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 tbsp Aleppo pepper flakes (more to taste)

1 tsp sugar

3 c water

Mix the cabbage and 2 tbsp of the salt in a large bowl and let sit for 2-3 hours.

Drain the cabbage and rinse it in cold water. Mix the cabbage with the garlic, ginger, pepper and sugar and pack it in a 2-quart jar. Dissolve the remaining 2 tbsp salt in 3 cups of water and pour enough of the brine over the cabbage just to cover it.

Push a food-grade plastic bag into the jar, fill it with the remaining brine, and tie it. This is intended to weigh down the cabbage. Other methods would also work; for example, I use plastic wrap and a flexible silicone disk (potholder) wedged into the jar.

Cover the jar with a tea towel secured with a rubber band. Place the jar out of direct sunlight in a location where the temperature is between 65 and 72 degrees.

Stir the mixture every day (which is why I prefer the silicone disk). The fermentation will slow after 10-14 days, at which time the cabbage is ready to eat. Store, tightly capped, in the refrigerator. This will keep for a couple of months.

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Summery Cabbage Stew

Some dishes that we associate with the dark days of winter from storage crops become transformed when made with the season’s first harvests, becoming lighter, more flavorful and maybe even more nutritious. I think of minestrone from early carrots, spring onions and tiny zucchini. Or fresh pea soup made in the style of its dried split pea counterpart.

Here’s another, a light cabbage stew from an early harvest. To accompany the small cone-headed cabbages we get from our CSA – perfect for quartering into individual portions – I used spring onions and first-of-the-season, tomatoes, fresh-dug potatoes and multi-colored carrots along with a small handful of thyme from my garden. Stewed gently with homemade chicken stock and white wine, this made a simple supper served with spicy hot mustard and a light but flavorful chicken sausage. In the winter, I would stew a spicy pork sausage – andouille or chorizo — with the vegetables, which imparts incredible depth to the liquid. However, served lightly here, the delicate flavors of the vegetables themselves are allowed to shine. 

Summery Cabbage Stew

1 small cone-headed or spherical green cabbage (about 1-1½ lb)

2 spring onions, sliced

2 tsp olive oil

6 carrots, sliced if small, diced if large

2 small tomatoes, diced

4 small potatoes, quartered

4-6 sprigs of fresh thyme

4-6 black peppercorns (or freshly ground pepper to taste)

1½ c white wine

1 c chicken broth, preferably homemade

Pre-cooked or dried sausage (optional)

Remove any tough wrapper leaves from the cabbage and set them aside for another use. Quarter the cabbage if small (or cut into wedges of large) and slice out the core.

Slowly sauté the onion in oil until just translucent, about 2 minutes at most. Place the cabbage wedges on top, and add the carrots, tomatoes and potatoes, then the wine and broth. Bring the stew to a simmer on top of the stove, cover tightly, and let cook slowly until everything is tender, about 40 minutes. Check periodically to make sure the stew is simmering, not boiling. If you want to cook smoked sausage with the stew, cut it in chunks and add it part way through the cooking process. (Adding it earlier could dry out the sausage. Adding it later doesn’t allow it to contribute to the broth.)

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Dark Days 18: Oxtail Stock and Borscht

A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months. For more information, go here to the DDC section of Not Dabbling in Normal’s website: Dark Days Challenge.

In which I discover a new meat stock, which promises to be as versatile as it is delicious…

I don’t know what got into me when I bought oxtails from a local organic dairy farm. I bought only a pound, three slices of varied sizes. It takes a while to make this stock, though it’s mostly untended, but in order to get enough meat for a meal, you probably need about 4 pounds. That’s what most recipes call for if you’re serving about four adults. I went back to the farm for more but they had sold out for the season. As it turned out, it didn’t matter, since I parlayed my three little pieces into 2+ quarts of delicious stock using only local organic raw ingredients, local wine and homemade chicken stock. And the meat that I harvested was plenty for my purpose: delicious beet and beef borscht.

My approach to this traditional stew is not authentic, I’m sure, but I really don’t know what is authentic since dishes like this are generic and personal at the same time. Since the oxtail stock was incredibly flavorful, I wanted it to shine through. So I cooked grated beets in the stock and prepared the other ingredients separately, combining them and the shredded oxtail meat at the end. This approach gave a freshness to the dish that’s appropriate to the warming season.  During the dark days, green garnishes are hard to come by, except for the beginning of spring when we can forage bittercress from the lawn and garden. So that’s what I sprinkled on top. We ate this for a few days in a row and it got better and better.

Borscht

3 medium-large beets

1 medium onion, chopped

Vegetable oil

1 clove garlic, minced

6 c liquid, combination of 4 c meat stock and 2 c water (see below for oxtail stock)

2 waxy potatoes

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 c sliced cabbage

Meat from oxtails (amount variable)

Optional herb garnish

Grate the beets and set aside. Slowly cook the chopped onion in vegetable oil until soft. Add the garlic and cook until the garlic becomes aromatic. Add the grated beets to the pot and stir to combine. Add the liquid, bring to a boil and simmer for about 25 minutes or until the beets are tender.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and lightly boil the potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the potatoes to cool and add the carrots, cooking them until crisp-tender. Drain and reserve the carrots. Cube the cooked potatoes.

Saute the cabbage in a little vegetable oil, browning it lightly. Add a little liquid from the beet mixture, cover the pan and let the cabbage cook until crisp tender.

Just before serving, combine all of the ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes to combine flavors. Serve garnished with optional herbs.

Oxtail Stock (for 2 quarts)

1 lb oxtails

2 carrots, cut into 3” pieces

1/2 c peeled celeriac cubes

1/3 c white wine

1 onion, quartered

4 c chicken stock

Water (about 3 cups)

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Slice some of the outer fat from the oxtail. Render the fat in a small, heavy Dutch oven (e.g., Le Creuset enameled cast iron covered pot) over medium low heat. Add the oxtails to the pot in one layer and sear them over medium to medium-high heat, to brown them on all sides. Turn down the heat if the fat starts to burn. The browning process will take about 20 minutes in total. About halfway through, add the carrots and celeriac to the pot and brown them also.

When the meat and vegetables are browned, remove them to a plate and pour off excess fat. Deglaze the pan with white wine and let it cook down a minute. Return the meat and vegetables to the pot, add the onion, and pour in the stock, water and salt. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove. Cover the pot with foil and place the lid on top, taking care to seal the pot well. Place the pot in the oven for 10 minutes at 300 degrees. Turn the heat down to 225 degrees and cook for 2 hours. Check the pot occasionally to make sure that the liquid is not boiling.

Remove the pot from the oven and set it aside to cool. When cool, refrigerate the stock. Remove any fat that solidifies on top before using.

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Homemade Corned Beef

I love invented traditions, like eating corned beef and cabbage on Saint Patrick’s Day, which I understand was conceived by Irish immigrants in America.  Rather than make a New England boiled dinner (like we used to get when in college in Massachusetts) where the beef, cabbage, potato, carrot and onion were all cooked in the same liquid, I served my corned beef and boiled potatoes on a bed of sautéed shredded cabbage.   

It is remarkably easy to cure a brisket to make corned beef. I like the fact that I can inspect the quality of the meat before it is cured and being able control the amount of salt and the spice mix. I followed the method from Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie, the same source that I used for home-cured bacon. While his recipe calls for a 10% brine (meaning 12 ounces or 1½ cup of Kosher salt per 1 gallon of water), he says that you can go as low as 5%, using 6.4 ounces of salt per gallon of water. I used 7½% or 9 ounces of salt. I recommend weighing rather than measuring the salt since the size of the crystals and thus the salt content varies by brand. The two most prevalent brands here are Diamond Crystal and Morton’s, and I find them quite different. In fact, I would have nearly doubled the amount of salt if I had used measured it versus weighing it.  Ruhlman states that the salt dissipates into the water and recommends using a 5% brine if you intend to roast the corned beef instead of braising it.

Another important point has to do with the use of sodium nitrite, in the form of so-called curing salt or “pink salt.” (It’s dyed pink so no one confuses it with regular salt or sugar.) This preservative prevents the growth of bacteria, especially those that cause botulism. It is also what gives the meat its characteristically pink color. Nitrites have been a source of great health concern, especially in mass-produced bacon. It can turn into a carcinogenic substance when the meat in charred or when there is a lot of it present. Sodium nitrite is a naturally occurring substance in many vegetables, like cabbage for instance, and it wouldn’t bother me when used correctly. Supposedly, in mass-produced cured meats, the addition of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) counteracts the negative effects of sodium nitrite.  I will have to check out the packaging of good quality bacon the next time I’m in the grocery store.  For my corned beef, I added the pink salt to cooled brine, and later cooked the meat at a very low temperature. Michael Ruhlman says that you can leave it out, but I didn’t.

To make corned beef, you first make brine (water and salt) with a little sugar added, warming it to dissolve the crystals. (The salt crystals were once referred to as kernels or “corn,” hence “corned beef.”) Cool the liquid and add the pink salt a bunch of spices. Submerge the beef brisket in the pot, weighting it down to keep it under water, and refrigerate for 5-7 days.  Discard the brine, rinse the meat and cook it submerged in water with new pickling spices, over very low heat for 3 hours. I like to cook mine in a 225-degree oven so that the liquid barely simmers and the meat doesn’t dry out as much.

Homemade Corned Beef adapted from Michael Ruhlman

Up to 5 lbs beef brisket, trimmed of fat (mine was 2¾ lbs, trimmed)

1 gallon water

9 oz Kosher salt

½ c sugar

4 tsp pink curing salt (sodium nitrite)

2 tbsp pickling spices (see below)

Trim the beef if necessary. Bring the water, salt and sugar to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the crystals. Cool, add the pink salt and spices and refrigerate it. Submerge the beef in the liquid, putting a plate on top to keep it submerged and refrigerate it for 5 days (or a couple days more).

Pickling Spices for Corned Beef adapted from Michael Ruhlman

2 tbsp whole black peppercorns

2 tbsp whole yellow mustard seed

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp allspice berries

2 tbsp whole cloves

2 tbsp hot red pepper flakes

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp ground mace

1-2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed

2-4 dried bay leaves, crumbled

Place the peppercorns, mustard seed and coriander seed in a pan over low heat and cook, until just aromatic. Do not burn or cook so long as to pop the mustard seeds. Remove to a shallow bowl to cool. Crush lightly. Combine with the remaining ingredients and store in an airtight jar.

Cooking Corned Beef

Rinse the corned beef well and place it in a Dutch oven that can hold it flat. Cover with water. Add I medium onion, quartered, 2 carrots and a stalk of celery, cut in 1½-inch length, and 2 tbsp pickling spices. Cover tightly and place in a cold oven.  Turn the heat to 300 degrees. In about 30 minutes, the liquid should be simmering. Turn the heat to 225 and cooks for another 2½ hours. Remove from the liquid and let rest for 10 minutes, cut into thin slices on the diagonal and against the grain of the meat.

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Red Cabbage and White Bean Soup

Comforting flavors for a cold and blustery day, an old standby adapted pretty liberally from Marcella Hazen’s The Classic Italian Cookbook. That’s another book that I quite literally cooked my way through, looking for authentic Italian recipes and methods.  The first few times I made this, the beans and sausage turned an alarming shade of violet, like the red cabbage. “Purple” meat was really questionable but the soup’s flavor is so good that it’s worth keeping in the repertoire. Add the beans and the sausage if you use it, just before serving. The piney flavor of the rosemary was a good counterpoint to the richness of the melted cabbage, beans and meat. I used dried beans that I cooked, but canned beans would also work.

Red Cabbage and White Bean Soup inspired by Marcella Hazen

1 or two slices of slab bacon or salt pork, cut into ¼-inch dice

Olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 small head red cabbage or ½ medium head (about 1 lb), coarsely shredded

½ c homemade tomato puree, 1 medium fresh tomato, chopped or 2 canned tomatoes, chopped

2-3 c chicken or beef stock (include some bean broth if available)

Salt and pepper

½ tsp chopped fresh rosemary

1–1¼ c cooked white cannellini or kidney beans

Optional: 1 mild Italian sausage, skin removed, meat crumbled and browned

Parboil the bacon or salt pork, drain it and let it cool. Put a teaspoonful or so of olive oil in the stockpot and slowly cook the bacon until light brown. Add the onions and celery and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and stir to cook for a minute. Add the cabbage and toss, cooking, to wilt slightly. Add the tomatoes and liquid and a little salt and pepper, cook, covered, over very low heat for 2 hours. You can make the soup ahead to this point.

When ready to serve, add the rosemary and bring the soup to a simmer. Add the beans and sausage if using. Adjust the seasonings.

Serves 4.

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Dark Days 9: Cabbage Rolls with Pork, Shitakes, Ginger and Scallions

A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months. For more information, go here to the DDC section of Not Dabbling in Normal’s website: Dark Days Challenge.

 Three community farmers’ markets in as many days, and more coming within weeks. Wow, an unprecedented bright sign for local fare during dark days. I stocked up again on mushrooms of several varieties, organic red-skinned and blue-fleshed potatoes, as well as leeks and cabbage, our seasonal pale green vegetables of choice.  I also learned that our community is now designated as a “fair trade” town according to international standards for sustainable agriculture and responsible consumerism. What can I say, other than there’s a lot of foodies and farmers around here.

 For the dark days, I generally like cooking foods that come from regions that have cold winters, like Eastern Europe. I recall a similar, vaguely Hungarian stuffed cabbage with pork filling and a tomato sauce made for last years Dark Days Challenge. Maybe it’s the mild weather, or just what I had on hand, but this year I leaned toward Asia. I combined ground pork with my newly purchased shitake mushrooms, and local organic garlic, ginger and scallions, the latter two found at the back of the vegetable bin, sorry looking but intact. Time to purge the fridge. This was a simple, flavorful and satisfying one-pot dish, visually perked up by the addition of colorful braised carrot sticks.

Many recipes for meat fillings (as with meat loaf) call for breadcrumbs or rice or other grains and starchy ingredients to lighten up the mixture. I like to use vegetables to do that. In this dish, I used slivers of the tougher outer leaves of the cabbage. Other times, I might use grated root vegetables according to the rest of the mix: kohlrabi, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, etc.

Cabbage Rolls with Pork, Shitakes, Ginger and Scallions

2 outer “wrapper” leaves from a head of Savoy cabbage (see below)

6 leaves from a head of Savoy cabbage (see below)

½ pint shitake mushrooms

Neutral vegetable oil (I used local sunflower oil)

1 large or two small cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-inch knob of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

6 scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped

1 dry chili pepper, crumbled (or ½ tsp red pepper flakes)

1 lb pork

1 egg, lightly beaten

Salt to taste

½ c water or chicken stock

Remove the tough outer “wrapper” leaves from a head of Savoy cabbage and choose two to trim and cut into slivers. Set aside.

Slit the stem end of the cabbage to release additional leaves, carefully removing them without tearing. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and drop in the leaves, two at a time, for a minute, until slightly wilted. Remove carefully to a colander to drain and dry them on a paper towel. Cut out the coarse stem from the leaves (v-shape) chop the stem finely and reserve.

Wipe the shitake mushrooms clean of any loose dirt and cut off the stems, reserving them for another use (think vegetable broth). Slice the mushrooms into small pieces.

Heat a tiny bit of oil in a wide, shallow pan and add the mushrooms, cooking until brown, stirring occasionally. Remove to a bowl to cool.

Add a few more drops of oil to the pan and sauté the garlic, ginger and scallions, adding them to the mushrooms. Crumble in a dry chili pepper.

Add the sliced cabbage from the wrapper leaves and the chopped stems, and cook until wilted and slightly brown. Add to the vegetables.

When the vegetables are cool, add the ground pork and the egg, lightly mixing the ingredients and not packing them down. Divide the mixture into six sausage-shaped pieces.

Thoroughly dry the cabbage leaves and lay them flat. Place the pork mixture toward the bottom of each leaf, overlapping the greens to leave no gaps and roll up into tight bundles.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Pour a little water or stock around the cabbage rolls. Cover the dish and bake for about 25 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes and serve with colorful braised carrot matchsticks or another vegetable.

Serves 3-4.

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Dark Days 8: Cabbage Stew with Spruce Needles, and Other Ideas for Recycling Your Christmas Tree

A continuing series on weekly meals that use sustainable, organic, local and ethical food during the challenging winter months. For more information, go here to the DDC section of Not Dabbling in Normal’s website: Dark Days Challenge.

This light and healthful cabbage stew offers an appetizing antidote to holiday indulgences. Redolent of spruce needles from our Christmas tree (substituted for the more traditional juniper berries), this stew feels restorative during the dark days. A simple layering of local vegetables gently stewed in homemade poultry stock and white wine and favored with local honey, herbs like Asian celery and thyme from my garden, a couple of spices (in-bounds for my dark days challenge) and a sprig of spruce. I used a light homemade duck stock but a light chicken or turkey stock would be fine, as would vegetable broth. I canned the tomatoes from CSA produce last summer. The cabbage and carrots also came from our CSA, and the organic potatoes and wine (“Vidal White”) from nearby Terhune Orchards. I luckily stashed lots of onions, leeks and garlic from the farmers’ market in late fall. All set for all local.  Though I love this stew meatless, you can add a cooked savory sausage to it. If I’m using sausage, I add it when serving since the subtle flavors of this stew are part of its appeal.

I’m sure some will think I’ve gone over the edge to cook with pine needles but they’re not so different from rosemary. Really. Illustrious chefs like Rene Redzepi from Copenhagen (2011 international chef of the year) use them all the time, making spruce butter, oil, and vinegar, and drying them to a powder. I’ll have to give those ideas a try as we dismantle our locally sourced Christmas tree.  Of course, you have to know where your tree comes from so that you can be assured that it wasn’t sprayed.

We have a fun family tradition when it comes to our Christmas tree. Instead of plunking it down at the curb, we remove the needles and cut up the rest for kindling. We sew the needles into little pouches (4-5 inches square) that become sachets to keep our beds refreshed. This is an Adirondacks tradition. Last year, I cut up a ragged old red and white woven blanket and mixed and matched the various patterns. Other years, I have used vintage cotton patchwork squares or wool in tartan plaids. It’s a nice way of remembering – all year long — the family gatherings at the winter holidays.  And then we start all over again.

Cabbage Stew

1 – 1¼ lb cabbage

1 medium onion, sliced vertically into crescents

2 tsp oil or ghee (I used local sunflower oil)

1 large clove garlic, chopped

1 8 oz jar homemade chunky tomato sauce or 3-4 canned plum tomatoes, halved

1 leek, white and green parts, sliced vertically, cleaned and sliced

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal

3 small potatoes (Green Mountain organic), peeled and cubed

3-4 stalks of Asian celery and a few leaves (or I stalk Pascal celery cut into matchsticks)

2 c homemade chicken stock or vegetable broth

½ c white wine

1 tbsp honey

2-4 sprigs fresh thyme (depending on size)

2 allspice berries

2 peppercorns

1 clove

2½-inch sprig of spruce or balsam fir (or 2 juniper berries)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Trim the cabbage. If there are outer “wrapper leaves”, blanch them in boiling water and cut them into 2-inch squares. Slice the rest of the head into thick wedges (1½ – 2 inches at thickest part).

In a large ovenproof pot, saute the onion in a little oil or ghee and add the garlic, cooking briefly. Remove from the heat. Place the cabbage squares (if any) on the bottom, layer the cabbage wedges on top, spoon on the tomato puree (or add halved peeled tomatoes), and strew the other vegetables over the top. Bury the spices in the pot, including the sprig of spruce (handle the spruce carefully since you will want to remove it before serving).

Combine the stock, wine and honey and pour over the vegetables in the pot. Bring to a light boil on top of the stove, cover the pot tightly with foil and place the lid on top. Transfer to the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Remove the sprig of spruce and serve in shallow bowls.

Serves 4.

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