Spring Cabbage

[helenjp]

There's an honesty-box vege stand just round the corner, for veges grown locally by a retired farmer. At this time of year, the only veg on offer is rather loose, but tender and juicy spring cabbage.

I'm a particularly faithful customer at this time of year - first pay of the semester yet to arrive, translation invoices take 3 months to grind through the system, back-to-school expenses, car warrant due ....at less than $1.00 per cabbage, this guy has my entire loyalty.

These are some of my staples - what are yours?

Bubble and squeak with lots of green outer leaves of cabbage, and only a little potato, well-softened with butter...that was good - the first 5 times or so...

Thick chunks of bacon simmered with cabbage and chickpeas in beer and spices.

Cabbage slaw with seedling mustard greens, dressed with tiny dried whitebait and sesame seeds, fried in sesame oil and cut with soy sauce and lemon juice.

Cabbage simmered in a mild-flavored stock with thick-cut deepfried tofu.

"Breakfast salad" of shredded cabbage with walnuts and shredded chicken breast.

Thin-sliced pork rolled tightly around shredded cabage and ginger, tied up and microwaved or steamed and served in slices with a ponzu (citrus/soy sauce) dressing.

...next?

[cbarre02]

Carmalized cabbage and onion, with sour rasin puree and sauted chicken livers.

[helenjp]

Caremalized cabbage and...

Sounds good! I was thinking about "singeing" it to release a bit more sweetness, but your suggestion is in another class, and we have wonderful, soft, new-crop onions around at the moment too.

[torakris]

I love spring cabbage!

One favorite way of preparing it is this thing I saw on tv a couple years back, cut it in half or a big wedge then cover it with wrap and microwave for a minute or two, then eat it dipped in a ponzu sauce. My family can devour a whole head this way and it is so simple...

[helenjp]

dipped in a ponzu sauce

That sounds good, and since cbarre02 mentioned "sour raisins" I've been thinking of using some ume paste as a topping - but a lemon/ume paste/soy sauce dipping sauce sounds good too. Maybe with fresh kinome leaves?

Used to occasionally eat at a yakitori shop that served huge, torn-up hunks of cabbage leave with a sake/miso dipping sauce as a beer snack.

...Retires to kitchen to cook skinflint version of sweet and sour pork while considering The Adventure of the Cabbage...

...and also recalls that son has developed morbid fear of caterpillars in the cabbage if it isn't pulled apart and washed thoroughly. Comes of reading at the table - he had a bug between his chopsticks and practically on his lips before he noticed...

[sparrowgrass]

I dice a couple of strips of bacon, cook til almost crisp, shred the cabbage and an onion, and stir fry in the bacon fat. Lots of pepper, please.

I haven't tried this yet, but a friend quarters the cabbage, drapes bacon strips over it, and bakes until the bacon is done and cabbage is tender.

Veggie soup with lots of cabbage?

[redfox]

Little crispy cabbage pancakes with v. finely shredded cabbage bound together with a thin and eggy batter.

I also love "cabbage noodles" -- cabbage cut to about the size of egg noodles and steamed or simmered or braised, then buttered. That's extra good piled up with stew or something of the sort on top.

Haluski! Boil up some egg noodles (fresh pasta cut 1" x 2" is even better, but not necessary); cut the cabbage to match; while the noodles drain and cool, take a large pan and saute a thinly sliced onion in butter or oil until soft, then add cabbage, salt, pepper, and paprika and cook until the cabbage is tender. Add the noodles, turn up the heat, and toss around until everything's heated through and the edges are crispy. A variation on the same method that's very good is to use chow fun type rice noodles and season with garlic and ginger instead of paprika.

[cbarre02]

My grandmother used to make this recipe, with the addition of sausage. It is one of my favorite comfort foods of all time. I eat it with a little grainy mustard and bread and butter. God, this makes me hungry for "Fried Cabbage and Nuddles" and it's only 9am

[Hiroyuki]

All I can think of is just to eat it raw or make "asazuke" 浅漬け, or light pickles.

Let me tell you how I make my version of asazuke--I usually use cucumbers, but you can make good asazuke with cabbage too.

Put shredded cabbage in a container. (I use a plastic bag called "ai wrap" アイラップ instead of a container).

Pour equal amounts of mirin-fu chomiryo (みりん風調味料) and vinegar, and add some salt. Remember, not mirin but mirin-fu chomiryo.

Put the container in the refrigerator, asazuke is ready to serve the next morning. Sprinkle some ajinomoto if you like.

[cbarre02]

What about Kim Chi

[Suzanne F]

Shred, saute, and add to spaghetti sauce.

Never made it, but I've seen a recipe using cabbage instead of apples as a filling for strudel. Also seen a savory version, without sugar or raisins, but with sauteed onion and mushrooms -- kind of like redfox's recipe but wrapped in dough and baked instead of mixed with noodles.

[helenjp]

Snap!

I was just going to say that we enjoy cabbage and asari (clams of some kind??) with spaghetti.

Crispy pancakes...sort of like mini okonomiyaki, maybe? That gets a frequent airing in our house, because I lived in Osaka when I first came to Japan.

Butter and cabbage, great when I was in the Auld Country, but here I'm suspicious of exactly how long shopkeepers believe that butter can sit on a shelf...

Cabbage and bacon seem born to each other, don't they?

The cabbage soup I like best is vaguely based on one from Georg Lang's book on Hungarian cooking. It is made with chicken, and has plenty of white beans. A favorite of my younger son's.

Haluski? - cabbage noodles? This definitely requires further investigation!

We make potstickers with cabbage and chinese chives (and pork) too.

Asazuke - thanks for the hint, Hiroyuki. My Hokkaido-born husband grew up with his Akita-born stepmother's tastes in pickles, so I've never gained confidence with the "lightly pickled" versions, which are so nice as a salad.

I did make cabbage kimchi once. It was surprisingly hard to get all the ingredients, but it did taste good....just incredibly hotter than the storebought kind!

Now off to bed for me...son told me at 6pm that he has the Great School Expedition tomorrow, which requires the Great Festive Packed Lunch to be produced before I leave for work. It would be when I have almost no food in the house...luckily the cabbage stand man outdid himself and had a bag of fresh snowpeas there, and luckily the brown money jar had $1.00 in it!

[Hiroyuki]

My Hokkaido-born husband grew up with his Akita-born stepmother's tastes in pickles, so I've never gained confidence with the "lightly pickled" versions, which are so nice as a salad.

Now is the time to make the switch to low-salt diet, don't you think?

[redfox]

I love seeing all these ideas for cabbage, an underappreciated vegetable if ever there was one. It is so gentle and sweet and versatile and plentiful and CHEAP. Good for you, too. *sniff*

Yes, the pancakes I make are kind of like mini okonomiyaki, only thinner. They'd be good with okonomiyaki sauce and all that, to be sure. But they're really good in so many settings -- I actually specially love them with traditional antipasti, of all things. They work well at room temperature, too; just let them cool on cake racks before you pile them up, so they don't steam one another and get soggy.

[Malawry]

I'm a big fan of stuffed cabbage, personally.

Also it's good as a Thai-style slaw, with fish sauce and lime juice...with an Asian meal or as a topping on a spicy sausage. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

[jo-mel]

Cabbage! Long ago I decided that if I had to eat only one vegetable for the rest of my life --- it would be cabbage. Aside from all the suggestions above, just think of what you can do to cabbage ---- stir/fried, cheesed, creamed, sweet/sour, braised, scallopped, stuffed, cold, soup, plain buttered, and on and on. What other vegetable can do all that?

Once, when in China with a group, we were served a stir/fried cabbage. You should have heard the groans! (not from me. I knew how good it was.) But cabbage must have been a good crop that year as we saw it over and over. It was so good, that after a while everyone was saying -- "Good! We are having some of that wonderful cabbage!!"

[helenjp]

make the switch to low-salt

...I don't think so! He's definitely a "furu-zuke" himself -- if I cut back on the salt, he might just rot...

Fish sauce/lemon juice Thai style salads -- yes, that has been our big salad item for the last year or two - it goes extra well if you mix the cabbage or lettuce with mizu-na or something juicy like cucumber or daikon shreds. I like it so much I'm guilty of serving it way too often...

I can see I'm limiting myself by not wanting to serve creamy sauces or pastas with rice...may have to have a few (gasp) rice-free meals to explore the wonder that is cabbage!

[Hiroyuki]

He's definitely a "furu-zuke" himself -- if I cut back on the salt, he might just rot...

I don't know what to say...

[helenjp]

Talking of stuffed cabbage, there is a nice recipe for layered (instead of stuffed) cabbage and good quality sausagemeat in Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book.

Must try this when back in NZ with access to sausagemeat again...

Must convince husband that we really NEED a food processor, so I can make my own...

I plan to have cabbage leaves and a dipping sauce with tonight's dinner, which is a kind of fresh-sardine pizza (fresh baby sardines knocked down to $1.00 a tray at the supermarket yesterday).

Those thin, eggy cabbage pancakes for breakfast tomorrow??? A stamina breakfast is needed for all-day orchestra practice...but if I feed the child THAT much cabbage in 24 hours, he may be excused from orchestra early !

[chardgirl]

Remember, not mirin but mirin-fu chomiryo

On my computer (windows 2000 pc) your definition of mirin-fu chomiryo came up all little squares, could you or someone tell me what it is? I want to make this today because I'm also rich in cabbage and I'm intrigued with this pickle recipe. Thanks!

cg

[torakris]

Remember, not mirin but mirin-fu chomiryo

On my computer (windows 2000 pc) your definition of mirin-fu chomiryo came up all little squares, could you or someone tell me what it is? I want to make this today because I'm also rich in cabbage and I'm intrigued with this pickle recipe. Thanks!

cg

Your computer probably isn't set up to read Japanese characters (that is what you should have seen)

here is the post on mirin from the Daily Nihongo:

word for 6/24:

みりん

mirin (mee-reen)

this is often called sweet rice wine in English, it is essentially made from rice, distilled alcohol and sugar, it is an essential ingredient to Japanese cooking. It is used for both the sweetness and the glaze or sheen that it gives to foods.

The problem with mirin is that there are many types out there, but only one that you want to be using.

本みりんhon-mirin, this is the real stuff! this is what you want to look for, this can often be located in the alcohol section because of it high (13% to 17%) alcohol content. It will cost you more then the fake stuff, but it is more then worth it. The ingredients should read rice, distilled alcohol, and sugar (and if you are really lucky there will be no sugar added).

The fakes

味みりん aji-mirin, this is probably the most commonly seen, sold near the soy and vinegars

新みりん shin-mirin, haven't seen this one too much recently

みりん風 mirin -fu, this seems to be the new name used on the fake ones

These fakes are normally made with corn syrup and other additives, some can have as little as 1% alcohol, so check your labels carefully before buying.

[Hiroyuki]

Sorry, chardgirl, I didn't notice your post until torakris made a reply. Thank you, torakris, for responding.

Well, you can use mirin if you don't mind the alcohol. In that case, however, children should be refrained from eating the light pickles. Another caution is not to add too much salt. Sorry, I just can't say how much you should add.

[helenjp]

Mirin-fuu choumiryou(literally, "seasoning resembling mirin")...

...will have less alcohol, will not be made through a true fermentation process, and will have added flavors (usually satl, but also flavors ranging from sake extracts to MSG). That is why is is more useful for pickling than true mirin. My favorite is Aji no Haha brand, made from rice, kouji (the fermentation culture), and salt, but I doubt you would find it outside Japan.

Alcohol can slow down the pace at which ingredients absorb salt, but if you are only using a little, then true hon-mirin is probably OK, with a tiny bit of salt. True hon-mirin's advantages show up more in other cooking techniques.

A sure sign as to which is which is price! If it's cheap, it's probably mirin-fuu choumiryou or one of it's relatives, not real mirin!

An interesting thing I found on the web Cabbage Asazuke in Japanese

For this recipe, you weigh your cabbage, put it in a ziploc bag and sprinkle 2% of that weight in coarse salt over it. Add a little shredded ginger or red pepper/slices of dried chili if you wish. Now knead the cabbage in the bag for 2-3 minutes, close the bag, and toss in the fridge. Should be ready in half a day, and remain eatable for a week.

That's the basic. The interesting part is that you can add a little honey, which should simulate the complex flavors of mirinfuu choumiryou nicely, and you can also substitute umesu/plum vinegar (the salty pickling liquid exuded from the ume/plums when making umeboshi) for half the salt. That would give you more complexity too.

The NHK TV program "Tameshite Gatten!" (Try it, You'll Like It!) recommends a homemade mix of 1 tab each of mild rice vinegar and true hon-mirin, plus a pinch of salt. You could reduce the salt and use mirin-fuu choumiryou and rice vinegar, or use no salt and plum vinegar. If you want to add honey, it might be nice to try cider vinegar.

Off to the kitchen to try the umesu variation on yet another $1.00 cabbage...(and adding Aji no Haha to my shopping list, because today I GET PAID!!! FROM TWO PLACES AT ONCE, EVEN!).

[Hiroyuki]

About the problem you had with your computer:

Have you checked the following thread?:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=20825

[chardgirl]

Thanks for the help. I will try adding the Japanese characters to my computer next week, month or?? My kids will go to OVERNIGHT summer camp for two weeks this summer.....

Meanwhile, I'm salting my cabbage to drain it to prepare making some version of the pickled cabbage, and I've discovered my mirin to be an imposter, where the ingredients start with CORN SYRUP. Thanks for the heads up. I will visit my local Japanese grocery tomorrow and ask if they have the real stuff, if not I'll try the further-afield big Japanese grocery store in a couple of weeks. (I live in California)

I'm going to try the ziploc bag method, I like recipes where you mix it up and toss it in the fridge!

One last question, is there an Asian Pickle Thread here on Egullet? If not I'll start one soon.

cg