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Monday, August 31, 2009

An Embarrassment of Cabbage

I know I've mentioned before that we have a farm share from a CSA outfit in New Jersey (Honey Brook Organic Farm). Unfortunately we had to miss our boxed share last week (we were in Massachusetts...and we missed the watermelon, dammit!), but some of the stuff from previous weeks is holding up well...including four heads of cabbage. Now, I like cabbage, a lot, although I'm not a big coleslaw fan, but that's a lot of cabbage. So I'm dealing.

Last night we had grilled chicken with a honey/garlic glaze (Safeway's house brand, and it's...well, I'd use a really bad word for emphasis on how ----ing good it is, okay?), and I shredded one head and sauteed it with a red onion (also from the CSA) and mushrooms, sprinkled with black pepper and Penzey's Mural of Flavor, one of my favorite spice blends. It was good, and I finished up the leftovers this morning with a Berks Black Angus hot dog sliced up in it.

Right now I'm prepping a kettle of my dad's Old-Fashioned Cabbage Soup, a Pennsylvania Dutch-style recipe that has sweet and sour in it:

1 lb. beef cubes, cut to 3/4"
1 head of cabbage, shredded
28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
3 beef bouillon cubes
3 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
5 cups of water

Brown the meat in the kettle in a little oil, add other ingredients, bring to a boil, then simmer for three hours. (I add a little tarragon to mine, love tarragon with cabbage.)

The third head? Not sure. Anyone got some good ideas?

8 comments:

Glenn said...

Truly got nothing, but I had a weird hunch. Did a quick google and found out there is nothing you can't find out about on the web :-)

http://cabbagerecipes.org/

Lew Bryson said...

Amazing. That's a bookmark. Thanks, Glenn!

GenX at 40 said...

Five cups shredded cabbage, cup of sugar, cup of vinegar, cup of water. cook on low for an afternoon until mush. Switch up kind of cabbage, sugar and vinegar. Add stuff or not. Apple good. Have with roast pork or on a cheese sandwich.

Alan

Lew Bryson said...

Wait a minute. On a cheese sandwich?

I like the apple and roast pork idea.

GenX at 40 said...

"On"? "In"? Is this one of those things about "20 minutes of two" that some of you southerners use when you mean "20 minutes to two"? I would say "on" a sandwich meaning it is inserted. "Ham on rye" means ham in between slices of rye bread.

...or are you just expressing surprise and delight that this stuff goes with cheese. It sort of becomes like an English pickle.

Alan
[above the border]

Lew Bryson said...

Well, no, it was more the kind of "why would you want to put something that mushy on a sandwich?" Doesn't it get the bread all soggy? Oh, wait...it's only one cup of water! Duh. I was seeing "five cups," and thinking five cups of water. Gotcha. Okay.

Alan said...

No, the whole thing should reduce and glom into a spreadable gloop. It's something a neighbour from Germany would make and my mother picked up. Served with rouladen or sauerbraten. Red or Savoy cabbage would work best. Here is a fancier version: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1850,146190-240197,00.html

Alan

Anonymous said...

Kind of a fancy version of your saute with onions, but damn tasty: in a large pot or dutch oven cut up 6 slices of bacon and render the fat, then one large thinly sliced onion goes in with it, cook the onion alone for about 4 minutes, then into it goes one head of shredded cabbage, stir the pot to coat the cabbage with the rendered fat, cook for about 10 minutes, pour in a bottle of malty dark beer, (I personally really like ABC's Jolly Scot for this recipe)Cover the pot and cook for about another 10 - 15 min. plus salt and pepper. Finally, after the cabbage has reached a soft but still slightly irm consistency, through in two good dollops of whole grain spicy mustard, simmer for a few minutes, stir and serve.

Goes great with a prok tenderloin and the other 5 jolly scots.