Can we talk Cabbage?

[ilovesoup]

Just finished making a small batch of kimchee.

Also this week I slivered some cabbage for stir-frying with pork, onions, dried mushrooms. For this I barely cook the cabbage, enjoying the crunch.

Cabbage rolls are a once-every-winter thing that I've yet to do this year.

I hated cooked cabbage as a child, but thank heaven learned to love it, because I had to practically live on it when I was in my 20s because it was so inexpensive.

Of course there are hundreds of slaw recipes.

Even if you're making a tossed lettuce salad, a shaving of cabbage adds some crunch.

There's a dish made with cabbage and potatoes. I get it mixed up, someone out there help me. Colcannon? Bubble and Squeak? Something else. I've had it and made it and still cannot remember what it is called.

Hi Claire, I am very interested in your kimchee recipe ! Do you feel like sharing? Best wishes, Claire

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Ah! Yes, it does have a strong flavor...one I really like. I'd wear it as perfume, but Shrek REALLY likes it too.

I really, really like toasted sesame oil! I'm working on a few other recipes that use it to good effect too!

i'm very pleasantly surprised at the ginormous response to this cabbage thread. just because we don't rave about it all the time like we do about certain other more glamorous vegetables, doesn't mean that we don't have a quiet, deep appreciation of our dear cabbage heads. just reading through the huge outpouring of responses to this cabbage thread is heart-warming as well as it is informative and hunger-inducing....

I could be wrong but I suspect there's more people who don't like cabbage than those who do. Needless to say I'm one of the cabbage likers.

I, too, do not find sesame seed "spicy". Just nutty. I'd add some pepper flakes or sauce.

No, sesame seeds aren't spicy, not even strong tasting in my experience. I guess I should read up on how they make the oil..

I always find it funny how New Yorkers and Angelenos think they have the market cornered on this or that, and that us rubes in other parts of the country just don't get out much.

I see Gailan (aka Kai-Lan, Chinese Broccoli, Thai Broccoli) all the time here in the Minneapolis area, both in farm markets and co-ops. But then again, I believe Minnesota has the second or third largest Hmong population outside of southeast Asia. In fact, 60% of the Hmong in the US live in the upper midwest. We have access to a huge variety of Asian ingredients.

I have NO IDEA how prevalent these vegetables are throughout the country. I recently moved to a city outside California and then moved back--one of the reasons I didn't like it was because I couldn't find all the variety of Asian foods, found some but not nearly enough. I'm not an experienced traveler except in the Southwest, all my other travel in US having been for business, so all I can say is that I haven't seen much Asian foods except in areas with Asian populations, and at a few gourmet stores like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

 

[Steve Kroll]

I have NO IDEA how prevalent these vegetables are throughout the country. I recently moved to a city outside California and then moved back--one of the reasons I didn't like it was because I couldn't find all the variety of Asian foods, found some but not nearly enough. I'm not an experienced traveler except in the Southwest, all my other travel in US having been for business, so all I can say is that I haven't seen much Asian foods except in areas with Asian populations, and at a few gourmet stores like Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

I'm just giving you a hard time, Greg. I read a lot of food blogs, and I see all the time people making assumptions that certain ethnic foods are only available on one or the other coast. That may have been true several years ago, but anymore whatever you can't get locally can usually be purchased online. The world has gotten a lot smaller, my friend.

 

[Soma]

I guess, if you're not too bored with this topic yet, I'd like to contribute my day of cooking wontons yesterday....I even minced my own pork for it, made the noodles myself. A LOT of work - won't do it again soon. Got tired after two batches and turned the remainder of filling into a meatloaf. Here are a few pics.

The cabbage I used was napa.

Added 8 ounces of it chopped to a pound of ground pork, with two chopped green onions, some mirin instead of rice wine and lots of chopped ginger.

Wonton dough in the grocery store looked old and stale, so I had to make my own. 2 cups flour, 1 egg, water to form into ball.

First wonton filled.

and a few fried, then boiled.

Should not have boiled these - tough! The filling was delicious though.

and here is half the 'wonton meatloaf'. I added six chopped water chestnuts to it, you can see the white pieces of them.

I'd say it was the mirin and the chopped ginger which added most of the lovely flavour to this.

 

[Claire]

Having spent three years just traipsing around the country with a truck and trailer, You really don't know where you're going to find what. I remember being just out-of-this-world delighted to find that Garden City, Kansas had a thriving Vietnamese community, as did much of the gulf coast. When I was a kid, I spent much of my childhood in areas where there was large Mexican-American populations. Then, all of a sudden (Virginia, to be specific), I couldn't find Mexican food outside of Taco Bell. Now you can find great Mexican food and ingredients in almost every town.

 

[Addie]

Having spent three years just traipsing around the country with a truck and trailer, You really don't know where you're going to find what. I remember being just out-of-this-world delighted to find that Garden City, Kansas had a thriving Vietnamese community, as did much of the gulf coast. When I was a kid, I spent much of my childhood in areas where there was large Mexican-American populations. Then, all of a sudden (Virginia, to be specific), I couldn't find Mexican food outside of Taco Bell. Now you can find great Mexican food and ingredients in almost every town.

The internet has definitely widen eveyone's world. Whether it be knowledge of geography, or food. Want an answer? Go to the internet. No matter what you want to know, go to the internet.

 

[vitauta]

soma, your wontons look sooo wonderful! i could sit down with a big pile of them right now! you say boiling them made the wontons tough? what could be a remedy for that i wonder. parboiling, then frying? deep frying?

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Soma, those wontons look good!!!!

 

[Dawgluver]

Yummm! Looks really good, Soma!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I'm just giving you a hard time, Greg. I read a lot of food blogs, and I see all the time people making assumptions that certain ethnic foods are only available on one or the other coast. That may have been true several years ago, but anymore whatever you can't get locally can usually be purchased online. The world has gotten a lot smaller, my friend.

It's easy to get me going on this subject. I lived in L.A. my whole life, got accustomed to our wide variety of Asian restaurants and Asian ingredients, then moved away, missed the Asian stuff and moved back (for a variety of reasons of which food was just one of them) and now facing problems reestablishing myself in L.A. and may need to move away again soon. I find it difficult to sacrifice my convenient access to Asian ingredients. It's an emotional thing for me. I have come to really love Asian food, having a wide variety of Asian restaurants, and having good access for ingredients to cook my own. I don't want to give it up, and I hope you're right about other regions, in case I have to move to one of them.


Soma, I too cannot even consider making wontons or egg rolls without a lot of cabbage. That is IMO a secret particularly to good egg rolls, happily not a very well kept secret.

 

[Soma]

Vitauta: I have made pierogis in this way, and usually I boil them first, then fry.....which keeps them from being tough. So I'd say, yes, probably....boiling first then frying would be the way to go.

 

[Kathleen]

Soma, that looks wonderful! How long did it take for you to make?

 

[rozz]

Indian-spiced cabbage! So tasty. I heat a pan, add oil, mustard seeds, asafetida, cumin, ginger, garlic, chillies and onions. Cook enough for the flavors to blend and for the onions to soften, then add the cabbage and cook to desired doneness. Then add coarse salt, black pepper, and turmeric.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.

Oh! Add some serranos or thai chiles if you're feeling fancy.

 

[Soma]

to answer this question:

Soma, that looks wonderful! How long did it take for you to make?

I have to say: too long! I was in the kitchen all morning....I guess the wontons themselves took almost 2 hours to make only enough for two of us for lunch (about 5 each), which is why I quit and made a meatloaf out of the remainder of filling. There is still some wonton dough in the fridge, will make noodles out of it.

 

[CharlieD]

Speaking of eggrolls, I too make mine with cabage,as a main ingredient. People cannot believe how good they are.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Speaking of eggrolls, I too make mine with cabage,as a main ingredient. People cannot believe how good they are.

Me too! I wouldn't have mine any other way.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I've just had too many egg rolls with soggy cabbage. The only cabbage I'll use in my egg rolls is bok choy. Mine are filled with chopped water chestnuts, celery slices, bamboo shoots, chopped onion, meat, chopped carrot, and bean sprouts. The veggies are always still in the crispy stage. I like them to be soft/cruchy when I bite into them. Flavorings include Chinese 5-spice powder, garlic, onion, soy sauce, and ginger. The egg rolls are served up with a pineapple sweet and sour sauce.

It jsut goes to show you, there is a way to make everything, and individual tastes will determine the ingrediants you like in your recipes. It's all good.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[CharlieD]

Agree, hate soggy cabbage. But I hate "chopped water chestnuts, celery slices, bamboo shoots, chopped onion," even more
.

 

[Addie]

If I am going to be using raw cabbage, I always salt it lightly, and then press it to get the moisture out of it. Cabbage stays crisp that way. Even for slaw.

 

[joesfolk]

I've just had too many egg rolls with soggy cabbage. The only cabbage I'll use in my egg rolls is bok choy. Mine are filled with chopped water chestnuts, celery slices, bamboo shoots, chopped onion, meat, chopped carrot, and bean sprouts. The veggies are always still in the crispy stage. I like them to be soft/cruchy when I bite into them. Flavorings include Chinese 5-spice powder, garlic, onion, soy sauce, and ginger. The egg rolls are served up with a pineapple sweet and sour sauce.

It jsut goes to show you, there is a way to make everything, and individual tastes will determine the ingrediants you like in your recipes. It's all good.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Folks, I've had his eggrolls..... made by his own hands....Really good.