Week 16: Pickled Red Cabbage, Kimchi Style

With the farm season winding down, and the vegetables piling up, I've been looking for ways to preserve the produce. Recently, that's meant a series of quick-pickle projects: beets, cauliflower, and cabbage. The tangy goodies will keep in the refrigerator for at least a couple of weeks -- our noshing notwithstanding.

For the cabbage, I tweaked a recipe for a pickled, but not fermented, kimchi. This is a mildly spicy kimchi; it's meant to be pantry clearing, not sinus clearing. The recipe starts off with what seems like an unholy amount of salt, but the final kimchi is not overly salty. That's because the salt is used to wilt the cabbage and to draw out some of its water. The salt is then rinsed off before the cabbage goes into the pickling brine.

I'm storing my kimchi in a couple of quart-size pickling jars, which fit nicely in my fridge, but shallow containers are probably better to keep the vegetables evenly submerged in the picking liquid.

Pickled Red Cabbage, Kimchi Style
(Adapted from Creative Loafing Tampa. Makes 8 cups. Note: the salt amount -- 1/2 cup -- is correct; most of the salt will be rinsed off after wilting the cabbage. Makes 8 cups.)

1 red cabbage, weighing about 2 pounds
1/2 cup Kosher salt
2 Tbsp chili paste (Sriracha)
4 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
8 to 10 radishes, cut into matchsticks
2 cups thinly sliced onion
2 cups thinly sliced carrot
1 bunch scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

Cut the cabbage into quarters, remove the tough core, and slice the cabbage into bite-sized pieces. Toss the cabbage with the salt. Place the salted cabbage in a large colander; set the colander in the sink, or over a bowl or plate to catch any liquid, and let the cabbage drain for 30 to 45 minutes. Rinse the cabbage thoroughly with fresh water and drain well.

In a large bowl, whisk together the chili paste, garlic, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, and soy sauce. Taste and adjust the seasonings as desired.

Add the wilted cabbage, radishes, onion, carrot, scallion, and cilantro to the pickling liquid and mix well. Transfer the mixture to a one-gallon resealable plastic bag and squeeze out the air. Place the bag flat in the refrigerator, so the liquid is distributed evenly among the vegetables, and let the mixture pickle for at least two hours, but preferably a day or two, flipping the bag periodically. Store the kimchi in shallow containers or pickling jars, mixing periodically if some of the vegetables are not submerged in the liquid.

Triple Red Slaw

New England can be a frustrating place to live, with its notoriously fickle weather. We get a blast of summer heat and sunshine -- several blasts, actually, in a rather mild winter -- and it dissolves into a week of cold rain, drizzle, dreariness. More March than May; more Seattle than Salem. (And by Salem, I mean Massachusetts, not Oregon.) We need the rain, of course, but after the tease of beach blankets and barbecues we find ourselves huddling under crocheted afghans and eating soup.

It was on one of those beachy, barbecue-y days in April that I happened to make this slaw. A little tangy and very red, the slaw is a good complement to burgers, chicken, or fish. It would be a cheery addition to a picnic or cookout, and a bright spot on an indoor table, no matter how gray the day is.

Triple Red Slaw
(Adapted from The Boston Globe. The "triple red" ingredients are red cabbage, red onion, and red wine vinegar. The acids in the vinegar prevent the cabbage from turning bluish or greenish when cooked. Serves 4-6.)

2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 red onion, peeled, halved, and sliced thin
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
Black pepper to taste
1 pound (about 1/2 medium head) red cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Cook the onion, stirring frequently, until it softens, about 5 minutes. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add the cabbage, turn up the heat to medium-high, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until the cabbage wilts and softens slightly. Adjust seasonings to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Baked Vegetarian Egg Rolls

If you are looking to duplicate restaurant-style egg rolls, this recipe probably isn't the one for you. "Baked" will not taste like "fried." But these egg rolls are good on their own terms: light, crispy, and a cinch to make. They're seasonal, too, both in terms of produce (cabbage) and holiday (Chinese New Year is around the corner). An added benefit (especially if you have been nibbling on these): The egg rolls can be made virtually fat free, depending on your brand of egg roll wrappers and whether you use canola oil or cooking spray.

Baked Vegetarian Egg Rolls
(Adapted recipe. For a shortcut, substitute 2 cups cole slaw mix for the shredded cabbage and carrots. Makes 8.)

Canola oil or cooking spray
1 cup shredded or chopped green cabbage
1 cup shredded carrot
1 cup mung bean sprouts, coarsely chopped if especially long
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts (approximately one-half of an 8-ounce can)
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp water
1/2 Tbsp corn starch
2 green onions, sliced
8 egg roll wraps
Additional water for sealing egg rolls

Heat a teaspoon of oil, or use cooking spray, in a large slope-sided skillet or wok over medium heat. Add the cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, water chestnuts, and ginger to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, for about 4 minutes or until the vegetables begin to wilt slightly but retain crispness.

Combine the soy sauce and water; stir in the corn starch thoroughly so there are no lumps. Add this mixture to the pan along with the green onions and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Remove the vegetable mixture from the heat and let cool.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Fill each egg roll as follows: Position the wrap in front of you so that it looks like a diamond. Place two rounded tablespoons of filling across the lower section of the wrap, avoiding the edges. Fold the bottom up over the filling, then fold in the two sides. Moisten the top edges of the wrap with a little water (a small pastry brush is useful here) and roll the wrap up, sealing the flap. Place each filled egg roll, flap-side down, on the baking sheet. Spray the top of each egg roll with cooking spray (or brush lightly with canola oil).

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, then turn the egg rolls over. Bake another 5 to7 minutes or until crispy and golden brown. Serve with duck sauce, Chinese mustard, or a soy sauce-based dipping sauce of your choice.

Tis Another Season To Be Cooking

I popped into my kosher butcher shop yesterday and guess what song was playing on the radio?

White Christmas.

At least we can chalk up that one to a nice Jewish boy. The holiday, too, for that matter.

Anyway, the post-CSA cooking has run the gamut from roasted Brussels sprouts with garlic to rum-tinged cranberry sauce to homemade Pop-Tarts. And I've been on a squash kick of late. Here are a couple of good choices for cold winter evenings.

Squash, Cauliflower,and Chickpea Curry

Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls

These are really before-and-after pictures, as the cabbage rolls are stuffed with rice and leftovers from the squash curry. The recipes and idea are from The Boston Globe. (For a meaty "stuffed cabbage" with a lot less work, check out my Stuffed Cabbage Casserole.)

Another recent hit was this stuffed squash recipe, also via The Boston Globe.

Mushroom and Barley Stuffed Delicata Squash

(adapted, barely, from The Boston Globe Magazine. Mostly, I cut back on the salt and oil, and made minor ingredient substitutions based on what I had at home.)

2.75 cups water

1 cup pearled barley

3 delicata squash, about 1.25 pounds each, halved lengthwise and seeded

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted and chopped

2 ribs celery, finely chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

10 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1 1/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add barley and 1/4 teaspoon salt, lower heat and simmer, covered, about 35 minutes or until the barley is tender and the water has been absorbed. Remove cover and set aside.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brush squash halves with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake cut side down on a foil-lined baking sheet for 30 minutes. Turn squash halves over, brush each half with orange juice concentrate, and bake cut side up for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

While the squash is baking, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet and saute the celery and onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the celery mixture to the barley along with the porcini mushrooms. Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet and saute the sliced button mushrooms until brown, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and herbs to the skillet and cook another minute more. Add this to the barley mixture, and stir in the vinegar. Taste the barley mixture and adjust the seasoning as desired.

Fill the squash cavities with the barley mixture and bake until the filling is heated through, about 20 minutes.

Week 16: Stuffed Cabbage Casserole; Turkey Corn Soup

We started off the week with a load of vegetables: leftovers from Week 15 (green cabbage, butternut squash), the current share (red cabbage, broccoli, corn, red and green tomatoes), and our own crops (more tomatoes, both red and green). Here at week's end, I'm not completely caught up -- the squash, for one, remains untouched -- but I've made a sizeable dent.

So what's come out of the kitchen? Salsa verde, served with chips. Corn and green tomato pancakes, eaten as a side dish to tuna. Red cabbage slaw with peanut dressing. Cabbage casserole and turkey soup (detailed below). Still to come: Fresh pasta sauce, pickled green tomatoes, maybe a stir fry with the remaining cabbage. And something with squash.

  
Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
(Adapted recipe. The original uses a can of tomato soup and a can of soup water instead of tomato sauce. The flavor of this dish is reminiscent of stuffed cabbage, but with much less work.)

1 medium green cabbage (about 2 pounds), cut up
1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cans (8 ounces each) tomato sauce

Grease a large baking dish (9 by 13 inches) and place cabbage inside. Brown beef and onion in a skillet. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Stir in rice. Place meat mixture over the cabbage. Pour tomato sauce over all. Cover dish and bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until the cabbage is tender and the rice is cooked. (Check after 30 minutes and add a little water to the dish if it seems dry.)

Turkey Corn Soup

(Adapted recipe; similar to this one.)

6 cups turkey stock

5 ears corn

2 cups diced, cooked turkey (about 9 ounces)

1 cup sliced celery (about 2 stalks)

3 ounces broad or “homestyle” egg noodles

Black pepper and salt

Place the stock in a large (4 quart) soup pan. Slice whole kernels from two ears of corn and add to stock. Over a bowl, to catch the pulp and liquid, grate the kernels from the remaining three ears of corn, using the large holes of a box grater. Add to the stock mixture, along with the diced turkey and celery. Bring the stock to a gentle boil. Add the noodles and simmer until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust the seasoning as desired and serve hot.

Week 4: Spinach Calzone, and Other Good Stuff

Some weeks, inspiration comes slowly. Other times -- like this past week -- the cooking just comes together.

• Curly parsley + fresh mint + SWISS CHARD (sorry, had to shout that) = Swiss Chard Spanakopita Casserole
• Green cabbage + kasha + kitchen staples (onion, mushroom, carrot) = Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage
• Spinach + cheeses + pizza dough = Spinach Calzone
• Summer Squash + parsley + canned beans + tomatoes = Vegetarian chili
• Red leaf lettuce + arugula + squash + radishes = a week of salads

The kids favored the calzones, so I feature that recipe below, but I do want to point you to the Swiss chard and cabbage recipes.

Swiss Chard Spanakopita Casserole is a Cooking Light recipe, available here. A construction note: If you can't find large sheets of phyllo dough (mine were only 9 by 14 inches, not the 18 by 14 inches specified in the recipe) just use a 9-inch-square pan. Layer the sheets of phyllo dough perpendicular to one another in the pan, so all sides are covered and the phyllo can encase the filling. Score the assembled casserole into nine pieces before baking.

The stuffed cabbage recipe, aka East European Style Cabbage Rolls in Sweet and Sour Tomato Sauce, comes from Blog Appetit. This one is not hard, but it has several steps to it: prepping the cabbage leaves, preparing the filling and sauce, assembling the rolls, and finally baking everything together. Bookmark this one for cooler weather. For the uninitiated, kasha is buckwheat groats; you'll find it in the kosher food section of your supermarket. For those familiar with kasha, note that the recipe calls for cooking the kasha the way you would for breakfast cereal -- not coated with egg to keep separate granules. The result is a solid filling that holds together when you spoon it onto the cabbage leaves. I might tweak the sauce a bit the next time I make this, but overall this was a satisfying meal.

The calzones were inspired by the coupon I had for a free pound of pizza dough -- and the just-right amount of spinach that came from the farm. You can use any commercially prepared or homemade dough, of course. The spicing is a bit different from what you might expect, but it worked. I have to thank Caboodle for staging and taking the photo of her plate.

Spinach and Cheese Calzones
(by way of Venetto's Italian Recipes at That's My Home)

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups coarse chopped fresh spinach (about 1/2 pound)
1 cup lowfat ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (2 ounces)
1 pound pizza dough
Extra olive oil (for shaping dough)
1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal (for baking tray)
1 cup marinara sauce (for serving)

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and cover. Cook onion over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook uncovered for about 1 minute, then stir in the spinach and cook until it wilts, about 2 minutes.

Place the vegetables in a bowl and let them cool a bit. Stir in ricotta, spices, egg yolk, and feta. If you wish, you can prepare the filling several hours ahead and refrigerate, but return it to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle a large baking sheet with cornmeal.

Cut the dough into four equal pieces. Pat or roll each piece out to about a 7-inch circle. I found it was necessary to have a little olive oil on my pastry mat to keep the dough from sticking. Spoon a quarter of the filling onto half of each circle, leaving a margin around the edge. Fold over the dough to make half-moon shapes and press the edges with the tines of a fork to seal. Transfer filled calzones to the baking sheet. With a small, sharp knife, make two or three slashes in the top of each calzone to let steam escape. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown. Serve with warmed marinara sauce for dipping.

Bubble and Squeak

I made a passing reference to Bubble and Squeak back in the summer when I had a head of cabbage on hand. I bring it up now, because you just might have the right combination of leftovers to make this dish sometime after Thanksgiving.

Bubble and Squeak has a place in the pantheon of British Foods With Odd Names. Basically, it's a shallow-fried pancake or hash made from leftover potatoes and vegetables. Cabbage is a traditional ingredient, but you can use whatever greens or vegetables you have on hand. Throw in some chopped herbs, too, if you'd like (mmmm, sage and rosemary would be good). Use the directions below as a very loose guide.

Bubble and Squeak
(adapted from The Frugal Gourmet by Jeff Smith)

3 potatoes, boiled and smashed, or leftover mashed potatoes
4 cups chopped, cooked cabbage, or other cooked greens, such as kale or chard
1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped (sauteed, if you choose, but it's not necessary)
1 raw zucchini, grated (or try cooked Brussels sprouts, broccoli, or carrot)
olive oil

Gently mix the potatoes, greens, and vegetables. Lumps are good; you are not looking for a smooth paste. If your potatoes are too cold to mix, warm them a bit in the microwave first.

Heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add the potato-vegetable mixture, press it into the skillet bottom, and let it heat and brown. Flip it in sections to brown both sides or stir it like hash until it's evenly cooked and hot throughout. Serve with salad, leftover meat, or scrambled eggs.