Red Cabbage – Two New Favorites
One of our favorite Cook/Eater challenge games is for hubby to come back from the store with something unusual, something that hasn’t been on the regular menu before. I get to play my own version of “Chopped,” except the “basket” is a grocery store plastic bag. The latest challenge was a head of red cabbage. Two dishes emerged, each using a half a head.
Coleslaw and Ham
Creates a refreshingly crisp and light dinner, but rich enough to be satisfying. All measurements are somewhat flexible.
- 1 small head of red cabbage or 1/2 head of a larger head of red cabbage, sliced into thin strips – mine were about 1/4 inch wide and 1.5 inches long
- 1 peeled apple, cut into small chunks about 1/2-inch square
- 2 big glops (using a soup spoon) of light mayo – I use Hellman’s Light Mayo
- 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar – the more musty, the better – not too tangy
- 2 large glops of crushed pineapple, again, use a soup spoon
- 1 teaspoon of McCormick Garlic/Herb spice – also a fantastic addition to eggs and cooked veggies
- 1 teaspoon of poppy seeds (optional – but they add a nice “mouth” element)
- 1 teaspoon of celery seeds (ditto)
- Slices of deli ham – real ham right off the bone, not the processed stuff. I like the slices to be about 1/8-inch thick.
Mix all until well-distributed. (Can be served immediately or keeps nicely in the fridge for a good week.)
Place a couple of slices of nice high-quality deli ham on a plate; generously spoon the coleslaw over the slices. Makes enough for two such dinners. Also makes a great lunch.
Cabbage and Onions – surprisingly deep and satisfying
The trick with vegetables at our house is for them to taste good. He’ll eat anything if I can make it taste good, even vegetables. When hubby says the word “vegetables,” it comes out with a joking-but-not-really sneer, with the emphasis on the first syllable. VEGetables. Such disdain! Reminds me of my autistic brother’s way of dismissing something, waving his hand and saying, “Pffffffft.” I never really thought much about making cabbage taste good, so this was really fun. As I cooked this dish, I just kept adding more ingredients to balance out the acidity of the cooked cabbage – making it as savory as I could, with a bit of sweetness, so each part of the tongue got to do its own little dance.
By the way, if you are really in a hurry, I bet you could make this dish with only cabbage and the mayo, perhaps a little beef broth, and a little salt and sugar, using the cooking method described – and it would probably taste pretty good. I guess that means there is a “just me eating” version and a “cooking for others” version. Below is the “others” version.
In a large cast iron or similarly thick skillet, combine:
- 1 small head of red cabbage or 1/2 of a large one, sliced into strips about 3/8 inch wide – more or less doesn’t matter much.
- 1/3 red onion, just for taste
- Generous sprinkling of McCormick Garlic and Herb spice mixture
- Just a touch of salt
- 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce – just sprinkle around twice
- 1/3 cup white sauce (not totally necessary, but does add just a little bit of sweetness and thickens up the sauce)
- 1/3 cup light mayo (again, I use Hellman’s Light Mayo)
- Sprinkle raw sugar over the cooking cabbage/onion, just enough to loosely cover. I’d estimate 2 teaspoons. Don’t go overboard – this dish wants to stay on the savory side.
- 1 teaspoon of a gravy or beef soup powder – but it should be more dense than salty, or the dish will become too salty. I wouldn’t use something like Lipton Onion soup, for example. I use an Ina Paarman beef gravy powder I found in South Africa, which doesn’t help you much. You could use a beef bouillon cube or a vegetable bouillon cube, crushed and dissolved in a little bowl with some water before you added it to the pan. On the other hand, this gravy powder might work nicely. I see that it is also from South Africa. Living there before we sailed our boat home really took my cooking to a whole new level.
- Water – continually added as needed (see below)
The trick to cooking this dish is to make the cabbage sweat sweetly, as you continue to add the ingredients. It’s similar to cooking onions – they get so much softer and more flavorful when you cook them on medium high instead of high (difficult for me, since my goal is for all dinners to take 10 – 15 minutes). But it pays off.
So turn on the heat, squirt some oil into the pan (I love safflower or sunflower oil – so much better for us than canola/rapeseed oil, soy, or corn), and add the cut-up cabbage and onions. Then start adding your other ingredients, stirring as you go. Very important: Keep squirting water into the pan, as the water gets cooked down. You don’t want to add that “carbon” taste to this dish – it’s much better without it!
Once you’ve added all the ingredients, turn the heat down to simmer, and cover, but do keep an eye on it, adding water as needed. It’s ready when it is all soft and somewhat gooey. About 10 – 15 minutes of total cooking time. Makes a nice complement to turkey, chicken, ham, or beef.