Cabbages (Brassica oleracea)

Looking for a quick, easy and inexpensive vegetable dish? Cabbage is the answer.

Cabbage is one of the least labor intensive vegetables to prepare because it grows from the inside out. To prepare, all one has to do is remove any soiled or blemished outer leaves, cut to desired size pieces and cook. No stringing, no peeling, no scrubbing.

Don’t like green cabbage? There are a couple reasons for that: 1. you were served the wrong variety of cabbage, or 2. you were served overcooked cabbage.

There are more than a hundred varieties of cabbages in many different sizes, shapes and colors – round head, flat head, pointy head, curly leaves, green, white, red, purple …..

The round, very heavy and smooth (kinda leathery) leaves variety (reminds me of a basketball) has a strong cabbage aroma when cooking and a chewy texture. Not my favorite.

The round with a little wave to its leaves variety (photo above) has a sweet mild flavor and a crisp tender texture. One of my favorites. I also like the flat head, pointy head and savoy.

If you still don’t like cabbage or you like it but it doesn’t like you, try napa cabbage (left photo) or celery cabbage. These cabbages are mild, sweet and delicious.

Storage: All cabbages store well in the refrigerator. I once experimented to see how long I can keep a freshly harvested napa cabbage in the refrigerator. Results: 6 weeks.

This is what I did. Harvested a mature head of napa cabbage in the morning. Remove all soiled and blemished outer leaves. Left on the kitchen counter to air dry (it is important that there is no moisture on the leaves). Wrapped cabbage in clean dry paper towels, placed in a plastic bag (cut the corners of the plastic bag to allow for air circulation), dated and placed in refrigerator.

Whenever I want to cook some cabbage, I remove as many outer leaves as needed (do not cut through the cabbage), rewrap remaining cabbage in clean, dry paper towels, place in plastic bags and return to refrigerator. Repeat as needed until cabbage is used. Do the same with green and red cabbages.

Cooking: Cabbage is an extremely versatile vegetable – boil, steam, stir-fry, bake, pickle; add to soups, stews ….. Use alone or combined with other vegetables, meat, seafood, poultry, tofu, eggs …..

Below are 2 easy cabbage recipes

QUICK-FIX GREEN AND NAPA CABBAGES STIR-FRY (see NOTE)
From “My Students’ Favorite Chinese Recipes, updated edition“ by Norma Chang

Ingredients
½ – 1 pound green cabbage, thinly sliced (can be done ahead of time)
½ – 1 pound napa cabbage, thinly sliced (can be done ahead of time)
2 – 3 slices ginger, fresh or from ginger wine
1 – 2 tablespoons ginger wine or water, if needed
½ – 1 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
1 – 2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil or to taste, optional

Preparations
Add oil to a preheated wok or frying pan. Add ginger slices, stir-fry 10 seconds to flavor the oil. Add salt and cabbages. Sitr-fry until cabbages are crisp-tender, 3 – 4 minutes, adding ginger wine or water 1 tablespoon at a time if wok or frying pan is too dry. Turn off heat, stir in sesame oil if using, adjust taste. Serve hot or at room temperature.

NOTE: Green cabbage is a low-water content vegetable, napa cabbage is a high-water content vegetable, the liquid from the napa cabbage will help the green cabbage stay moist.

This above is a quick-fix vegetable dish. If time permits, add 1 minced shallot and 1 – 2 cloves minced garlic at the same time as the ginger.

To elevate this plain dish to company fare, garnish with fresh, unsprayed, edible flowers or carrot flowers (see photo).

CARROT FLOWERS
Peel a 1½-inch (about) piece of carrot. With a sharp paring knife, make 5 lengthwise V’s. (I like 5 petals on my flowers, make more V’s if you want more petals.) Round off the corners. Using a sharp slicing knife, slice thinly into carrot flowers (12 – 15 slices).

VARIATION 1: Add 1 – 2 tablespoons soy sauce or oyster sauce and/or Asian chili sauce to taste
VARIATION 2: Add 1 – 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, Chinkiang vinegar, lemon/lime juice and/or zest
VARIATION 3: Add dried cranberries and/or toasted nuts of choice

QUICK & EASY PICKLED GREEN CABBAGE

Ingredients
1½ pounds (8 – 9 cups) shredded green cabbage
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¼ cup sugar
3 – 6 slices ginger, fresh or from ginger wine or 1 – 2 tablespoons shredded
¾ cup unflavored rice vinegar
1 –  2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil

Preparations
Combine all the above ingredients. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

VARIATION: Add 1 – 8 chili peppers, leave whole or shredded

Copyright © 2011 by Norma Chang