Mon Petit Chou

Just a few quick thoughts about cabbage, which is coming from the farms now: green, red (aka purple) and Napa or Chinese as it's sometimes called. It's a world class vegetable, so beloved the French even call their dear ones "my little cabbage." So don't snub it.

It's a good companion on warm summer days, especially in a slaw which can be quick to prepare. Shred a small green and small red cabbage in a large bowl. Grate in three carrots and a large daikon radish. Now you've got four colors, a good looking dish. Grate in some kohlrabi if you have them or, yum, a small celeriac bulb. For the last blast of color, you can very thinly strip a red pepper and blend it in. I personally like to season my slaws with celery seed and lots of freshly ground black pepper, plus sea salt. Dress them with two parts cider vinegar to one part olive oil blended with a smashed garlic clove, a large pinch of dried tarragon and 1/4 tsp caraway seed to make it very tasty. Blend and serve. This will still be good for two more days.

There's a Vietnamese shredded cabbage salad in my book How to Fix a Leek... that's been wildly popular. Again it's shredded cabbage and carrots but this time with mint, poached chicken, marinated onions and a Vietnamese blend of fish sauce with chili and oil.

Whole cabbage. carefully hollowed out, makes great unbreakable bowls for dips.

If you need a hot dish easily done, try the cabbage crisp in my Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking book (available at many bookstores and from Amazon). I made this up years ago, using cabbage precooked with red onion and dill and a few raisins as the "fruit" of my crisp. I blended it with salt, pepper and sour cream, filled a pie dish with it and made a streusel topping out of basic Kashi mixed in clumps with butter and a pinch of nutmeg.  Bake as you would a crisp and serve hot, with a tomato salad or a slice of ham or grilled bacon.  It's very versatile. And great for potluck!

More on stuffed cabbage, perhaps with mushrooms, coming soon....gotta cook a big farm to table dinner for 64. Tickets sold out!