Sauteed Cabbage

I made corned beef in the slow cooker for dinner recently.  We love corned beef and I figured we could eat it more than just on St. Patrick's Day!  Plus, it's so easy to make in the slow cooker it's a perfect weeknight meal!  When I was talking to my husband about making the corned beef we both agreed that we didn't want to eat it with the usual slow cooked cabbage and potatoes.  Neither of us find it tasty but I wanted to still serve it with the traditional sides.  So I ended up mashed potatoes and this cabbage recipe.  The sauteed cabbage reminds me of the halushki that my mom made us growing up (a Polish recipe of noodles and sauteed cabbage and onions).  This cabbage side was much tastier than the traditional slow cooked cabbage we normally eat.  The kids had a taste but didn't eat much of this.  As much as I enjoyed this, I definitely enjoy sauteed cabbage more mixed with egg noodles, onions, and butter!

Sauteed Cabbage
recipe from foodnetwork.com, courtesy of Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients:
1 small head white cabbage, including outer green leaves (2 1/2 pounds)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Cut the cabbage in half and, with the cut-side down, slice it as thinly as possible around the core, as though you were making coleslaw. Discard the core.

Melt the butter in a large saute pan or heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the cabbage, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender and begins to brown. Season, to taste, and serve warm.

Mommy & Daddy Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Asian Style Slaw

I think that this salad was our favorite of the barbecue.  I'm not usually a big cole slaw eater.  I prefer my cabbage cooked!  My husband wanted a cole slaw though so he picked this recipe out and made it.  Like I mentioned, I ended up loving it!  I really enjoyed the asian flavors that you don't normally associate with a cole slaw.  I wasn't a stickler for having the kids try bites of everything with all of the company over.  They were too busy playing with the other kids to really want to settle down and eat with the adults.  They really aren't cabbage or onion fans so we kind of knew that they wouldn't eat this.  However, I couldn't let their tastes deter others from trying this out.  This was really light and refreshing and surprisingly tasty.  I can totally see us making this again for another barbecue. 

Asian Style Slaw
recipe slightly adapted from foodnetwork.com courtesy of Dave Lieberman

Yield:  12 servings

Ingredients:
1 bunch (6 large) scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 head of cabbage, shredded
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger (from about a 1-inch piece)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, optional
1 teaspoon salt
20 grinds black pepper

Directions:
Rough up the scallion slices a little with your fingers so all the little layers of the scallion whites separate. Toss the cabbage, the red onion and scallions together in a large bowl until everything is thoroughly mixed. You can make the slaw up to this point up to a day in advance as long as you keep it refrigerated. Before serving, simply bring the slaw back to room temperature, make the dressing and toss.

Stir the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl until blended, then pour over the vegetables. Serve within 1 hour of dressing or the cabbage will get wilty and sad.

Mommy & Daddy Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Around the World: Cantonese Style Shrimp with Napa Cabbage

This recipe is our last dish on our Around the World tour of China.  Prior to making this dish and doing a little research I didn't really know the differences among the Chinese styles of cooking....minus Szechuan, which I know is spicy hot!  I discovered that Cantonese "style" is the Chinese food that Americans are accustomed to and includes stir-frying, steaming, and roasting and the well-known dim sum.  According to Wikipedia, especially when cooking seafood, Cantonese cuisine uses light seasoning just to bring out the sweetness of the seafood.  Unfortunately, I think in this dish, the seasoning was just too light.  To me it tasted kind of bland and didn't have the normal flavors that I associate with Chinese food.  This of course may not be due to the recipe but more to my experience with Chinese food.  Prior to making this, I hadn't cooked with shrimp in a long time.  The kids like shrimp and ate all of theirs up.  However, the cabbage was another story.  I was lucky to get them to try a bite.  I served this with white rice and some frozen egg rolls (this was a weeknight meal!  I definitely didn't have time to make home made egg rolls!).  So, we bid farewell to China, though this definitely won't be the last Chinese dish that I make.  Stay tuned as we travel around the world to our "D" country soon!

Cantonese Style Shrimp with Napa Cabbage
recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light, November 2011

Ingredients:
1/3 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons medium dry sherry
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
4 cups shredded Napa cabbage
1/3 cup diagonally cut green onions

Preparation:
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Heat a wok or skillet over high heat. Add oils to pan; swirl to coat. Add shrimp; stir-fry 1 minute. Add garlic; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add broth mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir in cabbage; cook 1 minute. Top with onions.

Family Rating: So-so.

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole

I can count on one hand the number of times that I've ever eaten stuffed cabbage.  The last time was at my mom's not too long ago.  While I like to eat it, I don't like all the work that the dish seems to involve.  When I found this recipe I bookmarked it immediately and finally got around to making it.  It still seemed pretty time consuming (although I've never made stuffed cabbage the traditional to be able to compare) to me.  This is definitely NOT a quick weeknight meal.  However, once it's cooked it's pretty tasty!  We had enough leftovers for lunch the next day and for me to give some to my parents and brother!  The kids unfortunately weren't big fans, as expected.

Stuffed Cabbage Casserole
recipe adapted from Mostly Food and Crafts

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil, divided
1 lb ground turkey
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp sweet Hungarian Paprika
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 1/2 heads green cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with juice
2 cans (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
2 cups cooked white rice
2 cups low-fat mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large glass casserole dish (9 x 13) with non-stick spray. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add the ground turkey to it. Cook until it's browned and no longer pink, breaking it apart as it cooks. Remove ground turkey and set aside. In the same pan, add 1 tsp olive oil and onion and saute over medium heat until the onion is translucent and starting to golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and paprika and cook about 2 minutes more. Then add the diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, and ground turkey. Add water to the pan. Simmer until it's hot and slightly thickened, about 15-20 minutes.

While the mixture simmers, cut cabbage in half, cut out the core, and remove any wilted outer leaves; chop the cabbage into small pieces. Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan or dutch oven; add the cabbage and cook over medium-high heat until the cabbage is wilted and about half cooked, mixing it a few times so all the pieces begin to wilt and cook. Season with salt and black pepper. Once the sauce mixture has cooked and thickened a bit, add in the 2 cups of cooked rice and combine.

Now begin to layer half the cabbage, half the meat mixture, remaining cabbage, and remaining meat mixture into the sprayed dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes, or until the mixture is just starting to bubble on the edges. Remove foil and sprinkle on cheese. Bake uncovered an additional 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and begins to slightly brown.

Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up.

Cabbage and Potato Frittata with Bacon

I had half a head of cabbage left over from the Cabbage Pancakes I had made earlier in the week and didn't want it to go to waste, so I decided to make this frittata.  I ended up making this for lunch on Super Bowl Sunday, since my husband was going out with some friends to watch the game, and I didn't really feel like making dinner for just me and the kids.  (We had a  picnic dinner -Chinese take-out and ended up watching the other blue men....The Smurfs movie!).  This was pretty quick and easy to make, minus the peeling and chopping of the veggies.  The kids really didn't like it, except for the bacon!  There was a lot leftover so my husband and I both ended up having this for lunch a couple of days.  The frittata was still pretty hot when I added the sour cream on top, as seen in the "melty" picture below!

Cabbage and Potato Frittata with Bacon
Every Day With Rachael Ray, September 2010

Ingredients:
10 eggs
Salt and pepper
8 slices bacon
2 baking potatoes (about 10 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 head green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Sour cream, for serving
1 scallion, thinly sliced

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees . In a large bowl, beat the eggs with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In a large, ovenproof nonstick skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes; drain on paper towels. Crumble the bacon. Reserve 3 tablespoons bacon fat in the pan and discard the rest.

2.Add the potatoes and carrots to the pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and onion, season with salt and pepper and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.

3.Stir the eggs into the vegetables. Cook until the edges begin to set but the center is runny, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the oven and bake until the eggs are set in the center and the edges are golden brown, about 10 minutes. Invert the frittata onto a large plate, then re invert onto a serving platter; cut into wedges. Serve with the sour cream, bacon and scallion.

Family Rating: one thumb up.

Cabbage Cakes

I like cabbage but don't know many ways to cook with it besides coleslaw and noodles with cabbage and onions(a favorite of mine!).  I ended up finding this recipe on allrecipes and made it as a side dish to go with the slow cooker cranberry chicken that I posted yesterday.  These were easy to make.  I served them with some plain yogurt on top, although I ended up preferring them plain. Without the sugar of a normal pancake batter these were definitely savory.  I felt they lacked a little in flavor and were missing something, but wasn't sure what. The kids weren't big fans of these.  I ended up eating some leftover for breakfast the next morning.  

 Cabbage Cakes
allrecipes.com - by MRSPINK

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small head cabbage, cored and sliced thin
1 onion, thinly sliced
black pepper to taste
1 1/3 cups plain yogurt
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
butter (optional)

Directions:
1.Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the cabbage and onion; cook and stir until the vegetables are soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Season with pepper, and set pan aside to cool.

2.Whisk together the yogurt, milk, vegetable oil, and eggs in a bowl until evenly blended; set aside. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet mixture into the well, then stir until well combined. Fold the cooled cabbage and onions into the pancake batter.

3.Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and butter or oil if necessary. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Family Rating: So-so.