Cabbage Slaw

This summer, I'm trying to do a better job at hosting friends over to grill in the garden. It takes a bit of planning to figure out which friends to invite together and reserve the grills if it's going to be a large enough group. And of course, there is the menu.

For summertime, my go-to grilling main is brats and similar sausages. They're straightforward and usually precooked all the way through, so I don't fret about not cooking them enough in the middle. (I'm getting better at grilling but still learning!) Veggies from the CSA or other seasonal produce go on the grill, too. Many of my vegetarian (and some omnivorous) friends like Beyond Meat, so I'll pick up Beyond Brats, too.

I like slaw on my brats, and it makes a good side for others. Earlier this summer, I searched through my cookbooks looking for the type of slaw I was remembering from my childhood. Not the mayonnaise one. The other, vinegary one. Struck out in More-with-Less. Didn't find it in Jane Brody. Eventually pulled out the Whitmire Memorial Library cookbook, and voila, there were multiple recipes that fit the bill. This recipe is modified from Twenty-Four Hour Slaw by Peggy Bullard and Cabbage Slaw by Pam Alexander.

Cabbage Slaw

Grate the following (a food processor is your friend here):

• Half a small cabbage
• One carrot (or two if small)
• One small white onion

Heat together until the sugar dissolves:

• 1/3 c apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• mustard seeds
• celery seeds

In a bowl, mix the grated ingredients to distribute. Pour the sauce mixture over the cabbage. Mix. Cool in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

 Note: if you shred more than needed, then you've got a base for okonomiyaki ready to go.

Salad Strategy

CSA day! Today we got spinach, white scallions and green garlic (both already chopped off with ends in water in the windowsill, because let's grow more flavor), salsify (which I have never had),  carrots, purple radishes (so pretty! and with greens attached), scarlet turnips, more carrots (there were two bags), and zucchini. It seems early for the zukes. I want asparagus. That's a proper spring vegetable! And I haven't had any yet because it hasn't come in the box and we have enough vegetables that I'm not buying it from the store.

~~~

For lunch, I made a salad. Today's was a simple salad: spinach, chickpeas, radish, carrot, turnip,  feta, dressing. Though I'm coming to think of most of my salads as fancy to present, simple to make. Assembly of a basic components.

These are the building blocks of most of my salads.

• Greens
• Grains
• Lentils/beans (Bonus if you've been marinating them.)
• Raw veggies (Do you have a mandoline? It makes my salads feel very fancy.)
• Cooked veggies (I've been using this recipe quite frequently recently)
• Seasonal fresh fruit
• Fritters (Smashed veggies, falafel, risotto fritters. Meat options would probably go at this level too. Or a fried egg.)
• Cheese
• Dried fruit, whatever the season
• Nuts/seeds (Maybe even a savory granola? Croutons if you can! Crispy beans if you'd rather.)

Choose items from at least three of the categories. Probably not more than five or six of them. Usually I build my salad with things at the top of the list going into the plate first as a base and things at the bottom of the list being added later as toppings. Add a dressing or sauce,

Some winners from this winter's boxes:

• Radishes sliced paper thin + grapefruit segments + goat cheese + rose vinaigrette
• Mixed greens + sliced carrots and radishes + smashed sunchokes + sriracha-mayo-lemon dip
• Mixed greens + marinated lentils + mixed roasted veggies + blue cheese + a homemade balsamic dressing
• Kale + chickpeas + daikon radish + caesar dressing

Last taste of summer

Summer doesn't feel the same in the city.

I mean, I suppose any year with time spent inside will never feel the same as it did when I spent 10 to 12 weeks at camp. Grown-up life doesn't have the intense friend-making experiences that I associate with summer.  There are fewer hikes and swims and thunderstorms. Less campfire food. (But more ice cream.) And living by myself, I don't eat nearly enough watermelon.

I've avoided eating watermelon in the city. It feels rude to spit seeds out on my fire escape. It takes too long to eat my way through it. But the farmer's market had some that were smaller (even if it takes up half a shelf in my fridge), and I decided I needed to keep summer going a little bit longer.

A week later I'm still working on it. When I was leafing through my Minnesota Monthly I saw a restaurant review that mentioned a watermelon and arugla salad with chevre and pickled radishes. And thus today's inspired lunch. Which was yummy enough to write-up in hopes that I'll remember it next time I buy too much watermelon.

Summertime Salad (for 1 Sarah-sized lunch)

1 inch-think slice of watermelon
3 radishes
2 inches of cucumber, thinly sliced
4 large leaves of lettuce
1 generous chunk of chevre
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar
Pepper
Olive oil
Honey

1) I don't have pickled radishes in the fridge. My first step  work on pickling the radishes--which I made up on the spot while cooking breakfast. What follows is what I did, not necessarily the best practice. Slice up some radishes. Put them in my smallest pot. Cover with apple cider vinegar. (Well, almost cover. I need to buy more vinegar.) Add a dash of sugar. Bring to simmer. Stirring occasionally.

2) Chop the watermelon and slice the cucumber. Wash the lettuce.

3) Find a salad-friendly container for salad. (It's all in the fridge. Hmph.) Fill container with the lettuce and cucumber and watermelon.

4) Turn off heat on radishes. Strain radishes from the liquid. Save the liquid in a small jar! Let radishes cool.

5) Make dressing by adding a drizzle of honey and a pour of olive oil to the vinegar.

6) Add radishes to salad. Break up chevre to sprinkle on salad. Top with a grinding of pepper.

7) Wait until lunch time and eat outside.

Variations on a theme--Fried Egg Salad

"Have you blogged about this?" Isaac asked over breakfast.
"I don't think so, I haven't posted in a long time."

But I got the hint.

The fact that I'd tried taking photos for this blog post back when pomegranates were in season, suggests that maybe this is a bit overdue. I promise it's yummier than the photo makes it look. Food photography is hard.

Fried Egg Salad

This salad gets to be a light meal at any time of day. Today it was breakfast. That time in the picture it was dinner. I rarely do late-night snacks beyond crackers and cheese or granola and yogurt, but if I did, this would be it.

Ingredients
Heavy duty greens--I like buying greens that aren't going to wilt in my fridge instantly. Because I'm one person. And greens go bad. And there's only so much magic that soaking sad greens in a bowl of cold water will do. (Though, that is a pretty impressive trick.) Kale's the best of this kind if you're not going to cook them.  But usually I get collard greens. Tid bit cheaper and they feel more real to me.
Fruit--my favorites are grapefruit in the winter, pomegranate in the fall. The juiciness of the fruit eliminates the need for dressing.
Egg--to be fried
Grinding of pepper
Other additions
Veggies--This is an occasion to pull out the frozen roasted red peppers. Shredded carrots (with food processor or a carrot peeler) tend to work better than chopped.) Avocado is amazing with grapefruit.
Cheese--My favorite is blue cheese with that grapefruit and avocado. Feta worked well with the pomegranate.
Bacon--Only tried it once. Works better if it's crispy.
Alternative for bag lunches
Skip the egg and add nuts. (Best if you can keep the nuts in a separate container until right before you add them. Otherwise the texture gets soft.

What I do
Rinse the greens. Get rid of the stems and chop them up. Put in the cast iron skillet over medium heat and cook until they're bright green. Stir enough that they don't get burnt.
While the greens are cutting get your fruit ready. Then prep any veggies.
Put the cooked greens in a fun bowl. Add your favorite fat to the hot pan and crack the egg into the pan. While the egg is cooking, top the greens with fruit, veggies, and cheese. Flip the egg. Let it finish cooking. Add it to the salad. Finish the salad with a grinding of fresh pepper.
Serve and enjoy.

Another photo that's been on my computer since the fall. Local pizza place that the fork collector might like to visit.

Salad of the moment

I’m in a salad-craving month. Huh, that feels strange to write. Wanting more and more greens doesn’t fit a cultural narrative, but it is spring and they’re so good. (Even without a CSA share delivering them extra good and truly fresh.) 

This is the salad that I’m making two or three times a week. I’m not sure what makes it so good, but I need to remember it for the future. If I ever remember to take pictures while I make it, I’ll edit the post. 

Shredded Beet Salad #3

Makes 2 and a quarter servings

1 beet

2 carrots

Bunch of spring greens

Lime olive oil (others would presumably work, I have fancy, so I’m using it)

Balsamic vinegar

2 handfuls red grapes

Roasted walnuts

Bit of blue cheese

Rinse the greens and put them in a nice salad bowl.

Shred the beet and carrots in the food processor so it spits them into the salad bowl. Usually it’s not worth me getting the food processor dirty to shred carrots, but it contains the mess of cutting up beets. If it’s already being washed, no more reason not to shred the carrots.

Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the beets, carrots, and lettuce so they can marinate while you fix the rest of the salad.

Wash the grapes and add them to the salad bowl.

Crumble the roasted walnuts and blue cheese into the salad.

Serve.

How do you use a ton of cabbage?

A month ago, Aunt Ruth and Aunt Ellie shared how when they were growing up on the farm they used to sell cabbage by the ton. I can't even fathom a ton of cabbage or dream of things to make with it. Yet they would sell a ton of cabbage for some ridiculously low price, like $8.

Spurred by that conversation, when St. Patrick's day rolled around and cabbage was on sale, I had to buy some. A head of cabbage might not weigh a ton, but it still takes some work to eat through three or four pounds of cabbage. Here's how I used mine:

Crunchy Vietnamese Cabbage Salad with Pan-Seared Tofu
This New York Times recipe is quite delicious. Soy sauce, lime, garlic, jalapeno. Mmmmmmmmmm. Seriously, go buy a cabbage and make it.

Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki is a Japanese cabbage pancake dish introduced to me by my friend Michelle. The following recipe is adapted from The Tassajara Bread Book and isn't all that true to the normal ingredients, but I've found it to work out fine. If you're interested in a more authentic version, you can often buy okonomiyaki mixes and sauces at specialty Asian groceries.

Ingredients (for about two servings worth)
1/4 cabbage
1 carrot

½ onion:  yellow or purple

(1/2 c meat or fish pieces or tofu, if desired, or whatever you have around)

1 c (or more) flour:  whole wheat and unbleached white

1 egg, beaten

1 T brown sugar

1/2 t salt

1/2 cup milk

Enough water to make batter

Chop, shred, dice or thinly slice vegetables and meat. Mix together remaining ingredients to from batter.  Fold vegetables into batter, pour into a frying pan, and cook on medium heat until thoroughly cooked. Serve either warm or cold with soy sauce and spicy mayo (I mix sriracha into regular mayo).

Caramelized Onions and Cabbage Pasta
Easy to make with few ingredients, but it does take some time to caramelize the onions. I'd argue that caramelized onions are always worth it though.

1 Tbsp butter
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cup shredded cabbage
pasta
a taste of Balsamic vinegar
pepper

Melt the butter on medium-low. Add the onions and saute until translucent and almost starting to brown. Then, add the cabbage and continue to saute.

Once you've added the cabbage, put on water to boil the pasta. The cabbage and onions should caramelize about the time the pasta finishes cooking. Season with Balsamic vinegar and fresh ground pepper.