Category: Cabbage

This is Wyatt’s go-to coleslaw. It a really nice balanced-tangy, punchy, barely sweet dressing.

You only need 6 ingredients, that I bet you have at hand.

Wyatt’s Favorite Coleslaw

• 1/2 to 3/4 cup any kind of mayonnaise, vegan or even full fat yogurt work here.
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey, or more to taste-Wyatt said he uses powdered sugar sometimes to get the right consistency. You’ll have to ask him about that, I’ve never tried powdered sugar! I’ve used maple syrup or honey and it was just fine
• ¾ (or more!) teaspoon celery seeds
• Salt and lots of pepper to taste at the end
• optional any other vegetables you want to add like radishes, carrots, jalapenos, onions, turnips. Oh! Nuts and fruit like apples and dried fruit are really good too!

Shred some of your cabbage as thin as humanly possible and cut some of the cabbage in small bite size pieces, I like the contrast. You can use a food processor and make it all the same size of course, but I always just use a knife and cut different sizes. You’ll need at least 8 cups of shredded cabbage/vegetables for this much dressing.

In a bowl mix together the mayo, vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, celery seed and a little salt and pepper. Taste it before you add it to the cabbage and make sure it tastes balanced. It should be tangy and just a little sweet and you should barely taste the mustard and celery seeds. If you want to taste more of anything add it now. It’s easier to get it right before you add it to the cabbage. Grab a piece of cabbage and dip it in the dressing to see if you are happy with the sweet-tangy-creamy-punchy dressing goal.

Mix it all up when you are happy with the dressing and add any other vegetables if you want to now.

Serve it right away or keep it covered in the refrigerator for about a week. It will collapse a little and need to be mixed to refresh it but, honestly I like it as much if not more after a few days ‘marinating’ in the refrigerator.

 

This is an quick weeknight dinner using just a few standard ingredients. Cabbage is the base here and after that, the sky, or the remnants of your vegetable drawer, is the limit as to what other vegetables can be used; beets, any greens, zucchini, turnips, leeks, winter squash, really anything that will shred. You don’t want too big of chunks because they won’t cook enough.

I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I’ll copy and past the full recipe at the end of this post but follow the photos and you’ll see how easy this are.

I feel like these are blog worthy because they are loaded with vegetables and little else, just eggs and flour and salt and pepper and like all my favorite recipes this one is more than a sum of its parts. All the vegetables magically meld into a crispy crust with a creamy middle.

You will need about 8 cups total of any shredded vegetables and any kind of flour you like. Whole wheat or garbanzo flour is so good here, and gluten free works great too. I had a little too many vegetables this time but it was still ok.

You mix the shredded vegetables with flour and salt and pepper, mix that really well then add the eggs.

Mixed up it will look a little like coleslaw. Here I can’t stress enough; it will seem really dry and like it will never ever hold together and form a pancake.  Look at this picture and trust me. It will work. If you panic and add more egg it will be ok, but it will be more egg than vegetables and that isn’t what we are after here. The vegetables are the star. Let them be the star.

Now, heat a skillet to medium and add some oil. I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to portion each pancake. It looks pretty dry and hopelessly unable to hold together right?

Smoosh them down a little and let them cook for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side. If you are having trouble flipping them they aren’t cooked enough. Chill a minute, breathe, and let them cook a little longer and try again. After one or two you will get the heat and timing right.

Look at that. All the vegetables sort of melt together into a party.

This makes a lot. Plenty for 4 people, leftovers are great if you aren’t 4 people. I really like these as a side with soup or topped on something like a Caesar salad.

Any dipping sauce or salad dressing is perfect with these. The original recipe suggests an Asian flavored sauce. I like them with a green goddess or Ranch dressing and sometimes I mix BBQ sauce and mayonnaise and hot sauce (sounds weird I know, but it’s delicious). Yogurt with a little lemon or lime is nice, chimichurri, or pesto is good too. This avocado sauce was nice too.

I think everyone is getting cabbage this week so I hope some of you try this.

Pancakes
1/2 small head cabbage, very thinly sliced (1 pound or 5 to 6 cups shreds) which will be easiest on a mandoline if you have one
4 medium carrots, peeled into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
5 lacinato kale leaves, ribs removed, leaves cut into thin ribbons
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
Canola, safflower or peanut oil for frying

Make the pancakes: Toss cabbage, carrot, kale, scallions and salt together in a large bowl. Toss mixture with flour so it coats all of the vegetables. Stir in the eggs. Heat a large heavy skillet on medium-high heat. Coat the bottom with oil and heat that too.

To make a large pancake, add 1/4 of the vegetable mixture to the skillet, pressing it out into a 1/2- to 3/4-inch pancake. Gently press the pancake down flat. Cook until the edges beging to brown, about 3 minutes. 30 seconds to 1 minute later, flip the pancake with a large spatula. (If this is terrifying, you can first slide the pancake onto a plate, and, using potholders, reverse it back into the hot skillet.) Cook on the other side until the edges brown, and then again up to a minute more (you can peek to make sure the color is right underneath).

To make small pancakes, you can use tongs but I seriously find using my fingers and grabbing little piles, letting a little batter drip back into the bowl, and depositing them in piles on the skillet easier, to form 3 to 4 pancakes. Press down gently with a spatula to they flatten slightly, but no need to spread them much. Cook for 3 minutes, or until the edges brown. Flip the pancakes and cook them again until brown underneath.

Regardless of pancake size, you can keep them warm on a tray in the oven at 200 to 250 degrees until needed.

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t think I have ever made a salad without trying to use up odds and ends in the refrigerator and pantry. Today is no different. I am calling this a Cabbage Garden Salad but I could have called it “Kitchen Sink” or “Clean out the Crisper Drawer” salad. Garden salad sounded best to me so we are going with that. This dressing is thick so start with cabbage or kale, something substantial then use any vegetables you have; peas, cucumbers, turnips, broccoli, any fresh greens, peppers, any herbs; chop them up and throw in! The real star here is the dressing, we’ll get to that in a minute.

Here is what vegetables I had.

Shred the cabbage and chop up the other vegetables and herbs. I really like using a mandolin but if you don’t have one or like to use it just chop everything up.

Arrange everything in a serving bowl and make the dressing.

I saw this yogurt based ‘Sunny Honey Mustard‘ dressing and had to try it on a cabbage salad. It’s tangy and delicious and is assertive enough to stand up to this hearty salad. To make it you’ll need;

• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (any % fat will do)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup Dijon mustard
• 3 to 4 tablespoons honey, to taste
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or more lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup or bowl, combine all of the ingredients as listed. Whisk until blended. Taste, and season with additional pepper if necessary.
2. This dressing is intentionally bold, but if it tastes too tart for your liking, whisk in another tablespoon of honey.
3. Store leftover salad dressing in the refrigerator, covered, for 10 to 14 days.

Absolutely delicious. I hope you try it.

Have a great week, I’ll see you at pickup.

(You can see my husband’s reflection/photo-bomb in the spoon lol).

 

 

 

This is the last week of 2018 CSA-Week 23. Thank you CSA members, we say it all the time, but I’ll say it again, Red Wagon wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t for our Wonderful CSA members. I look forward each week to seeing you all at pickups. I love hearing what you liked best from the CSA the week before and what you made with your CSA bounty. I love hearing you say, ‘I can’t decide what to take, I want it all’ and ‘I am so sad this is the last week’. We are too, but we’ll be here next year. Hopefully you will be too.

Thank you too Wyatt, Amy, Javier, Lauren and all the 2018 Farm Crew. I have never seen the farm look so beautiful and productive. Have a restful off season.

OK. On to the braised cabbage.

I love braised cabbage it is the perfect side dish for grains or roasted vegetables or meats. I like to cook it until it is really silky and tender so a crock pot is the perfect method to set it and forget it until you come home to the welcome smell of a hot meal. I made braised cabbage today, but if you prefer soup to braising just add more liquid to the ingredients.

I like to clean out the vegetable bin when I am making braised cabbage or soup. Today I had about 1/2 a head of cabbage and a few other vegetables I added. I can’t think of any vegetable you couldn’t add to a braised dish. Celery root would be great, sunchokes, onions, even apples are good . You can use stock or tomatoes or apple juice or beer for your liquid, or any combination. I don’t think you can screw this up. I had a couple Parmesan rinds I added today.

This is what I used.

Bacon or sausage is always good if you are a meat eater. Eggplant or mushrooms would be good vegetarian options to bulk up this dish.

Cut the core out of the cabbage and wash and cut up all the vegetables you are using into bite size pieces and put everything to the crock pot and add some salt and pepper.

 

I used about 2 cups of the vegetable broth to the crock pot because I didn’t want soup, I wanted more of a braise. If you want soup add enough liquid to cover the vegetables, maybe use some stock and some canned or fresh tomatoes?

Put the lid on and either cook it on high for 4 or 5 hours or low for 7 or 8 hours.

That’s it. That took about 3 minutes.

I am off to CSA pickup so I will add a picture of it cooked when I get back from work.

I’ll see you at pick up.

Thanks for your support of Red Wagon Farm.

Mo

 

Fermented food is so good and so good for you. It is easy and fast to make with just a few ingredients, common kitchen tools and supplies.

What are we waiting for? Let’s do this.

 

Ideally you have a kitchen scale. Having the correct ratio of vegetables to salt/brine mixture makes making fermented food 99.9% foolproof. So, weigh your ingredients please!

INGREDIENTS                                           SUPPLIES

2-3 carrots (optional)                                Kitchen scale
2-3 cloves garlic (optional)                      Cutting board, knife and large mixing bowl
1 medium head fresh cabbage              Vegetable peeler, measuring spoon
1 tablespoon Kosher salt                         1-quart jar and a 4-ounce “jelly” canning jar
Width-mouth plastic storage cap

1. Set up your clean jars and the ingredients you are using.
2. Wash the cabbage and cut out the core. Shred your cabbage (and peeled carrots and garlic if you are using them) and weigh it out into a bowl. You will want to have 1 and 3/4 lbs (28 ounces) total weight of your vegetables. That is how much will fit in a quart jar and the perfect weight for 1 tablespoon of salt to allow for the proper fermentation to take place.
3. Mix 1 tablespoon Kosher salt into the vegetables. Squeeze and massage the vegetables for a few minutes. You will see liquid starting to pool in the bottom of the bowl and the vegetables will start to look a little wilted. The liquid is actually a brine that will start the fermenting process.
4. Pack the vegetable and brine mixture into the quart jar, really cram it in there-press-press-press it in there, it will all fit. You might want to pound it into the jar with the back of a wooden spoon-keep at it until it is all in there. Once you get it all in the jar you will need to keep the vegetables under the brine, that is what the little jelly jar is for. Sometimes, if I remember, I like to cut a little piece of a cabbage leaf out the size of the jar to help hold the vegetables down under the brine and the jar. It isn’t necessary, just a jelly jar will work. It’s just a little cleaner with the cabbage leaf though.

 

5. Put the plastic cap on the jar, and that it is. I like to use the plastic lids because they don’t rust like the two piece lids that come with the quart jars. Also, I put the jar on a plate while it is fermenting because once the sauerkraut starts to ferment it will almost always over flow and make a mess.

6. leave that on the counter for 2 to 4 weeks. Taste it after two weeks and see if it is tangy enough for you. If you like it, put it in the refrigerator. It will be good for at least a year, though I doubt it will last that long. You’ll eat it all and start making more!

You can substitute beets or apples for the carrots and ginger or turmeric for the garlic. Honestly there are endless combinations you can make, this is just a starting point.

I love this time of year and I really love putting food up to enjoy in the winter.

See you at pick-up.

Mo

 

Deborah Madison has been a great inspiration to me for years. I have several of her books, including her latest “Vegetable Literacy”. I just finished reading Vegetable Literacy (I am kind of weird in that I read cookbooks cover to cover) and I think it is one of her best books to date.

One of the first dishes that caught my eye in the book was a cabbage panade. The culinary term ‘panade’ generally means that a vegetable soup type dish is thickened with bread or bread crumbs. I think of a panade as an easy way to clean out the refrigerator, and use up odds and ends of vegetables and such. A panade is very forgiving and very hard to screw up. It’s kind of an old school peasant type dish. This turns out to be sort of like french onion soup/stuffing dish, with cabbage.

Here is the original recipe.

I made the cabbage panade with just a couple changes. I took some pictures and I noted the changes I made.

The original recipe calls for onions. I had some leeks from my garden and since leeks and onions are both from the allium family, I know I can interchange them. I used about twice the amount of alliums called for in the original recipe because I like leeks and onions, a lot!

Cook the alliums and add the cabbage. Ms Madison has you make a garlic stock for this recipe, that seemed really fiddley. I didn’t do that. I had some homemade chicken stock, so I used that and added some garlic. I am sure you can use a good quality store bought stock and add some garlic and be just fine.

Cook all that for about 20 minutes, very ‘done’. These are about 1/2 ‘done’, keep cooking them.

When the cabbage and alliums are done layer 1/2 the vegetable mixture into a casserole dish, then add some stale bread and cheese, then top with the rest of the vegetable mixture.

I used 4 pieces of bread and more cheese. I just wanted to show you how it was layered.

Pour the remaining stock over the whole thing and into the oven it goes for about 45 minutes to an hour.

When it is all brown and gooey it’s done.

Yum. This reheats beautifully and will travel well if you need to take a dish to a potluck, this would be a great choice.

Thanks for reading the blog. Happy winter, I hope to see you in 2015.
Mo

Happy 4th Everyone!!
I heard there are lots of questions about ‘what to do’ with the Napa cabbage you are getting in the CSA share this week. I’ll try to give you some useful ideas.
But first, let’s pause for a moment. Aren’t they beautiful?

Way to grow 2013 Red Wagon Farm Crew. That is a well grown, perfectly harvested cabbage.

I cut my cabbage in half to make 2 dishes a few days apart. Cabbage, any cabbage, will keep for a long time in an airtight container in the fridge, so don’t feel like you need to use it up this week.
I made a coleslaw to take to a pot-luck and the other 1/2 I did a simple braise/saute’ and served that with rice for dinner for 2.

For the slaw I chopped 1/2 the cabbage up and added some cantaloupe, grapes, jalapenos, onion, basil and some chopped almonds.
I made a classic, but light dressing of;
3 tablespoons mayo
3 tablespoons vinegar. I used white, you can use what you like.
2 teaspoons honey
salt and pepper and about a teaspoon of celery seeds. You could use poppy seed or any seed, or none.

Mix it all up and that is it. The Napa cabbage has a very different texture than green or red cabbage and the taste is different too. I was trying to think how to describe the taste and I would say “Asian” almost a wasabi flavor without the heat.
Several people at the pot-luck asked me what greens I used for the slaw. They thought I used several different varieties. The texture is both crunchy and leafy so it is really nice raw.

I also made a really simple meal with the other 1/2 of the cabbage. I heated some oil in a pan and added some chopped cabbage and about 1/2 an onion.

When that started to heat up I added a glug of liquid (beer, you could use water, or broth, or wine).

The liquid steams and cooks the cabbage quickly, it also makes a nice sauce to serve the dish with grains for dinner.
OK, full disclosurer. The oil I used to heat the pan at the start of this dish was bacon. You obviously don’t have to use that. You can just heat up some olive oil and make this dish.

But…mmmmbaconybeercabbagedinner….

I hope you enjoy your vegetables this week! Did you see next weeks list of what we are getting?
Whooohooo!! Summer is on and so are the summer vegetables!
Have a safe and fun 4th weekend.
Mo