Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

Autumn is here!

Well - the Autumnal Equinox is actually tomorrow... but close enough. The season has changed... The weather started fluctuating between cool and hot a few weeks ago, but, this week, the warm spell following the cool weather was in the seventies, not the nineties. We called this weather cool a month ago - now, we think of it as warm. It's Fall...

Fall in New York City is wonderful. The air is crisp and clear, the sky turns a remarkably deep blue, with little wispy clouds drifting (or racing, often) through the air. The sun is warm and the air is cool, and it's perfect walking weather.

And it is the height of the harvest season. I'm still inundated with eggplant and tomatoes - but the winter squash is starting to come in, and cabbage, broccoli, and glorious crisp apples... And we start to be in the mood for a less summery meal.

The other day, I cooked a sweet and sour red cabbage, and added shredded pork. Served it with mashed potatoes, and it was just right for a cool evening! And it is another variation of the basic Sauteed Vegetables.

Since I was using pork anyhow, I decided to use bacon to saute the onion. I don't eat it alone very much, but I do like to use a little in cooking, sometimes - it can add a lot to a simple meal. I am able to buy "bacon ends" which is fine for me, as I'm not looking for the strips anyway. I loosen them up, and freeze the whole package - then cut off just what I need. I can easily cut it with a sharp, fairly heavy knife. Then I dice it small, and put the dice in a heavy pan over low heat so the fat will render out, and I get crisp bacon bits. (This means... the fat gradually melts, so you have liquid fat, and crisp bits. Use a low heat so it doesn't burn.) You can drain off some of the fat, if there is too much - I just use a small amount to begin with, and keep it, since I'm after the flavor. If you would rather not use bacon, just heat some olive oil.

Then I chopped a red onion, and added it to the bacon and grease. I used red largely because I had it... but also because it's a bit sweeter, and I was going for the sweet and sour taste. And, of course, the red onion is pretty with the red cabbage. I stirred it around every so often, as the onion started to soften.

I don't seem to have taken a picture of chopping the cabbage... this cooking and picture taking at the same time means I sometimes get distracted... A whole cabbage is almost always much more than I want to cook at once, for two people - so I cut off a big chunk from one end, and work with that. The rest goes back in the crisper - when I next want it, I cut a paper thin layer off the cut edge, discard it, and the rest is good to go. Meanwhile, I place my chunk on the cutting board, and slice it, so the cabbage falls in shreds. If I get to the core, I cut it out, and discard it. I may then cut the shreds in half, to make them easier to eat.

I put the cabbage shreds in the pan, with the bacon and onion, and stirred it around a lot to distribute the bacon grease over as much of the cabbage as possible. I let it wilt a few minutes, then added just a splash of apple cider vinegar, for the Sour. Then I cored and chopped one of the lovely new apples (I left the skin on, but discarded core and seeds) and added it, for the Sweet. (Rich wandered into the kitchen, and said "You know, an apple would be really good in...  oh ... that's an apple core, isn't it?" Two great minds in the same rut, as my father used to say...)

I covered the pan, to hold in the steam and speed up the initial cooking, then checked it after about 5 minutes.

Usually I would just cook and serve this as is, as an accompaniment to pork chops or something. In this case, I had some pork left from a pork shoulder I'd cooked. I decided that, instead of just heating and serving it plain, or trying to figure out some way to season it, I'd just throw it in the cabbage mixture. This is, of course, purely optional - but it made this meal simpler. I just put the frozen block down in the fridge a few hours earlier, and then dropped it into the cabbage. I covered the pan again, briefly, until the meat thawed (I wouldn't have, if it hadn't been still partially frozen) and stirred it in. I then let it cook until cooked to our taste.

I served it with mashed potatoes - which I'll talk about another time - but plain boiled ones would have been great. If I'd felt really energetic, potato pancakes would have been delicious - I might do that for guests, or a special occasion meal. Pork roast, probably, in that case, the cabbage, and potato pancakes... very fancy in a Good Home Cooking way...

Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

1 strip bacon, diced small (or substitute olive oil)
1 red onion, chopped
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 oz cider vinegar
1 apple, cored and chopped

1/2 pound shredded cooked pork, opt.

Put finely diced bacon in a heavy pan over low heat, and cook until the fat renders out and the bacon starts to crisp. (Or, if you aren't using bacon, just heat some olive oil in the pan.) Add the onion, stir, and let cook until onion starts to soften.

Add the cabbage. Stir it around thoroughly, to coat it with the fat, and let it start to wilt slightly. Add the vinegar and the apple, stir, and cover. Remove the lid after about five minutes, then stir and cook until done to your taste.

If you wish to add the meat, do so after removing the lid. Stir in, and heat through.

Variation on a Theme: New York Collards

I wrote about the way I generally cook greens.  I like spinach, chard, beet greens, even mustard greens and kale cooked with the light saute and barely simmer method.

You may (or may not...) have noticed that I didn't mention collard greens...

I didn't grow up eating collard greens. My mother, somewhat unusually among people we knew,  did cook beet greens in the country (when she could get them,) so I did always know how good they were - but pot greens in general, and collards especially just weren't on  the middle class Manhattan Irish radar. I started buying them from farmer's markets as a young woman, but I cooked them the same way I cooked other greens - and didn't like them. They always were tough and unpleasant... and it took me - well, let's be honest - it took me *years* to accept that the problem was my cooking method. Maybe all those Southerners who boil them were onto something...

So, I started asking around. There seemed a wide variety of precise recipes and methods, but there were constants. Start the same way I do, with sauteing washed greens in  a pan, but perhaps use just a little more fat - enough to be sure all the chopped leaves do wilt in it. And most recipes made it something with flavor - bacon or some such - or added other flavorful meat to the pan - smoked pork or turkey, for example. The big difference, though, comes now - add liquid, usually broth, and simmer for a good while - perhaps half an hour, on a very low flame. And many people then serve them with some sort of hot sauce.

Well, I tried that, and it was certainly an improvement. So I've cooked them like that for several years. But... I don't usually have smoked pork in the house... and... well...

I had hot Italian sausage.  It's a flavorful pork product, it contains fat that cooks out, it even had the pepper built in... I couldn't see any reason that wouldn't work...












I cut up the sausage, and dropped it into my heated pan. Then I chopped an onion, and stirred it in, as enough fat cooked out of the sausage so that the onion wouldn't stick, and could brown. Stirred them both around, as the meat and onion browned.

While they cooked, I washed and chopped my collards, as I did in the Basic Greens. The one major difference is that I do always remove the stems of collards - they're just too tough and stringy.  I didn't have to let as much of the water drip off as I do using the other method - after all, I was going to be simmering them - but I did want most of it off. Then, when they were no longer actively dripping, and the meat and onion were browned, I dumped the collards in the pan. I used the tongs to stir them around very thoroughly. As the collards touch the hot fat, they turn a bright green - very attractive looking. I kept stirring until all the chopped leaves were bright green and slightly wilted. (in the picture, you can see some bright and wilted, and some, at the edges, that are still fully raw.)

Then I added water, heated it up, and let the whole thing simmer. As the greens cook, the color darkens. My goal is to let them simmer (and darken) until tender, but catch them just before they turn a dull olive green, which is overcooked, to my taste. That's fairly personal, though - many people like them that soft. I find it usually takes a bit under half an hour - I check regularly after about 20 minutes.I know that some people do cook them as long as an hour, though.

Then you eat that delicious cooking liquid, as well as the greens.  That's the traditional "pot likker" sopped up with bread or served over potatoes and grits - or rice, in my case, or pasta, or...




Recipe:

1/2 pound hot Italian sausage
1 small onion
olive oil (opt., as needed)
I bunch collard greens, chopped and washed, stems removed

Cut up the sausage and the onion.

Brown the sausage in a large fry pan or saute pan, until fat cooks out. (Depending on your source for sausage - if there isn't enough fat to fully grease the pan, add a little olive oil now.) Add the onion, stir to mix with the meat, and saute over low to medium heat until the meat is browned and the onion starts to turn golden.

Add collards. Stir around with the sausage mixture until coated with fat, and let cook, stirring often, until the leaves are a bright green. Add about a cup of water. Bring to a simmer, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for about half an hour, until cooked to taste.

Mustard salad dressing - Variation

There are several classic variations of the traditional oil and wine vinegar French dressing. One of the simplest is a similar dressing, with mustard added. The mustard helps the oil and vinegar emulsify, which can be helpful if you don't have a shaker bottle, and it adds a little bite. I like it with traditional chef's salads, or one with hard cooked eggs, or plain beans, while I prefer the herb dressing with feta cheese, or chicken. Just my own preferences - you may differ! And, in fact, I use whichever is on hand - but my choice of which to make can be driven by what I'm going to be eating in the next week.

I use cider vinegar for this. Normally, I use wine vinegar, and that certainly works, but I like this combination. I tend to look at traditional flavorways when I am improvising.  Mustard was commonly used in Northern European cooking, where apples were more common than grapes, and cider vinegar more common than wine vinegar, and the flavors go well together. I'm not consistent, though - I still use olive oil!

I pour the vinegar into a measuring cup. It's convenient to mix it right there in the cup - I'm measuring as I go, and only using one container. Then I mix in 1 teaspoon of prepared mustard. Here, I used a commercial grainy Dijon - but you can use whatever kind you like. Varying the mustard itself varies the taste of the dressing - a grainy horseradish blend will be more assertive than a smooth yellow mustard. Whatever you have in the refrigerator is presumably what you like, and any will do, here.

I love that there are so many kinds of mustard. It makes it easy to give variety to simple meals. The change of condiment makes a plain cheese sandwich different. When I first lived away from New York City, local supermarkets had lots of space, and very little variety - there would be a whole aisle with only two national brands of mustard. Perfectly good themselves, mind you - but I was used to a choice! The tiny store I shopped in while growing up had about three feet of shelving for mustard - and half a dozen brands with 10-15 flavors overall. All in small jars...    I understand, though, that now stores offer a greater assortment, as consumers demand more. I know that the stores I went to in New Jersey had started to carry the variety I had expected, shortly before I moved back to New York. And, if you normally only use one or two kinds, it might be fun to try something a little different.

Anyway... I mix the spoonful of mustard into the vinegar first, as it may dissolve more readily, then add oil. Pour it into the container. Again, if I'm using a container that I know holds 8 ounces, I mix slightly less than the full 2/3 of a cup in the measuring cup, and top it off in the bottle. If I'm keeping it in a jar or covered bowl, I'll mix it all in the cup.

And there you are. Again, a truly fresh dressing to put on your lovely fresh salad, made in just a few minutes. 

Oh - I store this at room temperature. The oil will solidify in the refrigerator, and there is nothing in it that needs to be kept cool for short term storage. It's rather nice (in a prettier bottle than this one) on the table. That's one advantage to the emulsification caused by the mustard. It will separate over time, but you can shake a bottle, or stir a spoon in a container, and it stays together long enough to serve yourself, while a regular oil and vinegar dressing will separate instantly, and can leave you pouring oil on your salad. 

Mustard Salad Dressing

1/3 c cider vinegar

1 tsp. prepared mustard

2/3 cup olive oil

Mix all ingredients, in order. 

Theme: Salad dressing - Variation: Herb

We're doing the CSA again, this year. I love walking to the pickup point, and selecting my choices. We have a small share - and our CSA often handles that by listing, say, four kinds of greens and telling us to choose two. Or we have a choice between an acorn squash - in that season - and a buttercup squash, while the full share people get one of each.

Even with the small share, we have had lots of salad greens - and I'm eating salads for lunch every day, as well as side salads with some dinners. I wrote about this before in this post about salads.  I love mixing two kinds of lettuce, and arugula, and spinach, with chopped fresh radishes and peas to make a Spring salad.

And I'm not about to pour a bottled commercial salad dressing over this glorious green freshness.

Now - dressing a salad  with  the classic French oil and vinegar is an art. You take your wooden salad bowl, and rub it with a cut clove of garlic. Then you carefully tear your freshly washed greens into it, adding some fresh herbs, perhaps a scallion, and toss the greens with your salad tongs or serving spoon and fork set. Carefully pour a dribble of fruity green olive oil over the greens and toss. Then, add a pinch of salt - toss again. Then just a little good wine vinegar - about a third as much vinegar as oil, is the most traditional ratio, but you can vary it to your own taste - and toss that. Now you have your perfectly dressed salad - and, I hope, the applause of your guests.

Am I doing this on a weekday evening when I'm trying to get dinner on the table quickly? Well, no. Am I doing this to prepare a lunch salad I'm assembling in a plastic covered bowl, to go eat in a park, between clients? Be real! So I compromise. I make my own dressing - and yes, I put it in a bottle - but I control the ingredients.

A basic dressing is still as I described. Two thirds oil, one third vinegar. That can be varied infinitely, though. Olive oil, always, in my house...  Usually (but not invariably) a good sharp wine vinegar. In a pinch, I may just use that, or sprinkle in a pinch of some dried herbs - mix that first with the vinegar, it won't blend well with the oil.  I put it in an old shaker bottle from (I confess) a commercial dressing - I find the shaker bottle helps prevent it from separating in that moment between shaking and pouring.

But right now, my CSA is also giving me bunches of beautiful fresh herbs. So I don't have to compromise - I can make a perfect fresh dressing, ready to pour on every salad I eat.

In this dressing, I used sage and thyme - always a good combination, and what we happened to get. I think there's a sprig of dill in there, too...  I pulled the leaves and flowers off the stems, as I don't want woody stems in my salad. I would not have to do that with a softer herb, such as dill. If I used rosemary, I would make sure I ground it very finely, probably with a bit of salt - the needles themselves can be prickly. I then chopped the leaves coarsely, and put them, with 1/3 of a cup of white wine vinegar, and just a pinch of salt,  into the jar of a  blender.  I then blended them until the herbs were finely chopped, almost liquefied. I poured that into my handy bottle, then filled it with the oil (I know the bottle holds a cup, so I didn't have to measure the oil separately. The volume of the herbs means I'm actually using just a bit less than the full amount of oil - but it's close enough.)

Herb Dressing

Handful of fresh herbs, exact amount and variety depending on both taste and availability
1/3 c wine vinegar
pinch salt (opt.)
2/3 c virgin olive oil

Chop herbs coarsely. Place in blender jar with vinegar, and salt, if using. Blend until finely chopped. Mix vinegar herb liquid with the oil, and blend.

Variations: Salad with Baked Tofu

As I sit watching the thunderstorm, and changing my plans for the afternoon, I'll share the salad lunch I had today. (Well - I wish I could actually share the salad - it was delicious - but really,  I'll just tell you about it.)

Today was a blend of two lettuces - red leaf and Boston, washed ahead, as I discussed last week. Then I added chopped vegetables - scallions and radishes, carrots, and kohlrabi. You didn't know you could put kohlrabi in a salad? Neither did I, until a year or so ago... It has to be young and tender, and you do need to peel it - the top layers are tough and stringy. But it is nice and crunchy, and tastes good - and it a little more variety.

Then I added cooked chicken - and cooked tofu, the real subject of this post. In theory, one can just cube tofu and drop it in, but I prefer it firmer, and with some flavor added - and this is a good way to do that.

I take a block of firm tofu, and cut it in slices. Then I wrap them in a clean cotton dishtowel - you can use paper towels, but I think the fabric works better. The package sits on the edge of the drainboard for a while, while I get other things ready - this just dries the tofu off, and removes a bit of the moisture.

Then I need some kind of flavorful liquid - I've used plain vinegar, or a vinaigrette salad dressing. I've used lemon juice. I sometimes add herbs or other seasoning. Soy sauce, rice vinegar, and a few drops of sesame oil give an Asian-inspired flavor. You can use broth, though I don't usually do that for a  salad. (No good reason not to - just doesn't sound enticing to me.) Use whatever sounds good to you.

If I am using the oven for something else, I slice the tofu in smaller pieces, and put them in a baking dish. I add the liquid and slosh it around a bit to make sure it is on every surface. I don't usually use enough to cover the tofu - that takes much longer to cook away -  perhaps half a cup or less. If I'm doing this, I may go ahead and use two blocks - just as easy, and I'll use it for something... Pop it into the oven, and bake until the liquid is evaporated/absorbed and the tofu is a bit golden. Timing will vary depending on temperature. It's nice to turn the pieces part way through - which I may or may not get around to doing. If there is just a little liquid left when I'm finished cooking the other dish, I may just turn off the oven and leave it a while - but make sure you don't forget it!

I'm not going to heat the oven just for this in the summer, though. If I'm not using it, I just put the slabs of tofu in a non-reactive frying pan, add the liquid to come about halfway up the side,  and simmer until it is absorbed. I do turn this part way through (one reason I do not cut it in little pieces before cooking... though you can.) Right now, I'm using a good quality non-stick, and I just let the liquid cook away completely. With a stainless steel pan, I'd take it off the heat just before it dries completely, and let it sit, so the tofu will release from the pan.

See - you don't need to pay a fortune for baked tofu in the store! This is nice and firm, with a good flavor. You can go ahead and use it for all kinds of things - in a salad, tossed into a vegetable saute, dropped in some broth... I like to have it on hand, for a fast, easy protein to add to a meal.