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Archive for the category “cabbage”

03 Oct 2012

Spicy Shrimp Vegetable Toss

I didn’t want a hot meal, but I also did not want a cold meal. Between Big D and I we came up with this flavorful, crispy concoction. The vegetables are either raw or cooked just until warmed up – maximizing the nutritional potential of them all. A perfect match for shrimp, which needs very little cooking to be ready to eat. The spiciness made us feel full pretty quickly. No lead belly after this meal! We were excited about our find at the store – big, fresh shrimp calling to us. Our past is filled with Gulf Coast shrimp by the bowl full. We grew up sitting at dinners filled with peel-and-eat shrimp dipped in spicy horseradish cocktail sauce, complimented by boiled corn on the cob and new potatoes. For this dish it was Little B’s first attempt at peeling raw shrimp. The first one was pretty mangled, but serious improvement on the subsequent little shrimpies. You should see her peel an onion these days – masterful!

Spicy Shrimp and Vegetables

2 – 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp red chili flakes
5 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced julienne
½ large red bell pepper, slice julienne
1 jalapeno, sliced julienne
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
2 pounds small/medium shrimp
½ head cauliflower, finely chopped
½ large tomato, sliced in about eight wedges
½ carrot, cut in thin strips
4 cups shredded cabbage
Additional salt to taste

Heat two Tablespoons of the oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add chili flakes and let sizzle for a few minutes. Add garlic, onion, bell pepper and jalapeno. Saute until onions begin to sweat. Sprinkle in turmeric, cumin, cinnamon and salt, and toss until vegetables are coated. Add cauliflower and cook a few more minutes until it begins to sweat. Add shrimp and toss. Place tomatoes on top of mixture. Cover skillet and cook for about five minutes, until shrimp are cooked and pink. On serving plates spread ½ – ¾ cup cabbage. Add 1 – 2 cups shrimp and vegetable mixture, then top with carrot strips. Serve immediately.

Posted in cabbage, cauliflower, seafood, Silver Spring Kitchen, tomato, vegetables, wheat free | Leave a Comment
30 Sep 2012

Roasted Cabbage

Now this – this is easy and delish! We love cabbage. And not just because it is low in carbohydrates and high in fiber, but because it tastes good, has great texture and marries up with a variety of flavors. It can double the bulk of a meat dish, or fill up the crevices of a stuffed pepper. It can also make a raw salad extra crunchy. Once when we were living in New Orleans I picked up a big head of green cabbage at a farmers market. All the heads looked pretty much the same, but I grabbed one of the smaller ones. Little B was a baby at the time, hanging around in a sling, nestled against me dozing on and off. I was tired from all the baby maintenance. When I got home and started cleaning and trimming the cabbage, it was filling up my sink. I was pretty impressed at the size. It was huge! Filled the sink. We ate on it for a week. Unlike Charlie of the Chocolate Factory, I never had to rely on cabbage water for dinner. I love the stuff. Roasting it in the oven brings out the flavor without getting watery. It is easy to cook up while something is finishing up on the grill. Enjoy!

Roasted Cabbage

1 head green cabbage
1 tsp chopped fresh garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the cabbage head in half, leaving the stem attached. Out of each half cut a 1” slice. Trim some of the stem out of the slices, but leave enough to help hold the slices together. Set aside the outer slices for another use. In medium rectangular baking dish drizzle 1 Tbsp of the oil. Sprinkle the garlic and ginger, as well as some salt and pepper over the oil in a shape approximate to the circumference of the cabbage slices. Place the slices in the pan, gently pressing down so the spices are pushed into the cabbage. Sprinkle the remaining oil on the top of the slices, along with more salt and pepper. Bake for about 30 minutes, then flip the slices. Bake for 30 more minutes, or until cabbage is softened to preferred tenderness. Serve immediately.

 

Posted in baked, cabbage, food markets, garlic, Silver Spring Kitchen, vegetables, wheat free | Leave a Comment
18 Sep 2012

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

We found a new favorite dinner! Thank goodness I did not have enough peppers to double the recipe, or we would have had to roll ourselves out of the kitchen after eating them all! Did you ever go to a Mexican restaurant, order a chile relleno and end up with a kinda tasteless mound, filled mostly with rice and covered with soggy, sometimes slightly undercooked batter? Here is a way to avoid all that unpleasantness! A little more effort is needed to fill out the other elements of your own combination platter, but here is some help with enchiladas, salsa, guacamole and rice. Since I was not going to dip these peppers in batter I chose not to char and remove the skins – with all the cooking and liquid the peppers were soft and skin inconsequential. This is a a great recipe for using leftover meat and vegetables. It always works great with other pepper types, like cubanelle, etc…

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

4 Poblano peppers
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups shredded pork or cooked seasoned ground beef
1 cup cabbage, cooked and chopped up (or very finely chopped raw cabbage)
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheese
½ cup water
Sour cream and lime wedges for serving

Preheat oven to 400F. Make one slit in each pepper lengthwise. Remove seeds and membrane from inside, careful to leave the stem attached to the pepper. Sprinkle inside of each pepper with salt. In blender or food processor combine tomatoes, oregano, cumin and a dash each of salt and pepper. Puree until you have a smooth tomato sauce. Set aside. Divide cream cheese into four pieces. With the back of your spoon (or your fingers if you don’t mind a little mess) spread the cream cheese around in the cavity off the pepper. In a medium bowl combine the meat and cabbage. Stuff the meat and cabbage mixture in the pepper, making sure the slit does not tear open any more than necessary. Top the meat and cabbage the tomato sauce, making sure it drizzles down within the pepper. Top with the cheese, tucking it in under the edges of the peppers, then gently pushing the pepper edges together as far as you can. In a baking dish just big enough to hold the peppers (9×9 or 8×11) pour in the water, then add the peppers. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20-30 more minutes, until cheese begins to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for about five minutes before serving. Top with a dollop of sour cream and a lime wedge for drizzling juice over the stuffed pepper.

 

Posted in baked, cabbage, cheese, garlic, lime, Silver Spring Kitchen, tomato, vegetables, wheat free | Leave a Comment
23 Jun 2012

Sausage Sauerkraut Parmesan

I don’t mean to deceive you with this post. I did not make the sausage, although we have sausage making gear, and I did not make the sauerkraut, although I have made it in the past. I also did not make the cheese, which really brought the dish together. I am really posting about how I combined stuff I never thought of combining and was really surprised about how well it worked together. I have always loved the combination of sausage and sauerkraut, but I just never did much about adding cheese to it. We had some nice fresh Parmesan in the fridge, so after sauteing the sausage and adding the kraut I sprinkled some Parmesan into the mix. Maybe it was the lovely Portabello Mushroom sausages, or the spicy Habanero and Green Chile sausages, but the cheese just seemed to make the whole dish sing. I cannot guarantee that if you use the powdery Parmesan from a plastic shake jar it will have the same zing, but next time you find some Parmesan waiting to be used, toss it in with some sausage and sauerkraut. You may be as surprised as I was with the result.

Sausage and Sauerkraut Parmesan

1 pound sausage links (I used Aidells – yum!)
2 cups sauerkraut (sour, not sweet)
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Make a 2” slit in one side of each sausage. Saute over medium high heat until browned on most sides. Add sauerkraut and toss until brown stuff on the bottom of the pan is blended with it and the sauerkraut is hot. Sprinkle cheese over it all and toss until melted. Serve immediately.

Posted in cabbage, cheese, sausage, Silver Spring Kitchen, wheat free | Leave a Comment
17 Mar 2012

Corned Beef and Cabbage

I began the month of March with potatoes and cabbage, now I end my mostly Irish theme here on St. Patrick’s Day with the same. How can I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in America without corned beef and cabbage? I guess I can, but I won’t! Boil, boil and boil some more! I included directions for doing the cabbage separately (boiling or sauteing) because as usual it does not fit with the meat and veggies in the crock pot. You would think a 6 quart crock pot would be big enough, but not for us! We like our cabbage in bulk! I will return now to my celebration with family and friends. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

“May the road rise to meet you and the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.
And until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of your hand.”
-Unknown

Corned Beef and Cabbage

4 pounds corned beef
2 cups mini carrots or large carrots roughly chopped
5-7 small potatoes, halved
4 cups water
1 Tbsp pickling spices
1 head cabbage
Salt and pepper to taste

Pour water and spices into 5-6 quart crock pot. Add beef and cook on high for two hours, then turn to low. Add carrots and potatoes and cook for 4 to 6 more hours until vegetables are soft. Cut cabbage in half and remove core. Slice had lengthwise into wedges – enough to fit in one layer in a large pan with cover.

To boil cabbage: about 45 minutes before meat is done pour enough water in the pan until it is about ½ inch deep. Add some salt and bring to a boil. Place cabbage wedges in the water, lower heat to simmer and cover. Cook for about 25 minutes until tender. Gently remove from pan with a long spatula, trying to keep the wedges intact. Salt and pepper to taste.

To saute cabbage: about 30 minutes before meat is done heat large pan to medium high and add about 3 Tbsp butter. When melted spread it around the pan. Place wedges in pan and cook until browning begins. Flip wedges gently and let brown again. Cover pan and lower heat until cabbage is soft. Gently remove from pan to a serving dish, trying to keep the wedges intact. If they fall apart just go with the flow and make a pile. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the corned beef and vegetables with spicy brown mustard, creamy horseradish and dense, crusty bread.

Posted in beef, cabbage, potatoes, vegetables, wheat free | Leave a Comment
01 Mar 2012
1 Comment

Colcannon

It is March! March means two things to me – the world changes from brown to green and the 17th of the month is one of my favorite days of the year. As St. Patrick’s Day nears I ponder more and more the Irish dishes I consider comfort food. Frankly, when I think of Ireland and food my thoughts do not often float beyond seafood and potato dishes. My ancestors survived on such things, so it is no wonder I enjoy exploring them. Traditional Irish-American foods that start popping up around St. Patrick’s Day usually include corned beef, but pork is more often the protein in Irish dishes. Over the next few posts leading up to St. Patty’s Day I am going to cover some of my favorite Irish dishes, prepared in ways my family enjoys them. Let’s see where this journey takes us! I am starting with colcannon, which goes well with pork. Go figure.

One of my favorite pubs is The Lion and Rose British Restaurant and Pub, of which there are a few locations down in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The first one opened in a little shopping center in Alamo Heights, an old neighborhood in San Antonio near my alma mater. So far they have retained the deliciousness of their food, and hopefully continue to do so as the number of locations grows. I mention the pub because they serve a dish I love, but for some reason rarely make – colcannon. Uh, technically their menu item is bubble and squeak (an English stove top version of colcannon), but the flavor is much the same and so easy to make myself. When I eat mashed potatoes there are usually vegetables along side and I always end up mixing them together. Mashed potatoes and corn? Mix. Mashed potatoes and peas? Mix. Mashed potatoes and green beans? Mix. Mashed potatoes and cabbage. Yep, mix.

The traditional versions of colcannon I have come across include boiling. A lot of boiling. I can boil everything and mix it together as was done in the past, but I am partial to sauteed cabbage. The searing of cabbage that is barely crispy and just becoming tender makes me melt. I guess you can say I make a hybrid of colcannon and bubble and squeak. I am okay with that statement. If you are like me and serve colcannon with meat, at the last minute you suddenly worry that you forgot to make a vegetable for dinner. Never fear. The cabbage IN the colcannon is actually the vegetable! Big D got a laugh out of my omigosh-I-forgot-the-veggies moment.

Colcannon

3 pounds potatoes, peeled
1 small (or ½ medium) head cabbage
1 medium leek (green sections removed), thinly sliced
1 cup milk
½ cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Chop potatoes into equal sized pieces (about 4-6 pieces per potato). Drop potatoes into boiling salt water and cook until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and set aside. While potatoes are cooking, core and thinly slice the cabbage. In a large skillet melt 1 Tbsp of the butter over medium high heat. Add cabbage and toss to distribute the butter. Turn down the heat to medium, add salt and pepper to taste and cover, cooking until cabbage is tender. Occasionally toss the cabbage, allowing some browning to occur. While the cabbage is cooking add the remaining butter to a small sauce pan and melt. Add leek to butter and cook until transparent. Add milk and simmer until heated through, using salt and pepper to taste. Mash the potatoes until smooth (they may look dry). Add the onion mixture (the potatoes won’t look dry anymore). Add the cabbage, setting aside about one cup for garnish. Stir until all is combined. Top with the set aside cabbage. Serve hot.

Posted in cabbage, leeks, potatoes, Seals' Kitchen, side dish, vegetables, wheat free

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