Black Pepper Cabbage

This is a surprising recipe from my friend Kelli who learned to cook this during her year living in Afghanistan. It is deceptively easy and deceptively spicy. Watch out - I bet you didn't realize black pepper could be so hot. This is also amazingly good for you, wonderfully filling and the spices make it deeply satisfying. It must be the perfect dish.

Believe it or not, I've actually made it too spicy for my taste a few times in which case I mix it with sauerkraut (right out of the can or P.O.E. from New York City if I have it) and the vinegar from the sauerkraut dampens the heat and makes a nice mix. I actually love this combination with some spicy deli mustard and a chicken sausage for lunch or dinner. Yum!

I've become partial to the curry variation which I've listed below.


---------------------------------------
Black Pepper Cabbage

1/2-1 head green cabbage roughly chopped
1 onion, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil (or a thin spray with olive oil spray)
1- 1/2 cups water or broth
1/2-1 teaspoon turmeric
2 pinches sea salt/kosher salt
1/8 -1/4 cup freshly ground pepper

1. Spray dutch oven or braising pan with oil and heat pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until beginning to brown.

2. Add cabbage and water or broth and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat and cook until cabbage is soft 20-30 minutes.

3. When cabbage is softened add turmeric, salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Serve warm.

--------------------------------------
>>Shallot-Curry Variation

1/2-1 head green cabbage thinly shredded
4-5 shallots, thinly sliced
1 heaping teaspoon good quality curry (sweet or hot)
1-1/2 cups good quality broth
2 pinches sea salt
1/8-1/4 cup freshly ground pepper

In step one, once the onions have begun to soften and brown add the curry and stir to distribute and cook until fragrant - about 1-2 minutes.
Follow step 2 and 3 the same.

---------------------------

Asian Coleslaw with miso dressing

It is the first week of my CSA and the cabbages were huge. I wanted to use the giant Napa Cabbage to make a coleslaw for a cook-out I was going to tonight, but I wanted to have some myself so it needed to be a low fat job with no dairy in it. Miso dressing seemed perfect because

1... it would make a "creamy" dressing without any dairy
2... I already had it in my fridge
3... and last but not least, I love it... so voila!

This recipe is adapted from epicurious.com... I thought their recipe was good, but a shade too sweet to my taste and I reduced the amount of oil to keep it in the "relatively low fat" department. In fact, I found that I could leave the olive oil out all together and the dressing comes out great. I particularly like it with lime juice too.

I keep a jar of "the ginger people" minced ginger in the fridge also just in case I don't have fresh ginger on hand and I need it for a recipe. It does have a little added sugar in it - for those of you worried about that - but it works perfectly in just about anything you need fresh ginger for and it keeps indefinitely in the refrigerator (right between the capers and the tube of tomato paste).

Here's a link if you want to see what the jar looks like: http://www.gingerpeople.com/pantry-essentials/minced-ginger.html
I buy mine and my miso at Whole Foods.

--------------------------
Asian Coleslaw with Miso dressing

Veggies:
1 giant head Napa Cabbage, very thinly sliced (or green cabbage or a mix of green and purple)
1-2 carrot, shredded
3 scallions finely sliced or 1 small red onion thinly sliced

Dressing:
1/4 white miso
1/4 honey
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (or lime juice)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
optional (1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

sesame seeds for garnish


1. Toss veggies together in a large bowl.

2. In a blender combine all the ingredients for the dressing and blend until smooth. Pour dressing over veggies and toss to coat. A black pepper and toss.

3. Serve and sprinkle with sesame seeds.