Tag Archives: Chinese Cabbage

Sautéed Chinese Cabbage with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Apples

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  • 4 cups thinly sliced Chinese cabbage
  • 1 med. onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tart green apple
  • 8 oz. ripe blue cheese
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts
  • 2 Tbs.  walnut or olive oil.
  • Salt

If you choose to use walnut oil, be aware that it will scorch more readily than other oils. In a large skillet sauté the onion in the oil until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook 2-3 minutes more. Add the chopped Chinese cabbage and salt.  Sauté  4-5 minutes or until the cabbage wilts.  Add the walnuts, cook 1-2 minutes more.  Remove to serving dish, top with chopped apple and crumbled blue cheese and serve warm.

Kim Chee (Korean Pickled vegetables)

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  • One head of Chinese cabbage, shredded
  • One bunch spring onions, chopped
  • One cucumber, sliced thin
  • A couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • About ¼ container of salt
  • About ½ jar of kimchee paste (available from Asia Market, near the Japanese section)
  • Absolutely Optional, a fresh chilli (red preferably) finely chopped.

In a large non-metallic bowl layer the vegetable, sprinkling each with salt.  When you have used up everything put a plate on top and a very heavy weight.  Leave for eight hours to extract most of the water from the vegetables.  Rinse the vegetables THOROUGHLY…you’ll never get rid of the real saltiness, but do your best.  Add the kimchee paste and mix well into the vegetables.  Put into sterilized jars.

This is a fresh pickle, normally made every day in Korea.  It will last about 3 to 4 days in the fridge.

Great with plain rice or to spice up a bland meal.  I’m told it aids digestion.

This amount should fill two 2lb jars and maybe a bit more!!!

Hot and Sour Chicken Stew

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  • 1 pound chicken tenders or boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 3 to 4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
  • 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, as desired
  • 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Oriental sesame oil
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons cold water
  • 2 cups sliced bok choy or Napa cabbage
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions with tops

Sprinkle chicken with soy sauce and set aside. Discard stems from mushrooms. Slice caps in half and set aside.

Heat peanut oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chicken mixture, garlic and pepper flakes. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add broth, vinegar, sesame oil and reserved mushroom caps and bring to a boil. Simmer uncovered until chicken is cooked through, about 2 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with cold water and stir into stew. Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened. Stir in bok choy and green onions; heat through.

Makes 4 servings.

Reprinted from Twenty Minute Chicken Dishes, copyright 1991 by Karen A. Levin

Daniel’s Kim Chee

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This is a general kim chee recipe, adaptable to any vegetable, sent to us by our friend Daniel, who did an internship at the Cultured Pickle in the Bay Area. While these instructions are for turnip, cauliflower and carrot, the method works for any combination of vegetable.

-Shredded pickles: this is essentially the same method for sauerkraut but it works really well with root vegetables. Basically you shred the vegetables (with a food processor is easiest) and then salt them. The salt draws moisture out of the veggies creating a brine. Here are step-by-step instructions for this method.

1. Wash the roots and cauliflower and trim off any soft spots

2. Weigh all the veggies and record the weight

3. Calculate anywhere from 1.5 – 2% of the vegetable weight and weigh out that much salt.

4. Shred the root vegetables and cut the cauliflower into small pieces combining all in a giant bowl as you go.

5. Thoroughly mix the shredded roots and cauliflower with the salt (you can add any spices, chopped garlic, shredded ginger, minced anchovies, herbs or citrus zests that you want at this point. Be aware that garlic flavor tends to bloom and get stronger during the pickling process).

6. Let the mixture sit for a couple of hours and see how the liquid is drawn from the vegetables.

7. Pack the vegetables with their liquid into a crock or as many gallon glass jars as it takes to hold them. Try to press out as much air as you can and leave some head room because the fermentation will bubble up.

8. Put some sort of cover on the surface of the veggies and a weight on top of the cover to keep them pressed under their liquid. I like to use the outer leaves from a head of cabbage folded as needed to cover the shredded vegetables with a gallon jug of water as weight.

9. Let the jars ferment for anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks. It should be in a corner somewhere with a temp around 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. Taste it as it goes. Push it back down every once in a while. Skim off any mold or white yeast blooms that show up on the surface (they are not harmful, don’t worry).

10. When the flavor has gotten sour enough for you, pack the pickles into jars in the fridge to stop them changing further, or move them to a cool root cellar. (If you want the pickles to be stable for months and years at above refrigeration temperature, you can up the salt percentage to near 3%.

 

-Whole Brined pickles: these are very easy and quick and take less shredding.

1. Wash and trim the vegetables

2. Cut the cauliflower into florets and if the roots are large I would cut them into about two-inch chunks.

3. Make a brine: measure out enough water that you will be able to cover all the prepared vegetables in your crock or gallon jars. Then dissolve in this water 50 percent of its weight in salt. For example, 1 liter of water gets 50 grams of salt, 6 liters gets 300 grams of salt. Also add any flavoring to the brine like flowering dill and smashed heads of garlic. I like to add a bunch of dried chiles. Chile flakes and ground spices are good too. You can also heat the brine to dissolve the salt and add the spices like a tea for more flavor,  just make sure it has cooled completely before the next step.

4. Put all the prepped vegetables in your fermentation container and pour the brine over to cover them completely.

5. Again put some sort of cover with a weight to keep the vegetables from coming to the surface.

6. Let them ferment for at least two weeks. Check them as they go.

7. Refrigerate to stop the process or put in a cool place to slow it down.

Cashew Salad with Tamarind Dressing

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  • 8 Chinese cabbage leaves
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 cucumber
  • 6 scallions
  • 8 slices dried mango
  • ½ cup cashews, toasted and coarsely crushed

For the dressing:

  • 1 ½ Tbsp. tamarind paste
  • ½ tsp. coarsely crushed toasted Szechuan peppercorns
  • 2 tsp. sesame oil
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp. brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. Thai basil or cilantro, chopped
  • Salt to taste

Put tamarind paste, Szechuan pepper, sesame oil, garlic, sugar and chopped herb into a screw-top jar and shake well. Set aside. Stack the Chinese cabbage leaves on top of one another and slice thinly. Julienne or grate the carrot into long thin sticks about 2” long. Seed and slice the cucumbers into long thin 2” sticks. Divide the shredded leaves onto four plates, top with the strips of carrot and cucumber. Top with chopped scallions and dried mango. Drizzle the dressing over the salads and sprinkle cashews on top. Serve immediately. Serves 4. From Easy Vegan from Ryland Peters and Small.