Cabbage Chronicles: Purple Cabbage

Looking over old posts, it must seem like I'm a big cabbage lover. I'm not. But it does present its challenges at the family table. I am always on the hunt for new vegetable recipes that will add more variety and color to our usual rotation. My kids happen to love spinach, broccoli, and many of the other supposedly "hated" vegetables, so cabbage is the most notorious one around here. Except for maybe chard. I have no luck with chard really, though it often looks so beautiful at the store. The worst thing about chard is my older daughter has literally choked on the stems (twice now), which makes me reluctant to make it again. (If a child chokes to death on food, it is definitely not healthy!)

So here we go with cabbage again. Last night I made purple cabbage with turkey sausage, and a peppery vinegar sauce on the side. This accompanied pork chops my husband made. I thought it was very good, and a nice match with the pork. I was going to follow my own advice and add applesauce to the table for an extra fruit, but we were out of it. Dear daughter (didn't choke) and said the cabbage was "OK." Considering we were talking about cabbage, that was good enough praise for me.

Purple Cabbage with Sausage
(Serves 4)

• Slice half of small purple cabbage in quarters. Steam for 10 minutes. Chopped cooked cabbage into small bite-sized pieces.
• In a skillet, cook 2 links of turkey sausage, crumbled or sliced into small pieces when throughly cooked. Remove when finished.
• On same skillet, add a little oil, half a minced onion, some grated ginger, and one squeezed garlic clove. Add a little beer, water, or wine, if needed, to loosen brown bits in pan.
• When vegetables are soft, add cabbage and sausage to pan. Toss and reheat until hot.
• Can serve with pepper-vinegar sauce: 2-4 tablespoons of vinegar and add hot sauce to taste.

Notorious Vegetable: Take 2

We tried cabbage again this week. This time it was a Chinese version from my favorite Chinese cookbook, using Napa Cabbage and dried Chinese Mushrooms. The dish was much more delicious than my slap-dash cabbage with pear, skillet rendition a few weeks ago. Still, the kids mostly just pushed it around on their plate. My dear daughter, who is always looking for a bright side, said "The mushrooms are pretty good." My husband and I loved it, though, which means another appearance and another check off the "offer a new food 11 times" rule are likely in the future. I wonder, do you have to present the nefarious food item (insert cabbage here) in the same way each time, or will any form of it do? For the record, no one but me likes coleslaw, the most "normal" cabbage dish I can think of, so that won't work as an entry point.

This recipe has several steps and must be started 1 hour or so before dinner. But it's a relatively easy, yet authentic, Chinese vegetable recipe.

Braised Cabbage and Mushrooms
adapted from Grace Young's The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen (p. 79)
Serves 4

12 Chinese dried Mushrooms
1/4 tsp. sugar
8-12 large leaves of Napa Cabbage (about 1 lb.)
1 tsp. plus 1 Tbsp. of vegetable oil
2 slices ginger
3/4 cup Chicken Broth
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsps. sesame oil

1) Soak dried mushrooms and sugar in 3/4 cup cold water for 30 min. or until softened. Drain and reserve liquid. Remove stems and half or quarter mushrooms.

2) Wash the cabbage leaves and dry. Stack 2-3 leaves at a time and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch shreds.

3) Pre-heat a small saucepan and when hot but not smoking, add 1 teaspoon of oil and 1 slice of ginger; stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms and stir-fry those for 1 minute. Add reserved mushroom liquid and 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Check occasionally to be sure there is enough liquid. Stir in oyster sauce.

4) When mushroom broth is nearly finished, prepare wok for stir-fry. Pre-heat wok over high heat, and when hot but not smoking, add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 ginger slice. Stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add cabbage and stir-fry 1-2 minutes, until limp. Stir in salt, remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth, soy sauce and sesame oil. Reduce heat and cover, simmer for 5 minutes.

5) Transfer cabbage to a plate or bowl, with the pan juices. Pour mushrooms over the center of the cabbage and serve immediately.

Next week, it's time for brussel sprouts, also known as "baby cabbages." That cute name will surely be a big seller around here. Still it's ranked as one of the world's healthiest foods, so it might be worth a try or two.

Try, try again: Pushing Cabbage

Guess what I served my kids for dinner last night? Cabbage. Do you think they liked it? No, not particularly. Also on the menu was pork chops and potatoes, both of which they like, so they hardly went hungry. I knew that cabbage wasn't going to be a big hit, but I cooked it up anyway. I sauteed onions until they were sweet, threw in chopped savoy cabbage, and then added some chopped pear and apple cider vinegar. Pushing up the sweet quotient, I hoped, might win them over to the dish.

How did I handle it at the table? I served each kid a very small portion and asked, "just give it a try." All but the two-year old did. I never force my kids to try new food, not even one bite. I suggest; I encourage, but never force or threaten. If I really think they'll like it, I say so. If I think it might be too spicy or it's not all that good, I say that too. I might require that they keep the food on the plate, but it never has to touch their lips or even their fork.

Actual results on the cabbage, eating-wise? No comment about the cabbage from my 12 year old. My older daughter said she thought the pears in it were "actually pretty good, " and she picked those out. My 2-year-old loudly declared, "I DON"T WANT IT!" and pushed it off her plate. (She is in a very bossy-toddler phase and often not even willing to sit at the table. Since I am picking my battles with her, I decided to ignore this for the greater good.) My oldest, however, quietly explained to her that we can pretend to push the food around on the plate, but never say you don't like it to the host, "which in this case," he said,"is mommy. You might hurt her feelings." Priceless.

Nutritionists say that a child must be introduced to a new food 11 or more times before he or she will like it. It's hard for me to imagine cooking a dish 10 or more times without some verification that it will get eaten. Still, I always keep that number in mind and am not afraid to offer something 3 or times before giving up.

So bottom line: Keep trying!