Cabbage two ways

Inspiration for cooking wanes in the bleak days of February when very little of last summer's bounty is still left in the larders, and the days of fresh still seem far off.  I was moved to buy an organic cabbage and first used more than half of it to make kimchee – the simple version according to Tassajara Cooking.  It's a two-day process rather than the longer traditional fermenting. 

Kimchee

Day 1

Cut cabbage into bite-size chunks and put into non-reactive glass or ceramic bowl.

Mix with ~1 ½ T salt.

Mix.  Press down with a plate on top and a weight.

Store overnight in the refrigerator.

Day 2

Pour off accumulated water.  The salty water can be saved for soup.

Add garlic, ginger, toasted sesame seeds, and red papper to taste.

Store in glass or other non-reactive containers in refrigerator.

Kimchee is a delicious additive to add kinds of things – salads, pita sandwiches, soups…

OK still another half a cabbage left.  There are some carrots in the hydrator too.  Ah, masala!  Masala is a mixture of vegetables, with Indian spices.  My introduction to the basic recipe for masala came from another of my early favorite cookbooks from the seventies, The Golden Temple Vegetarian Cookbook.  (These are the cookbooks I actually learned to cook from back in the seventies when I was in my twenties.  I learned to make bread from the detailed directions in The Tassajara Bread Book.)  As with many of the recipes in the Tassajara, this one can be adapted to use many different kinds of vegetables according to what it is available and what turns the cook on. 

Vegetable masala – Basic masala for curry

Cut several cups of vegetables in advance.  This time I'm using just cabbage and carrots, but any combination you think is compatible works..

Heat 1/3 cup oil – sesame is best

Fry up 2 or 3 onions; add 2 T minced ginger and a few cloves minced garlic

After the holy trinity (i.e. onions, garlic, and ginger!) is soft and fragrant, add 1 tsp jeera (either cumin seed or caraway seed), 1 tsp turmeric, a tsp of garam masala*, ¼ tsp or more cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Stir for a couple more minutes and then add a couple tomatoes (fresh or canned).  The tomatoes are optional.

After that is cooked down, add the several cups of vegetables.  When it comes back to heat, add some water, and lower heat and cover til cooked, stirring occasionally. 
* garam masala is a mixture of spices, so if you don't have that, you can just put in a little of various spices according to taste including cumin, coriander, cardamom, pepper, cloves, cinammon.

mixed harvest

Late blight (potato blight) hit the tomatoes bad this year, as it did all around the region, thanks to our local big box stores which buy tomato plants from the south, and the people who bought their plants from them, and then the virus spread through the air. My tomatoes were started from seed, and only caught the virus late in the season, unlike some friends out in Trumansburg and Lodi who lost pretty much everything. I was able to salvage parts of a lot of the bigger tomatoes. The damaged parts had to be cut out, and the rest could be used. The smallest cherry tomatoes did the best – Ildis and Jelly Beans. Also the Principe Borghese showed very little damage and had a good crop. Usually I use them mostly for the tomato preserves and dried tomatoes, but this year they pinched-hit for all fresh uses along with the little cherries. One Rutgers plant survived surprisingly well – at least it was Rutgers according to my records, but the fruits were on the small side, a little bigger and rounder than the Principe. I should save some seeds from that plant! We've still been covering it up at night along with a few other things since frost has threatened at night. So still been eating some tomatoes about every day; just have a lot fewer jars on the shelves. Tomatillos did not seem affected so do have a lot of salsa verde. More to make tonight.

Have a great crop of kale and collards this year, thanks to early planting for a change. So I've had it all summer, but now I really am appreciating them, as there's little else. The dinosaur or Tuscan kale is most susceptible to the cold, so I'm cooking, eating, and freezing a lot of that now before frost gets really hard. It's always surprising to pick a few lower leaves from each plant, and then strip the skinny leaves from the stem and slice them and there is actually a big pot of greens. These don't cook down to a tiny volume like spinach, but hold their texture, and consequently put up with more cooking.

The serviceberry tree is entering is entering its glory time.

Labor Day feast

Inspired by having company, we did a barbecue for Sunday of Labor Day weekend. The meat was simple; the vegetables were almost all from the garden. Western-style pork ribs marinated in Stubbs' barbecue sauce. A couple chuck-eye steaks. The queen of the barbecue: sweet corn. We don't have the room to grow it, so we've gotten a few bushels over the past few weeks which we barbecue and freeze. First the ears are soaked in a bucket for an hour or more, then barbecued in the husks. They don't need much cooking but even if they get singed, that only accentuates the flavor in the kernels nearby. Cut off the kernels and freeze in bags. Cole slaw – thinly sliced cabbage, sweet onions, and grated carrots lightly dressed with olive oil and cider vinegar, and sprinkled with a few chunks of apple, raisins, and roasted sunflower seeds. Potato salad with hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, and basil. Broccoli-tomato salad: Sauteed the broccoli lightly with garlic. Added tamari and balsamic vinegar, and then chunks of tomatoes. Added sliced olives and goat cheese. We grew the tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, broccoli, onions, garlic and basil. I gave up growing carrots. I can't grow everything well.