Karrie Kressler's Pad Thai

This wonderful backpacking recipe comes from Karrie Kressler, aka Little Dipper, through-hiker of the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail, kayaker of the Mississippi, bicycler of the continent and awesome friend.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 Handful of flat rice noodles, around half a package

1 bottle of Thai Peanut Sauce

3 eggs (optional)

Olive oil

1/2 onion, sliced into small slivers

1/4 Red/green cabbage, sliced into small slivers

1/2 C roasted peanuts

3 green onions

6-10 sprigs cilantro, chopped, including stems

Lime juice/lime

1. Cook noodles according to package instructions, drain and set aside.

2. Add olive oil and onions to pan, cook until fragrant and softened.

3. Add cabbage, stir, and cook until cabbage is brighter and softened slightly. 

4. Add veggies to noodles.

5. Scramble and pan fry eggs. Chop up with spatula and add to noodles.

6. Add peanut sauce, peanuts and green onions to noodles, stir.

7. Have everyone add cilantro and lime juice to taste.

Mom's cabbage rolls

My mom is the only person I know who makes cabbage rolls like this - sweet and sour.  It's also a wonderful comfort food.   If painstakingly dissecting a cabbage, then using the leaves to hand roll these treats isn't love, I don't know what is!

I find the process of peeling away the cabbage leaves, without ripping them, strangely meditative.

If your loved ones don't like raisins, brown sugar and lemon juice in their cabbage (Leon doesn't), just leave them out.  You can add it to your serving at the last minute if you have to.  I think this recipe, which includes onions in the beef, has some zing that I don't find in the halupkis made at local church picnics around Berwick and Bloomsburg, even without the raisins, sugar and lemon juice.

Ingredients:

1 large, loose head of cabbage.
2 TB oil
2 sliced onions
2 large cans of tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
3 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 pound ground beef
3 Tbs. rice, cooked al dente
4 Tbs. grated onion
1 egg
3 Tbs cold water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup seedless golden raisins

1. Cook the rice

2. Cook the cabbage. You can boil it for an hour.  Or you can stick it in the microwave with a little water and steam it until leaves are soft enough to gently separate.  Run it under cold water when you're done, either way.

3. Heat oil in a really LARGE pot.  Lightly brown the sliced onions. Then add the tomatoes and mash them. Add 1/2 of the salt and pepper. Cook on low for 30 minutes.

4. While the tomatoes cook, mix the beef, rice, grated onion, egg and water.  Roll the mixture into a ball and put in the curve of a cabbage leaf. Tuck in the sides around the meatball and then roll it up, like a burrito.

5. Place the rolls in the sauce. Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours.

6. Add the brown sugar, lemon juice and raisins to taste. Cook 30 minutes longer.

Sausage and Cabbage

 Another recipe from the New York Times - and talk about perfect timing! I just got another cabbage in my CSA box, and I just made my one cabbage recipe - cabbage rolls - with the one I got last week!

 

 Sausage and Cabbage

Julia Moskin

• Yield6 servings
• Time3 hours

Save To Recipe Box

Print this recipe

Share on FacebookShare on PinterestShare on TwitterEmail

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

This recipe is an adaptation of one created by Tamasin Day-Lewis, the Stevie Nicks of British cookery. A casserole recipe that she credits to the British food writer Jane Grigson has just four ingredients — sausage, cabbage, butter and pepper — but after two and a half hours in the oven, it emerges mysterious and succulent.

Featured in: The Return Of One Dish Family Meals. 

Italian Pork Sausage, Savoy Cabbage

511 ratings

Ingredients

• Salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 pounds fresh sweet Italian pork sausages or bulk sausage
• 1 large green or Savoy cabbage, about 4 pounds, cored and thickly shredded
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Crusty bread and mustard, for serving

• Nutritional Information

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking dish. If using sausages, remove casings and discard them.
2. Place cabbage in boiling water, cover, and let water come back to the boil. Uncover and boil for 3 minutes. Drain cabbage in a colander and run cold water over it to stop cooking.
3. Put about 1/3 of the cabbage in buttered dish and cover with 1/2 the meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter. Repeat, ending with a final layer of cabbage, and dot top with butter.
4. Cover dish tightly with a layer of parchment paper, then top with a lid or a layer of aluminum foil. Cook for about 2 1/2 hours, until cabbage is soft and sweet, and top is lightly browned. After 2 hours, uncover the dish: if there is a lot of liquid in the bottom, leave uncovered for the rest of the cooking time. If not, re-cover and finish cooking.

Mushtaq Elahi's Vegetable Curry

I learned this and other recipes from Mushtaq Elahi's cooking class. Mushtaq is from Bangladesh; owns Sakuntala restaurant in Bloomsburg with his wife, Millie; used to be journalist in New York; is a supporter and former board member of Bloomsburg Theater Ensemble; a supporter of local artists, whose work he shows in his restaurant; founder of the Bangladeshi New Year celebration in Town Park, Bloomsburg; a supporter of the local foods movement; and generally an interesting and excellent all-around guy.  I'm posting this and his other recipes with his permission.

This comes out especially good with cauliflower.

Ingredients:
  About 2 pounds of vegetables, such as cauliflower, potato, carrot, cabbage, zucchini, cut into medium pieces and washed.
  2 TB vegetable oil
  1 medium onion, chopped
  3/4 tsp ground turmeric
  1 tsp ground cumin
  1-2 green chilis, sliced or chopped. In a pinch, you can use chili powder instead
  1 tsp roasted ground cumin seeds
  Salt to taste

  Heat oil on medium heat.
  Add onion and green chili, cook until onion looks icy white.
  Add spices, cook until the content becomes aromatic - about 1 minute.
  Add potatoes and carrots, cook for 5 minutes, stirring a few times. Then add other vegetables, which take less time to cook Stir well.
  Add water, 1/2 to 1 C, depending on how saucy you like it.
  Cover and cook 5-7 minutes, until vegetables are cooked.
  Turn heat off.
  Sprinkle roasted ground cumin over the vegetables.  Cover.
  Serve with rice and daal.

  Roasted ground cumin seeds
  Toast 2 tsp of cumin seeds, then use a coffee grinder to grind into a fine powders. Keep the powder in a tightly sealed container.

  Tips - stir the veggies before they're cooked to coat with spices.
          - To cut cauliflower, cut halfway down the stem and break it apart. Soak it in ice water 10 minutes before cooking - then it won't be mushy.