cabbage

[adrian_turtle]

A local friend keeps recommending cooking videos. I like the ones where the spatulas and so forth are slightly anthropomorphized, but not fully so. And where things look like they should be fairly simple and easy because there aren't a lot of tools or space involved (even if they don't happen to be quite the tools or space I have.)

This is a recipe for a cabbage pancake impersonating pizza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVSLEnBuqK8
As I don't eat cheese, I'm never going to make it. But I do like cabbage, and I have never been able to produce shredded cabbage anything like that easily. With a vegetable peeler? Really? Is it the vegetable peeler that's magic, or did they speed up the video or is it just one of those things that only looks easy if you've done it ten million times?

They also rinse the shredded cabbage in several changes of water, and dry it before sauteeing. Do any of you know if this is to remove bugs? Dirt? Salmonella? I thought it was sufficient to wash the outer leaves, but I may be living dangerously in these parlous times. Does it improve the texture?

Comments

[evalerie]

I like to use the shredding disk of my food processor to shred cabbage. It is lightning-fast and also kind of fun to do. I think stores also sell cabbage that is pre-shredded, or even shredded and mixed with carrots as "coleslaw mix," but I haven't tried that. I've never heard of rinsing shredded cabbage. Though I've often wondered if just rinsing the outside of a whole cabbage cleans it enough, so I suppose rinsing the shreds could be a way to clean it all over?

There's a recipe for a cabbage pancake that I love, which doesn't use any cheese and doesn't impersonate a pizza. I'd be happy to share the link if you'd like.

[adrian_turtle]

My food processor must be smaller than yours. Cutting the cabbage into pieces I can safely push down the tube to the shredder disk takes quite a long time. (And it's hard for me to get the processor apart and clean it.) I do sometimes buy pre-shredded cabbage, but it doesn't keep nearly as well as a whole cabbage. What's really useful for me is something they call "broccl-slaw," grated broccoli stalks. That keeps in the fridge for more than a couple of days, and is very useful for broccoli soup and vegetable pancakes.

This is my usual vegetable pancake. It uses flour and egg, so I'm not sure it would work for you. (Maybe potato starch in place of the flour?) As written, the spices are in the sauce. I put cumin and onion powder in the pancakes, mixing them with the flour. I start with frozen chopped kale, or frozen spinach, and do the usual thaw-and-squeeze-and-cut-to-ribbons.
I'd love to see your cabbage pancake!

[evalerie]

Hm. For shredding cabbage, I rinse the outside, then put it on a cutting board and use my biggest knife to cut it vertically in half. Then I use the knife to cut the half of the cabbage that I am using into wedges that are maybe 1/8 or 1/12 of a cabbage. Then I cut the core out of each wedge. It takes just a minute to do the cutting, and then feeding the pieces through the food processor tube to the shredding disk is also very quick, maybe another minute. Then all the food processor pieces go in the dishwasher for cleaning. But I think you have different constraints than I do, so I don't know if any of these steps would work for you.

I've heard good things about broccoli slaw, but haven't tried it yet. I should -- it sounds yummy!

Sorry to be slow to reply. My kiddo is distracting!

[adrian_turtle]

My constraints are different from yours, but they are about to change. (The new apartment has a dishwasher, and will have 4 other hands. Some of which work.) Of course, the menu planning constraints are going to change as well. Many of my meals involve mushrooms or cooked greens or (at least a little) cayenne. And many of theirs involve dairy or pork or shellfish. We really value shared meals, though.

[evalerie]

<3

[adrian_turtle]

I mean THIS is my regular vegetable pancake. I forgot to include the link.
https://smittenkitchen.com/2013/05/japanese-cabbage-and-vegetable-pancakes/

[evalerie]

Oh! I love Smitten Kitchen, and have never seen her Okonomiyaki recipe. Coolness!

Here's my recipe -- not that different from Deb's:
https://valeriesrecipes.com/2021/01/okonomiyaki-gluten-free-vegetarian-japanese-pancakes-incredibly-yummy/