D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food From Scratch (22 page)

1 large head green cabbage (2 to 2½ pounds)

1½ pounds ground beef (local pasture-raised if possible)

½ cup uncooked, long-grain white rice

½ small yellow onion, very finely chopped

1 large egg, beaten

1¼ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

SAUCE

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ small yellow onion, diced (about ½ cup)

One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

Salt

3 to 6 tablespoons
Real Ketchup
or store-bought ketchup

3 cups
Simple Wild Sauerkraut

To make the rolls: Bring about 3 inches of salted water to a boil in a large pot. Core the cabbage, leaving it whole, and put it in the pot, covered. Cook until the leaves are pliable, but still retain their structure, about 12 minutes, turning once. Remove and drain until cool enough to handle. Reserve the cabbage water.

In a large bowl, mix together the beef, rice, onion, egg, salt, and pepper just until blended.

To make the sauce: In a medium saucepan, warm the oil. Add the onion and sauté until soft. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt, stir, and bring to a simmer. Simmer while you stuff the rolls, until the sauce thickens and the flavors are blended, about 15 minutes. Add the ketchup, gradually, to taste.

Stuff the rolls. Carefully peel the large leaves from the poached cabbage. Using a sharp paring knife, gently trim some of the thick vein from the back of the larger leaves. This will make them easier to roll. Lay the leaves out on a flat surface. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of the beef mixture into each leaf, depending on the size of the cabbage leaves. Roll up each leaf lengthwise and tuck the ends in with your fingers to make little packets. If the leaves won’t hold together, use a toothpick to secure them at the seam. You should have about 15 rolls.

Select a Dutch oven large enough to contain all the rolls and the sauerkraut. Spread the sauerkraut out on the bottom of the Dutch oven, covering it. Lay the rolls on top of the sauerkraut. You can make multiple layers.

Pour about 2 cups of the cabbage water into the tomato sauce and stir. If you don’t have enough cabbage water, make up the difference with tap water. Pour the sauce over the rolls and bring the whole pot to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Lower the heat under the Dutch oven to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until the sauce begins to cling to the cabbage leaves, about 20 minutes. Cover completely, transfer the pot to the oven, and cook until the sauce thickens, the cabbage is soft, and the rolls are very hot inside, 1½ hours. Serve hot with sauce spooned over. This one-dish meal has all the components you need, but you may want to serve it with a salad or a cooked vegetable and bread to scoop up the sauce.

NOTE
:
Some traditional cabbage-roll recipes used cabbage leaves from whole heads of cabbage fermented in giant crocks and kept through the winter. I’m sure the step of boiling the cabbage was developed as a short-cut method of softening the leaves, as if they’d been fermented. But there is no substitute for the taste. If I ever get one of those big fermenting crocks, I plan to try it sometime
.

√ TIP
:
If using store-bought ketchup, be careful not to add too much as it’s sweeter than Real Ketchup
.

I adapted this recipe from one I learned in a workshop at the Asian Culinary Forum in San Francisco with Huynjoo Albrecht, of CookingKorean.com. If you’ve only had commercial kimchi, which is sometimes overly salty and very spicy while lacking dimension, you’ll be surprised at the complexity of this version. Lightly fermented and spicy, to be sure, the nuances of the individual components come through in layers. If you’re worried about making it too spicy, start with less red pepper the first time you make it and see how you like it. It’s wonderful with
Spicy Soft Tofu Soup
, served alongside brown rice and fish, or tossed into a
seasonal grain salad
.

If you have access to a Korean market, buy the medium ground Korean red pepper powder for kimchi, which usually comes in a one-pound plastic bag. Make sure that it doesn’t have salt or other additives. Or see
Sources
. You can also experiment with a milder cayenne pepper; a mild ground red chile, such as New Mexico; or Aleppo pepper, a mild red pepper used in Middle Eastern cooking that has a nice fruity flavor and a similar heat level to Korean pepper. This recipe is written for kosher salt. If you’re using a finer-grained sea salt, you will need to use about 25 percent less
.

TIME REQUIRED:
45 minutes active; 9 hours plus 3 days passive

YIELD:
1 quart

2½ cups plus 1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 head Napa cabbage, untrimmed (about 2½ pounds)

½ pound daikon radish, peeled and grated on the large holes of a box grater

2 green onions, finely chopped (white and green parts)

¼ cup mild ground Korean red pepper powder (see head note)

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1½ teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon toasted white sesame seeds

Dissolve 1¼ cups of the salt in 2 quarts of water. Test the proper amount of salt by gently placing an egg in the water. If it floats, the salt solution is perfect. If it sinks, add a little more salt.

Peel just the outer leaves from the cabbage and discard or compost them. Then, leaving it untrimmed, quarter it lengthwise through the root end, so the root holds each quarter together. Sprinkle 1¼ cups more salt between the cabbage leaves. Starting from the outer layer, lift each leaf and sprinkle salt on it, dividing the salt evenly, so that each layer of cabbage is salted. Put the cabbage in the salted water and place a weighted plate on top to keep it fully submerged.

Toss the grated radish in the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and let it drain in a colander while the cabbage soaks in its water bath.

The cabbage should soak until the heavy white parts of the cabbage closest to the root end are pliable but not mushy. Try bending one or two leaves. If they break, the cabbage hasn’t soaked long enough. It should take 3 or 4 hours, depending on the room’s temperature. In the end, the cabbage should offer a little resistance but not break.

Remove the cabbage from the salted water and rinse it thoroughly under running water several times (this is important or your kimchi will be too salty). Squeeze lightly and place the cabbage quarters, root-side up, in a colander to drain. Drain for 1 hour. Rinse the radish, squeeze out the excess moisture, and continue to drain it.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the onions, red pepper powder, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.

Squeeze the drained cabbage to remove as much water as possible. Slice the cabbage crosswise into pieces 1 to 1½ inches wide. Add them to the bowl with the seasonings. Add the drained daikon and toss to coat thoroughly.

Transfer the kimchi and its juices to a 1-quart, wide-mouth mason jar and push it down with a wooden spoon. Fasten the lid and let it sit undisturbed at room temperature for 4 to 5 hours, depending on the warmth of the room. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 days to let the flavors develop before eating. It should taste balanced, but spicy and lightly fermented. It keeps, refrigerated, for several months.

Inspired by the soft tofu soups served in Korean restaurants, but using a quick and flavorful Japanese broth, this soup is an easy way to incorporate your homemade Spicy Kimchi into a meal. This dish is healthful, light, and low in calories. It’s perfect for those feeling a little under the weather or simply trying to eat lightly. The dashi broth that you’ll make in this recipe is the mother broth of Japanese cooking and has multiple uses in a resourceful kitchen. Use it to simmer vegetables or seafood for a light dinner; add miso, tofu, and green onions to make miso soup; or simmer noodles and fish together with greens for a quick dinner. See
Sources
for information on locating any hard-to-find ingredients
.

TIME REQUIRED:
15 minutes active; 25 minutes passive (excluding kimchi preparation)

YIELD:
4 servings

Two 5-by-3-inch pieces kombu

1 cup bonito flakes

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Korean red pepper powder or about ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on its heat level and your taste)

Salt

1 turnip, peeled, sliced, and julienned

1 carrot, peeled, sliced, and julienned

2 ounces fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake or cremini, sliced

½ ounce dried mushrooms, such as shiitake or wood ear, rehydrated and sliced thinly

¼ ounce wakame seaweed

One 14-ounce package organic soft tofu, cut into 1-inch pieces

Thinly sliced green onions (green and white parts) for garnish

Toasted sesame oil for drizzling

Spicy Kimchi
for garnish

In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring 2 quarts of water and the kombu to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the bonito flakes. Don’t stir. Let the broth sit, undisturbed, until the bonito flakes sink to the bottom, about 5 minutes. Strain the broth into a bowl through a very fine strainer, or through a regular strainer lined with a coffee filter.

Rinse the saucepan and return the broth to it. Bring the broth to a boil and add the shallot, garlic, red pepper powder, and a little salt and simmer for 10 minutes. Taste and correct the salt. Add the turnip, carrot, mushrooms, and seaweed and simmer until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tofu and simmer for another few minutes, to warm it through.

Ladle the soup into deep bowls and garnish each serving with green onions, a drizzle of sesame oil, and kimchi.

The process used here is similar to the one used for
Simple Wild Sauerkraut
,
Wild Salvadoran Curtido
, and
Spicy Kimchi
. Rather than vinegar, all of these vegetables are preserved with the help of salt, while the lactic acid bacteria that are naturally present starts the work of fermenting the vegetables. In the case of these beets, I’ve used whey obtained from draining yogurt to introduce the lactic acid directly. Many people use this method in place of brining with salt, but I like salt, so I use both. The lactic acid feeds on the sugar in the beets, introducing a gentle sourness. These beets will remain quite crisp after fermentation. Don’t discard the brine after finishing your beets. It’s a wonderful tonic drink that some people swear by as a liver cleanser. It’s very similar to beet kvass, which is made from fermented beets. You can also use it to make vinaigrette
.

TIME REQUIRED:
10 to 15 minutes active; 8 to 10 days passive

YIELD:
1 quart

1½ pounds baby beets (about 25 to 30)

teaspoon mustard seeds