Cabbage

This dependable green keeps skin bright and waists tight by packing bounties of nutrients and healthy antioxidants with its winter-loving leaves.

By Jennie Tai

 

USE

wine and slice

“My tool for working with cabbage,” says Chef Brian McPherson, “is wine and a razor sharp knife,” such as a 12-inch French Misono. The executive chef of Alexandria’s Jackson 20 and The Grille at Morison House “marinates red cabbage for 72 hours in a Bordeaux-style red wine before I slow braise it … for around 5 to 6 hours for my choucroute.”

 

DINE

mane course

The lion’s head dish at McLean’s House of Fortune stars giant pork—not the giant cat!—meatballs representing the king of the jungle’s massive dome.

Surrounding the dish are flowing leaves of bok choy, a Chinese cabbage, to symbolize the lion’s long, distinctive mane.

“It’s a dish that originates from the Huaiyang province of eastern China,” says Amy Choua, manager at House of Fortune. “It’s delicious because the bok choy is stewed in juices from the fatty pork meatballs.”

 

COOK

tweet-cipe

@AmberWPhoto Braised: quarter 1/2 head, bacon fat, fry edges, 350* oven for 2 hours, drizzle excellent balsamic vinegar.

@MrTimRegan Here’s an old family recipe: “Boil cabbage to pile of sludge. Throw away the resulting product. Go to restaurant. Buy dim sum.”

@penneysage Cook 12 oz bacon in pan. Remove bacon, leaving 1/4 c grease. Add & cook finely chopped cabbage til wilted. Top w/ crumbled bacon.

@clross1221 Saute onion, bacon, add cabbage, add cream, simmer, mix with cream cheese mashed potatoes, top with chives.

@mandaMiskabelle shred. cabbage,2T butter,2T soy sauce,1T sugar, 2t sriracha,1t minced garlic. Saute garlic/butter,add remaining, mix, cook 5 min!

 

BUY

local breeds

“We’re growing two varieties of cabbage this season,” says Sara Guerre, who with her husband Chris, run Vienna’s Maple Avenue Market. The two also own a farm in Great Falls.

“With higher levels of vitamin A and C, the Red Acre cabbage produces a rich reddish-purple head that adds great color to any cabbage dish,” Guerre says. “It’s great to ferment into kraut and slaw.”

The second breed is one “with a milder, sweeter flavor,” says Guerre. “The Savoy Perfection produces beautiful heads of crisp, white hearts and deeply crinkled green leaves that are as eye catching as they are tasty.”

 

SIP

celeb-thin winter

“Cabbage is a very versatile nutrient-rich vegetable,” says celebrity nutritionist, Lisa DeFazio of Fitperez.com. “It’s high in fiber, low in calories, contains vitamin C and antioxidants that are very beneficial to your health.” To drop pounds fast, DeFazio offers a tip on how to consume less calories without needing to gobble greens for lunch and dinner.

“Make a low calorie soup with cabbage, tomato juice, celery and carrots,” says DeFazio, “If you drink a bowl before dinner, it will fill you up and help you eat less to lose weight faster.”

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Arlington County is for Fall Vegetable Gardening

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Wednesday was a beautiful night to spend outdoors, so I headed over to Arlington’s Central Library demonstration vegetable and herb garden, where Don Weber, USDA-ARS Entomologist and Plot Against Hunger volunteer, gave a talk and fielded questions about fall vegetable gardening.  At the close of the night, attendees received seeds (including Bolero carrots) as well as collard, (Win Win) bok choy, and broccoli transplants for their own gardens.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about gardening, but it was clear that many of the approximately 35 attendees have been regularly getting their hands in the dirt (including a woman who brought a leaf from her pumpkin plants so that Weber could diagnose its ills—turns out her worries were ill-founded). Weber’s message for the night was that gardening fun does not have to end with the harvesting of warm season crops such as tomatoes, sweet corn and cucumber.

The end of summer and early fall is the most pleasant time of year to work in your garden, as the weather is milder. And your soil likes this season too—it retains water better. Generally, you will experience less of a pest problem (although the dreaded Harlequin bugs—related to the stink bug and also called “Sherman bugs” because they arrived in the South from Central America during the time of the Civil War—can wreck even more havoc in the fall.)

So what can you plant between now and mid-September? Cool season crops (broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, cabbage, lettuce and peas) prosper during the cooler days of autumn and can withstand light frosts; and frost-hardy crops (carrots, leeks, kale, Brussel sprouts, spinach, and turnips), as suggested by their moniker, are harvestable long after freezing weather.

Takeaway points of the night were:

1)    Time of planting is essential.

2)   Make sure that your soil is well taken care of before planting. You can use compost or some other nutrient amendment. Plant seeds deeper into the soil than you would for spring planting and consider placing a board (not cedar or pressure-treated) over the seeded soil until sprouts are visible.

3)   Transplants are more resistant to heat, drought, and pests as opposed to seeds, so you may consider planting these during August and September. If you use seeds, you may want to invest in pelletized seeds for plants that are slow to germinate, like carrots, celery and spinach. These seeds are coated in clay, thereby retaining hydration better.

Weber presented attendees with a vegetable planting guide (available here), which details depth for planting, spacing of crops, and fall planting dates. He cautioned that it was specifically tailored for Arlington’s microclimate (where the first killing frost arrives around early to mid-November), so don’t expect to have the same success in, say, Leesburg. (To create your own guide for other microclimates, he suggests using the Johnny’s Selected Seed calculator.)

Are you a curious gardener who wants to get regular advice from the experts? Here are a few invaluable resources:

- Stop by the Plants Clinic held at the Central library by the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia on Thursdays from 7 to 9 p.m. 

- Visit the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia tables at three area farners markets (Arlington from  8-11 a.m.; Old Town, Alexandria from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.; and Del Ray from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.)

- Get help year round by calling the Master Gardener Help Desk: (703) 228-6414.

Other upcoming events at the library include an August 31 talk on both composting and “bodywise” gardening (i.e., how not to hurt yourself ) and inside the library in September, a lecture by Dan Redmond on the agricultural history of Arlington County.

Happy gardening! And speaking of gardens . . . be sure to read tomorrow’s Gut Check for more information on the Arlington Central library’s demonstration garden and the Arlington Food Assistance Center’s Plot Against Hunger program.

-Johnisha M. Levi

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