Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan

I *finally* located some Savoy cabbage to be able to make this and I was very excited to try it.

Verdict: It was all right, but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to make it again, especially because my partner wasn't a big fan of it.

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RECIPE: Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts and Parmesan (Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen)

Kimchi Fried Rice

I occasionally buy kimchi and want to learn to eat it more regularly and have it in ways other than by itself. As it turns out, kimchi fried rice is a pretty basic home cooked meal for Koreans so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Notes:

• I left out the salty meat since I didn't have any on hand, and added some salt toward the end.
  
• The kimchi I used was from a Japanese grocery store so I suspect it was a quite mild variety in terms of spicy heat level.
  

Verdict: It was yummy! I will probably add some gochujang next time to make it more spicy, though it might have just been a really mild jar of kimchi I had this time.

Edit 3/31/23: I made Maangchi's kimchi fried rice recipe today, but I liked the flavor of this original recipe better.

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RECIPE: Kimchi Fried Rice (NYT Cooking)

Cabbage Roll Soup

My mom made this soup and brought me some the last time she came to visit me, and I liked it so much I asked her to teach me to make it. I used some of the tomatoes she grew and gave me to make my own batch. She cobbled together a few different recipes from her collection and sent me all of them, including her handwritten version. I fleshed out the directions a bit more and added bay leaf because it sounded good. I never liked beef vegetable soup from a can very much but I LOVE this. I also love that it doesn't taste like canned tomato sauce.

There's just nothing quite like your mom bringing you homemade food even when you are a grown adult. :)

Notes:

• I used chicken and onion broth because I didn't have beef broth/bouillon when I cooked it. You can use a vegetable based broth for vegetarian/vegan soup.
  
• I used only the beef but really want to try it with beef + rice sometime. You can leave out the meat and make it with just rice for a vegetarian/vegan version. Make sure to add extra water or broth if you add rice because the rice absorbs liquid, and you want it to still have some broth after the rice cooks.
• I used about 1 tbsp dried parsley instead of fresh because I didn't have fresh.

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RECIPE:

Cabbage Roll Soup
from my mom
Serves 6

2 stalks celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large onion, diced
6-8 cups chopped green cabbage (about 1 lb, about 2/3 of a medium head of cabbage)
2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp each dried basil and dried oregano (or 1 tsp Italian seasoning)
½ tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
4 cups vegetable or beef broth (more if you add rice, 5-6 cups total)
14 oz diced fresh tomato (canned is also OK)
3 tbsp brown sugar (cut down or omit if using canned tomatoes)
1 bay leaf
½ cup dry long grain white rice (optional)
1 lb ground beef (optional)
1 tsp fresh lemon juice, or to taste
¼ cup fresh parsley, minced

Heat oil in soup pot. Add celery, carrot, and onion and sauté until softened and onions are translucent. Add garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and black pepper and stir to combine. Add cabbage and cook until cabbage has sweated (about 5 minutes), then add broth, tomatoes, sugar, bay leaf, and rice (if using). Bring to a boil, then turn down heat, cover, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until flavors have melded and rice is fully cooked. (If using rice, it will probably be more like 20 minutes.) If using ground beef, brown it in a separate pan while the soup is simmering, then set aside. Remove bay leaf from soup, then stir in lemon juice and parsley and browned ground beef (if using). Serve hot.

Pork and Napa Cabbage Millefeuille Hot Pot

I tried Just One Cookbook's millefeuille nabe (hot pot) for dinner tonight. Nabe/hot pot dinners were some of my favorite winter meals at my Japanese host family's house and I miss them every winter. Single tabletop burners are common in Asian households but I do not have one, which makes it particularly hard to eat in the traditional style, where everyone sits around the table and cooks ingredients in the pot on this burner as they eat. I was particularly drawn to this recipe because you can cook all the hot pot ingredients at one time on the stove and then serve it.

Probably the hardest part was standing all the layers up into the pot. For reference, the pot I used was about 10" in diameter and I think it was the perfect size, possibly even a little small. I stuffed those enoki mushrooms in there because we desperately wanted to eat them, and not because there was extra room.

I was really happy with the result. We served it with ponzu and shichimi togarashi. It was light but filling, and warming (it was a cold night). I would absolutely make this again!

RECIPE: Millefeuille Nabe (Hot Pot)

Gyoza (Japanese Style Potstickers)

For those unfamiliar with pot stickers, they are a type of Asian pan-fried dumpling filled with ground meat (usually pork) and vegetables. I first tried them during my year studying abroad in Japan. My host mother would occasionally buy dinner at the department store on days she didn't have time to cook, and sometimes she would get these.

You can usually buy pot stickers frozen at Asian markets and they are tasty and reasonably healthy for a quick meal, but homemade ones taste significantly better and are absolutely worth making yourself if you're up to the task. Filling and shaping them is admittedly a lot of work, and if you can recruit people to help you, you should make a lot of them and freeze them for later.

I think my favorite part about these is the meaty flavor of the pork mixed with the salty, tangy dipping sauce.

Notes:

• You will likely use a lot more than 1 teaspoon of filling in each one. I tend to fill them quite a bit more than that and I still end up with a few extra wrappers.
• I have used square wrappers when I couldn't find round ones. Fold them diagonally to form a triangle when you close them.
• I usually freeze them after assembling but before cooking. Freeze them on a pan for ~30 minutes before placing them in a freezer bag. If you throw them all in the bag at once and then freeze them, they will freeze into a giant ball and they are near impossible to cook properly from frozen that way. Yes, I have done this before and don't recommend it
• I like to serve these with freshly cooked Japanese rice (white or brown) and a steamed or boiled green vegetable like pea pods, edamame, green beans, or broccoli.

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RECIPE:

Gyoza (Japanese Style Potstickers)
very slightly adapted from the recipe in Let's Make Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko
Makes about 48

Filling
1/2 lb napa cabbage or green cabbage, shredded and then finely chopped into lengths no longer than 1/2 inch and squeezed between paper towels to remove excess moisture
3/4 lb ground pork or chicken
2 green onions (white and green parts), minced
3 fresh (or dried and rehydrated) shiitake mushroom caps, minced finely
1/2 bunch fresh chives, minced (if you can't find these, use 2 more green onions)
1 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger, or 1/4 tsp dried powdered ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic (about 3 large cloves)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sake (I recommend Gekkeikan or Ozeki)
1 tsp soy sauce

About 50 round gyoza or other Asian dumpling wrappers, each about 3 inches in diameter (the thinnest ones you can find)
2 tbsp canola or other neutral oil, for cooking each batch
2-4 tbsp water, for cooking each batch (depends on the size of your pan)

Dipping sauce (per person, adjust to taste)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar (unseasoned)
A few drops sesame oil
A few drops chili oil or small amount of chili paste (optional, if you like your dipping sauce spicy)


Prepare the filling: Place the cabbage, ground meat, green onions, shiitakes, chives (if using), ginger, garlic, sesame oil, sake, and soy sauce in a large bowl. Mix together with your hands until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the filling.

Shape the gyoza: Fill a small dish with about 1/4 cup water and place it near you. Keep a clean, dry baking sheet lined with parchment paper nearby (this will hold the shaped dumplings). Remove the wrappers from their package and wrap the stack loosely in a clean, damp towel or paper towel so that they do not dry out while you work. Place a single wrapper in the palm of your hand. Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of the filling into the middle. Using your other hand, dip your fingertip into the dish of water, then gently wet half of the edge of the wrapper with this finger. Fold the wrapper, matching the wet edge with the dry, closing the filling inside. Pinch the edges firmly to seal. Pleat the edge about 3-4 times, pinching the pleats closed to keep them in place. Place the dumpling on the baking sheet with the pleated edge pointed up. Repeat until you have used up either all the wrappers or all the filling (I usually end up with extra filling.

If you are planning to freeze any dumplings, do so at this point. Make sure none of them are touching each other. Place the pan in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes, then remove them from the pan and put them in a freezer bag for up to 6 months.

Cook the gyoza: Place a frying pan on the stove over high heat. Make sure you have a lid handy that is big enough to cover the whole pan. Add the canola oil to the pan after about 5 minutes. When the oil is hot enough (you can check by flicking a drop of water into the pan; if it immediately begins sizzling the oil is ready), place your desired number of gyoza in the pan in a single layer, making sure they can all sit flat on the bottom of the pan and the pleated edges are pointing up. When the bottoms have browned slightly (after about 3 minutes), add about 2-4 tbsp of water, enough to just cover the bottom of the pan. It should sizzle and generate a lot of steam. Cover the pan immediately with the lid to trap the steam inside. Reduce the heat slightly and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for several more minutes. They are ready when the water has completely evaporated from the pan (it will sound different when the water is gone) and the dumplings are a deep golden brown on the bottom. Remove the pan from the heat.

If cooking the dumplings from frozen, you can cook them directly from the freezer. When at the steaming stage of cooking, let cook for a few minutes longer than you would if they were fresh.

Gently slide a spatula under the cooked dumplings to remove from the pan so as not to tear the wrappers. Place on a plate, flipping them so that the browned side faces up. If you're really skillful, they will come out all stuck together in one big piece with the crust intact! Serve with dipping sauce.

Make dipping sauce: Place all ingredients in a small dish and stir to combine.

Bacon and Corn Okonomiyaki (Cabbage Fritters)

As a student of Japanese language and literature, one inevitably learns about Japanese food. Japan happens to have an incredibly rich food culture, and each region of the country has great pride for their local specialties. Okonomiyaki is a regional specialty of Osaka. At its simplest it is a mix of battered shredded green cabbage and scallion, fried like a pancake on a griddle, and brushed with a glossy, sweet-salty Worcester based sauce and topped with squiggles of Kewpie mayonnaise. Generally, if you go to a grill restaurant (teppanyaki) in Japan for okonomiyaki, you are provided with all the ingredients for your choice of type of okonomiyaki and cook it yourself at your table, which has a griddle built into it. Some people also make it at home either on the stove or a tabletop electric griddle, especially for parties because it is easy to make a lot and easy to share.

The idea of okonomiyaki can be difficult to explain concisely to people unfamiliar with Japanese food. I prefer to make it for them first so they can taste it without expectations. I usually call it "vegetable pancakes" since "cabbage pancakes" can put some people off. Cabbage seems to get a bad rap where I live (though after living in an Asian country and especially after trying okonomiyaki, I think cabbage is incredibly underrated by Americans in general). The okonomi in the name translates to "what you like" but that doesn't explain at all what's in it.  I've also heard it called "Japanese pizza" which on one hand is misleading because the main ingredients are totally different from the food we know as pizza, but on the other hand it's conceptually very similar to pizza in that it lends itself to a huge variety of topping and filling ingredients that each diner can vary to their diet and preferences to enjoy their food to the fullest.

However you choose to wrap your head around the concept of okonomiyaki, it's delicious and worth trying!

This particular recipe is not exactly authentic but it embodies what I love most about okonomiyaki. It was developed by a friend who didn't have much first hand experience with Japanese food but likes to cook, and I like his better than any other okonomiyaki recipe I've ever made. The batter clings to the ingredients nicely but isn't too thick or floury tasting, and cooking the meat beforehand and mixing it in ensures that it gets fully cooked, you get some of the flavor in each bite, and it doesn't awkwardly fall off when you try to eat it or cut the pancake. The bacon adds salty, savory, and smoky flavors, and the corn adds some sweetness. If you don't like or can't eat bacon or corn, you could easily substitute those for any number of other ingredients that suit your diet and tastes.

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RECIPE:

Bacon and Corn Okonomiyaki
adapted from my friend Eliot's recipe
Makes 4 pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 green onions, including tender green parts, roots removed, chopped fine
Dash of seasoning salt
1 tbsp sake or plain vodka
About 1/3 medium head green cabbage, chopped into ½” pieces (4-5 cups)
1 cup corn, canned (drained) or frozen (no need to thaw)
½ cup Rice Krispies cereal (optional)
¼ to 1/3 pound uncooked bacon (4-5 strips), chopped into small pieces
Okonomi sauce, for serving
Japanese mayonnaise, for serving (optional)
Aonori or shredded toasted seaweed, for serving (optional)
Bonito flakes (katsuobushi), for serving (optional)

Combine flour, water, eggs, garlic, green onions, seasoning salt, and sake in a large mixing bowl. Stir cabbage, corn, and Rice Krispies into batter until just incorporated. 

Fry bacon pieces in a large skillet until almost crisp (8-10 minutes). Remove bacon pieces from the grease and stir bacon into batter.  Reserve grease (pour into a mug or small heatproof bowl). Wipe any grease drips off the underside of the pan.

Heat skillet again on medium heat with ½ tablespoon bacon grease in it. When hot, put about 1 ½ cups batter into skillet and spread to create a 6-7 inch circle (don’t make it too big or you will have trouble flipping it without breaking it). Fry for about 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, then flip and repeat on other side. Slide onto a plate. Top with 1-2 tbsp okonomi sauce, a few squiggles of mayonnaise, aonori or toasted seaweed, and bonito flakes. Repeat with remaining batter, regreasing pan each time. Serve hot. Makes about 4 pancakes.

If storing for later, fry the pancakes but do not add sauce or toppings, let cool, cover, and place in refrigerator. Reheat in 350°F oven or toaster oven for 10-15 minutes.