Cauliflower, How I Love Thee!

Recently I noticed that there are a whole lotta cauliflower recipes on this blog. Why? Maybe because it's a versatile and delicious vegetable that can be used as a side dish or an entree, even as a substitute for rice or a pizza crust, but most likely because I am about 80% Eastern European and cabbage and cabbage-adjacent veggies are the food of my people. 

My childhood was fairly cruciferous. (Cruciferous refers to the cross-shaped flowers of many members of the cabbage family. Also, I was raised Roman Catholic, so....) Boil-in-bag broccoli in cheese sauce was always a big hit upstairs in our apartment. Downstairs, Grandma cooked cabbage in any number of ways, with and without pork products and other vegetables. But cauliflower she made one way: steamed. She'd put the whole head in one of her enamelware pots, add an inch or so of water, cover it, and turn on the heat. After the water had mostly boiled away, Grandma would stick a knife into the head to see if it was tender. If so, it was offloaded into a bowl, topped with a tremendous knob of butter, and sprinkled with copious salt and pepper. She and Mom and I would go at it with forks until it was gone while my younger brother ate a boiled hot dog or whatever other food he deigned to eat at the time. (Unlike me, he was a picky eater.)

Many years later I realized that cauliflower was plenty tasty on its own, but it is even better when roasted, spiced, or sauced. Its relative neutrality lends itself to a wide variety of flavor profiles, and it can be eaten raw, lightly cooked, and even cooked to death without stinking up the house (take that, broccoli!) Additionally, cauliflower is loaded with Vitamin C, antioxidants, and fiber, with only 145 calories for an entire 6" head. Cauliflower diet, anyone?

Links to a baker's dozen cauliflower recipes can be found below, though there are probably more than that around here. Besides cauliflower, what is the other theme running through them? Take a guess and leave a comment.

Blackened Cauliflower Steaks

Cauliflower can be cut through the stem into "steaks," which are lovely roasted until just tender with a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. Top them with sauce, or a fried egg, or both, as in this recipe for Blackened Cauliflower Steaks.

Cauliflower Breadsticks

Cauliflower is low in calories, but not after it's used to create a pizza crust! (Cheese is the magic that glues it together.) Cauliflower crusts don't really cut it for me; I prefer to make Cauliflower "Breadsticks."

Cauliflower Caponata

Caponata is a sweet-and-sour Sicilian condiment usually made with eggplant and other veg. I don't see why cauliflower shouldn't get the same treatment. Cauliflower Caponata

My grandmother used to make vegetable fritters or pancakes all the time, mostly corn or potato, but occasionally with something really weird like canned asparagus. A shame she never worked cauliflower into her repertoire. Here are two totally different takes on the concept: 

Cauliflower Corn Fritters 

Cauliflower Fritters

Cauliflower Soup Reading this post I got the impression that I wasn't too pleased with this recipe, but dammit, I was going to make it anyway. It does seem a little weird, but it's a Rocco DiSpirito thing.

Cauliflower Tikka Masala

I believe pretty much anything would taste good smothered in a creamy spiced yogurt sauce. Skip the chicken and try Cauliflower Tikka Masala on your next Meatless Monday.

Kung Pao Cauliflower

Our favorite sweet and spicy Chinese chicken dish works well with cauliflower, too. Kung Pao Cauliflower

Mediterranean Cauliflower

Mediterranean food, with its various sauces and condiments and hummuses (hummi?), is fun to play with. Mediterranean Cauliflower gave me the chance to make some sauces, and also use a jarred product that I had just received for review. 

Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks

There are nearly infinite ways to season a cauliflower and make it delicious. I made these Moroccan-spiced Cauliflower Steaks with a jar of Moroccan grill seasoning I received as a Fancy Food Show sample. Of course I also made various sauces and salads to go with.

Purple Cauliflower Tacos

I probably could have just steamed and seasoned the cauli in these Purple Cauliflower Tacos, but I decided to make things a bit more interesting by turning it into fritters with feta cheese. Tortillas just happened to be a convenient way to get the various sloppy ingredients into my mouth easily.

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese

Spicy Cauliflower Mac and Cheese is a great way to sneak vegetables into a meal. Or to sneak cauliflower into a meal served to my pasta-loving husband who's not all that crazy about cauliflower.

Street Cauliflower

Street Cauliflower is my take on a dish eaten at La Food Marketa, which is their take on street corn.

What's your favorite way to cook cauliflower?

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Best of 2019, Part Two

Though I ended up making most meals this year, I wasn't particularly creative. Mr Minx gets home from work about 90 minutes after I do, which should leave me plenty of time to cook. But once I walk home from the bus stop, then take the dog for his walk, I am not really in the mood to get creative. It's great when I've remembered to defrost something pre-made, like a quart of Cajun Kate's gumbo, or some chili, but most of the time I'm ordering Indian food and reheating it. I feel like I'm in a real culinary rut. I have done a decent amount of baking this year, despite being on Whole30 from about May on. I can't eat the goodies that come out of the oven, and Mr Minx shouldn't, so I've been passing them on to a friend with a sweet tooth. He gets snacks (but hopefully not diabetes) and I get to bake, so win-win.

I do end up cooking every Sunday though, and have tried the vaguely creative thing here and there. Like the golabki I made in July. I'd never made them before, and I don't remember my Grandmother making them at all (though she apparently did before I was born), so I didn't have a go-to recipe. My cousin Dianne had sent me a few, so I took what I thought were the best parts of all of them and then added my own spin. I think they turned out pretty well, and the recipe made enough that I was able to put three more dinners-worth in the freezer for other times.

I always think my crab cakes are pretty good, and was able to make those a few times this year. I like using leftover meat from steamed crabs, but have even stooped to using imported crab. The best ones, of course, use the meat from Callinectes sapidus, as these did.

For Valentine's Day, my sweetheart made me a heart-shaped meatloaf. Mr Minx's meatloaf is the best. He uses the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, but adds a festive tunnel of cheese. Doesn't this look great?

Shakshuka is a hot thing these days. Typically a tomato-and-bell pepper stew, it's often topped with eggs and served for brunch in the US. I am partial to the Lebanese version, shakshouky, which contains eggplant but not tomatoes and pomegranate molasses. In the dish pictured, I combined the two recipes to make my own, delicious, thing.

Some years ago, I had a creamy tomatillo soup at SoBo cafe. I reverse-engineered it in 2014, and then I made it again in 2019, this time adding toasted pumpkin seeds and sauteed shrimp. And perhaps too much yogurt, but it was still a great light dinner on a hot summer night.

Last, but certainly not least, as they are my primary substitute for pasta these days: zoodles. I bought a spiralizer so I can make them myself, but sometimes I resort to using a Y-peeler to cut thin pappardelle-like strips from green or yellow squash. Topped with fresh ripe tomatoes from the garden, toasted pumpkin seeds, fresh pesto, cheese, and parsley, zucchini noodles are like the best cross between a pasta dish and a hearty salad. I hope to eat a lot more of them in 2020.

And that's it. See? Boring and mostly uncreative. But tasty.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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Flashback Friday - St Patrick's Day Eats

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on March 17, 2014.

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Despite our last name, we are not Irish in any way, shape, or form. Consequently, we don't partake in drinking green beer or dressing up like leprechauns on St Patrick's Day. And we normally don't eat corned beef and cabbage, at least not together. So the recipes I'm going to share with you now are only vaguely related to the holiday. Around these parts, it's as good as it gets.

"Cabbage," aka bubble and squeak made with brussels sprouts.

Korean-style Rubenadas, aka empanadas stuffed with corned beef and kimchi.

Even better than making your own corned beef at home - go to Attman's and get a pound or three and feast on that.

Lamb stew with Asian flavors and sauteed cabbage

And finally, one of my all-time favorite ways to eat cabbage - okonomiyaki. Nobody will tell if you want to put corned beef in it, too..

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Lamb Stew

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on March 17, 2011.

So it's St. Patrick's Day and most of you are probably planning to whip up some corned beef and cabbage with a side of potatoes, or something else traditionally consumed on this day. Green beer, perhaps. Or a Shamrock shake. Personally, I'm in the mood for some stew.

"Irish" stew typically contains lamb or mutton, onions, carrots, and of course, potatoes. While it's very tasty, I'm feeling a little more exotic this week. My stew still contains lamb, onion, and carrots, but the overall flavor profile leans more toward the Chinese, with the potatoes replaced by steamed rice.

Pretty, no? Tasty, yes!

Lamb Stew a la Chinoise

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 lbs cubed lamb
1 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves chopped garlic
6 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon crushed Sichuan peppercorns
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons black bean and garlic sauce
2 tablespoons soy
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Sriracha
1 star anise, broken
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup mixed vegetables (I used frozen peas and edamame)

In a dutch oven, heat the oil and brown the lamb in batches. When uniformly brown on all sides, remove lamb to a bowl and set aside. Into the hot fat left in the pan, add the peppercorns and toast for about a minute, then add the onions, celery, carrot, and ginger and saute until vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another minute or two. Add the meat back to the pot along with the remaining ingredients and bring mixture to a boil. After reaching a boil, turn the heat down to low and allow the stew to simmer for 3 hours, or until meat is very tender.

Place cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk in enough of the stew liquid to make a thin paste (about half a cup). Whisk cornstarch slurry into stew, and stir until thickened.

Stir in additional and cook until tender, about 10 minutes more.

Serve with sauteed cabbage.

Sautéed Cabbage

1/2 cabbage cut into shreds as for coleslaw
1 teaspoon veg oil
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon honey
salt and pepper to taste

Heat vegetable oil in a sauté pan. Add cabbage and toss to coat with oil. Stir fry for about 3 minutes, until cabbage begins to soften. Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Cook until warmed through, an additional 2 minutes. Serve atop lamb stew, or as a side dish to something else.

St Patrick's Day Eats

Despite our last name, we are not Irish in any way, shape, or form. Consequently, we don't partake in drinking green beer or dressing up like leprechauns on St Patrick's Day. And we normally don't eat corned beef and cabbage, at least not together. So the recipes I'm going to share with you now are only vaguely related to the holiday. Around these parts, it's as good as it gets.

"Cabbage," aka bubble and squeak made with brussels sprouts.

Korean-style Rubenadas, aka empanadas stuffed with corned beef and kimchi.

Even better than making your own corned beef at home - go to Attman's and get a pound or three and feast on that.

Lamb stew with Asian flavors and sauteed cabbage

And finally, one of my all-time favorite ways to eat cabbage - okonomiyaki. Nobody will tell if you want to put corned beef in it, too..


Posted on Minxeats.com.

Brussels Sprouts Salad

I usually look forward to Thanksgiving, until I remember that I cook most of the food for the holiday. Mr Minx and I celebrate with our combined families at his brother's house. Brother-in-law makes the turkey and stuffing, and my brother usually contributes pies to the occasion. But all of the side dishes--cranberry sauce (no I won't buy canned), corn pudding, Brussels sprouts, green been casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole--fall to hubby and me.

I usually spend the day before Thanksgiving in the kitchen, prepping everything. All we really have to do on Thanksgiving day is pop casseroles into the oven (or in the case of the corn pudding, the microwave). Except with the Brussels sprouts, which must be cooked a la minute. Typically, we separate the leaves from the sprouts, give them a rinse, steam them for a few minutes in the water that clings to the leaves after rinsing, season and serve. While it's fairly easy, it takes up a burner on the stove and even though they're cooked at the very last minute, the sprouts are cold by the time people get around to eating. Then I found a couple recipes for shaved raw Brussels sprouts salads and thought it could be the answer. It's not much more work on the day before, but on the day of, all I need to do is to remove the cover from the bowl and put it on the table.

It tastes pretty good too, although, like kale salad, raw Brussels sprouts give the jaws a workout.

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad
Adapted from a recipe found on The Kitchn

3/4 pound Brussels sprouts, the larger the better
1 small apple
4 teaspoons lemon juice, divided
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon agave syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup roughly chopped toasted almonds
Shaved Parmesan cheese

Cut off the stem ends of the sprouts and remove the outer dark green leaves. Cut each sprout in half and remove the core. Slice the rest very thinly, putting slices in a large bowl. Alternately, you can slice them with the slicing or grating blade on your food processor, or with a mandoline.

Peel and core the apple and slice it very thinly. Toss with half the lemon juice.

Place the butter in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until browned and nutty smelling. Pour it into a ramekin or bowl to stop the cooking.

In another bowl, whisk together the vinegar, remaining lemon juice, agave, and salt. Slowly add the browned butter while whisking to combine. Then add the vegetable oil, whisking until emulsified.

Toss the dressing with the shredded sprouts. Add the apples to the bowl and toss again. Add the nuts and toss yet again. Allow the salad to sit for half an hour or so.

Serve topped with shaved Parm.



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Celebrating St Patrick's Day

I'm not Irish, not a fan of green beer, not a big drinker in general. So the way I like to celebrate St Patrick's Day is...to eat.

How about some nice multi-ethnic goodness involving corned beef, or in the case of the last pic, an Irish-themed restaurant?

A corned-beef sandwich on home-made bread...

...Korean-style Reubenadas...

...Poached eggs with cauliflower purée and frizzled corned beef...

...or an order of Calamari from Slainte (or anything else, for that matter) would really float my boat tomorrow.

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Fancy Schmancy

Sometimes I'm too ambitious for my own good. The other day, I decided to make some mahi mahi for dinner. Because we had a couple of oranges and ripe avocados, my original idea was to make a pretty orange-and-green salsa-like topping for the fish. And then I noticed that we had a handful of cloves of black garlic and mmm...wouldn't that taste good?

Unfortunately, black garlic + citrus + avocado = ugly.

I cut the orange into supremes, something that always gives me trouble. I can usually get three or four slices cut before the whole fruit collapses in my hand, making the remaining slices impossible to remove whole. The avocado was a bit too soft, so rather than nice cubes, I had ones that were a bit smooshy on the edges. And unfortunately, the black garlic lent its blackness to the mix, almost like a jolt of squid ink. Oops! Rather than a broken orange/pasty avocado/black stuff salsa, I mashed it all into a guacamole...which was a more uniform army-green color.

Very ugly, but also very delicious. I'd eat this slop again in a heartbeat!

The guac in this pic has been color-enhanced for your protection.

Citrus Guacamole

2 navel oranges
5 cloves black garlic
2 ripe Haas avocados
juice of half a lime
1 scallion, green and white parts, chopped
salt and pepper

Slice bottom end off orange. Hold it, cut side down, on a cutting board and with a very sharp knife, slice off the skin and pith, leaving only the flesh. Pick up the orange and cut out slices between the membranes, placing orange "meat" in a bowl. After removing all of the "meat" of the orange, squeeze out the remaining juice from the leftover pulp into the bowl over the segments. Repeat with second orange.

Mince the black garlic as well as you can (the stuff is super-sticky) and add to oranges and juice in bowl

Cut avocados in half, twist out pit, and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into the bowl with the orange and garlic. Mash well. Add lime juice, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste.

It's not pretty, but it tastes damn good.
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If you're curious about the other elements in the photo, the mahi (broiled simply with salt and pepper and a dash of olive oil) is atop a bed of Trader Joe's brown fried rice with mushrooms, with the addition of a bit of napa cabbage and turkey bacon. Drizzled on the plate is a bit of cilantro oil made by whizzing cilantro in a blender with canola oil and straining out the solids. More turkey bacon was used as garnish, as were fresh chives from the garden.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

A Twist on A Reuben

Photograzing is such an inspiration to me. Sometimes all I need is to see a photo and my brain starts creating recipes. While perusing the site after St Patrick's Day, I was reminded that there was still a hunk of corned beef left in the fridge, however, the rye bread I had made was long gone. The newest batch of bread dough was earmarked for rolls, and um, I really have a hard time eating store-bought bread anymore (except good whole-grain sandwich bread for toast), but I did have some pie crusts in the fridge. Yeah, I don't yet make my own pie crust (no counter space for rolling dough) so I'll eat the stuff from the dairy case, particularly if it's not Pillsbury. Anyway...after the quick mental fridge inventory, a vision of corned beef empanadas danced in my head. Then I found a recipe for a Reuben sandwich made with both sauerkraut AND kimchi, which led me to create this multi-cultural dish.

Korean-style Reubenadas

1/2 cup kimchi, chopped (I used King's brand mild kimchi, bought at my local Giant)
2 cups coarsely chopped napa cabbage
salt
1/2 lb corned beef, shredded
2 tablespoons shredded swiss cheese
4 pinches of caraway seeds
1 prepared pie crust

A few hours ahead of time, mix the chopped kimchi and napa, sprinkle with a 1/4 teaspoon or so of salt. Allow to sit at room temperature. When ready to use, squeeze dry and discard juices.

Preheat oven to 450F. Unroll pie crust onto a work surface. With a rolling pin, roll out dough until it's about an inch or so larger in overall diameter. Cut into quarters with a knife.

On each quarter, place 1/4 each of the corned beef and Swiss cheese and top with about a tablespoon of kimchi and one pinch of the caraway seeds.

Fold up the three points and pinch edges together to form a roughly triangular package. You'll have to do some folding and crimping to get the edges to stick properly. If you're anal about these things, you can help the edges adhere by making an egg wash with 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of water, brushing it along the edges of the dough before forming the package.

Use the remaining egg wash as a glaze on the outsides of the packages. Bake them at 450F for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with gochujang dressing. Serves 2.

Gochujang Dressing
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon gochujang sauce
1 teaspoon sweet pickle relish or 1 sweet gherkin, chopped fine
pinch celery seed
squeeze lime juice

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Lamb Stew

So it's St. Patrick's Day and most of you are probably planning to whip up some corned beef and cabbage with a side of potatoes, or something else traditionally consumed on this day. Green beer, perhaps. Or a Shamrock shake. Personally, I'm in the mood for some stew.

"Irish" stew typically contains lamb or mutton, onions, carrots, and of course, potatoes. While it's very tasty, I'm feeling a little more exotic this week. My stew still contains lamb, onion, and carrots, but the overall flavor profile leans more toward the Chinese, with the potatoes replaced by steamed rice.

Pretty, no? Tasty, yes!

Lamb Stew a la Chinoise

1 tablespoon canola oil
3 lbs cubed lamb
1 cup sliced onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves chopped garlic
6 cups beef stock
1 tablespoon crushed Sichuan peppercorns
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons black bean and garlic sauce
2 tablespoons soy
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Sriracha
1 star anise, broken
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup mixed vegetables (I used frozen peas and edamame)

In a dutch oven, heat the oil and brown the lamb in batches. When uniformly brown on all sides, remove lamb to a bowl and set aside. Into the hot fat left in the pan, add the peppercorns and toast for about a minute, then add the onions, celery, carrot, and ginger and saute until vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another minute or two. Add the meat back to the pot along with the remaining ingredients and bring mixture to a boil. After reaching a boil, turn the heat down to low and allow the stew to simmer for 3 hours, or until meat is very tender.

Place cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk in enough of the stew liquid to make a thin paste (about half a cup). Whisk cornstarch slurry into stew, and stir until thickened.

Stir in additional and cook until tender, about 10 minutes more.

Serve with sauteed cabbage.

Sautéed Cabbage

1/2 cabbage cut into shreds as for coleslaw
1 teaspoon veg oil
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon honey
salt and pepper to taste

Heat vegetable oil in a sauté pan. Add cabbage and toss to coat with oil. Stir fry for about 3 minutes, until cabbage begins to soften. Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Cook until warmed through, an additional 2 minutes. Serve atop lamb stew, or as a side dish to something else.

Red Cabbage Soup

I love when Mr Minx makes soup for dinner, particularly in the Winter, so I gave him three soup cookbooks for Christmas. The other day, I went through them and marked the recipes that I thought would be both flavorful and quick to prepare. The red cabbage soup in 500 Soups: The Only Soup Compendium You'll Ever Need seemed like it fit the bill perfectly.

Boy, howdy it was good. I think the best part of it is that it tasted very close to my beloved Grandmother's barszcz (borcht). The clove and nutmeg was reminiscent of the spice of bay leaves and peppercorns, and the hint of sweet brown sugar on the cabbage mimicked the sweet earthiness of beets. Both soups have vinegar as well. All I needed was a dollop of sour cream to complete the illusion.

With slices of warm, freshly-baked bread, it was a perfect supper on a chilly evening.

Of course the Mr did tinker with the recipe a little bit.

Red Cabbage Soup, adapted from 500 Soups

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 slices bacon, cut into strips
1 small head of red cabbage, about 4 cups shredded
1 cup chopped onion
1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
5 cups chicken stock
salt and ground black pepper

Saute the bacon and onion in the olive oil in a 2 quart saucepan until onions have softened, about 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients except the salt and pepper and stir. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more vinegar if you want (I added a splash of red wine vinegar to my bowl).  Serves 4.

Gochujang Burgers

In September, I entered three recipe contests...and I didn't win three recipe contests. One was the Breyer's sundae thing, and another was a burger contest sponsored by Annie Chun's Go-Chu-Jang sauce. The grand prize was a trip to Korea, and while I've always wanted to visit Asia, Korea might not be my first choice. So no harm done.

So here's my losing recipe. It was absolutely delicious; the judges don't know what they're missing. And...I couldn't find that damn Annie Chun brand in my supermarket, so I used real Korean gochujang that I purchased from H Mart.

Korean-style Pork Burgers with Sweet and Sour Cabbage Salad

Burgers:
1.5 lb ground pork
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tablespoons gochujang sauce

Salad:
2 cups green cabbage, cut into 1/2" - 1" pieces
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
2 Tablespoons gochujang sauce
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons lime juice
2 Tablespoons chopped scallions

Sesame Mayo:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons minced scallions
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Hamburger buns

Combine pork, garlic and gochujang. Form into 6 patties. Refrigerate an hour or until ready to serve.

Make salad:
Place cabbage in a colander set over a bowl. Toss with salt and allow to rest for about 15 minutes. Rinse cabbage well and place into a large bowl. Add gochujang, sesame oil, sugar, lime juice, and scallions and toss well. Refrigerate 1 hour or until ready to serve.

Make mayo:
Combine mayo, scallions, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a small bowl. Stir until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cook burgers:
Pan fry or grill about 4 minutes per side until cooked through.

To assemble:
On bottom half of hamburger bun, place a tablespoon or so of cabbage salad. Top with burger, then top with a tablespoon of mayo, and top half of bun.

Homemade Kimchi

I love Korean panchan, all of those lovely spicy and savory dishes served with Korean meals. I like kimchi too, but not necessarily the full-blown old-fashioned, buried in the ground with raw oysters version. There's something about the almost effervescent quality of the mature fermented cabbage that I don't find enjoyable. Odd, since I quite like sauerkraut, but it could be because I grew up eating one and not the other.

While searching through cookbooks for interesting vegetarian ideas, I found a quick kimchi recipe that could be eaten immediately, or within a week. That sounded young enough for my palate, so I made a batch over the weekend. I reduced the proportions a bit, using less of everything. Even so, one small taste contained so much garlic that brushing my teeth, gargling with Listerine, and chewing gum did not alleviate the strong flavor and aroma that lingered on my palate. That made me question my actions - why did I make something that involved so much raw garlic? When did I think it would be appropriate to eat? The thought did occur that I should have a forkful in the morning before getting on the bus to work because my morning commute is seldom pleasant and I wouldn't mind offending one or more (or a whole busload) of people. But then I'd have that taste in my mouth all day, and I wouldn't want that.

So I made kimchi rice. It's easy-peasy - mix kimchi and rice, season to taste. Eat. I figured that cooking the kimchi would temper the garlic, and it did. Mr Minx added some sautéed onions and dashes of soy and fish sauce for seasoning. It was...delicious. And it didn't create garlic breath.

Fast Kimchi (adapted from Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

1 small head white cabbage, separated into leaves

Kosher salt

4 scallions, both white and green parts, roughly chopped

1 1/2 teaspoons Korean red pepper flakes (or more, if you like it spicy. I don't find Korean pepper flakes to be as spicy as some others; certainly not as spicy as your standard McCormick crushed red pepper flakes. If you don't have Korean red pepper, start out with half a teaspoon of regular red pepper flakes and go from there.)

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 large cloves of garlic, crushed

2 Tablespoons sugar

Layer the cabbage leaves in a colander, sprinkling a little salt between the layers. Place the colander over a bowl to drain and and allow to sit for about 2 hours. When the cabbage is wilted, rinse and dry.

Mix the other ingredients together in a medium bowl. Roughly chop the cabbage and add to the soy mixture. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to a week; it will become stronger every day.

Quick Kimchi Rice

1/4 cup onion, chopped
vegetable oil
1 recipe kimchi
4 cups of cold, cooked rice
Soy sauce
Fish sauce (optional)

Sauté onion in a bit of vegetable oil until it starts to brown slightly. Add kimchi, including all of the juice that collected at the bottom of the container. Stir fry for 5-7 minutes, until warmed through, giving the garlic a chance to cook a bit. Stir in cold rice, breaking up lumps. Season with soy (or salt) and fish sauce, and serve with a drizzle of gojuchang, if desired. Serves 4-6 as a side, 2-3 as a main dish.