Crisp Polenta Cakes with Braised Cabbage and Beans - Recipe

Crisp Polenta with Braised Cabbage and Beans

Cabbage doesn't get enough respect in America. True, if it is boiled to death, it produces some of the worst sulfurous smells imaginable. I lived upstairs from the craziest, meanest, nicest old woman in Milwaukee (RIP, Angie!), and you could tell when she was cooking cabbage from a mile away. But slowly braised with a little acid and it becomes superbly flavorful and tender.

Crisp, pan-fried slices of polenta make the perfect counterpoint to the cabbage. The key is to cook the polenta long enough and hot enough to really develop a crunch, otherwise you'll be eating soft-on-soft. Mush. Bad. You'll be using leftover chilled polenta, so make this polenta with fennel and apples today, and then you'll be ready to serve the cabbage dish tomorrow.

A simple pan sauce is perfect for this dish. We deglaze the pan that we cooked the cabbage in, in this case using a tasty ale, flavored with caraway and mustard. I actually used an apricot ale, which was delicious. You could also use a darker beer, or a white wine. If you made this with red cabbage, then red wine would be a natural choice (and you would use a wine vinegar or a red-fruit vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar).

This dish feels like it would come from far Northern Italy, near the Austrian border.

I apologize, the recipe is not particularly precise; I made it while improvising and without measuring precisely. It will work, but you'll need to taste and use your cooking common sense. You'll probably end up with extra braised cabbage. Not a bad thing.

Crisp Polenta Cakes with Braised Cabbage
Vegetarian
Serves 4

• 1/2 cup olive oil, divided
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 smallish head cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
  
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, divided
• 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
• 3 cups leftover cooked polenta with cheese, chilled overnight
• olive oil
• 6 ounces flavorful ale
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds, toasted and ground
• 1 teaspoon or more Dijon mustard (whole grain welcome)
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 cubes
• 1 cup cooked white beans, broad beans or gigandes beans, heated
• Kosher salt
• (optional) finishing salt
• fennel fronds (or other herbs) for garnish

1. Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil over a high flame in a large skillet (not cast iron) with a lid. Fry the onion for 30 seconds. Add the cabbage, and fry, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes, to develop some browning. Reduce heat to very low, add a cup of water and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and cover. Cook for about 40 minutes, opening occasionally to stir and check tenderness. About halfway through the cooking time, add the cider vinegar.
2. About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve, heat another large skillet over a medium-high to high flame. Form the polenta into 8 patties, about 5" in diameter and 1/3" thick. Add 1/4 cup of oil to the pan, coating it well. Press the patties flat into the pan so they get maximum surface area onto the heat. Fry until quite well browned on one side, flip and fry the other side. Remove to paper towels and season with finishing salt or Kosher salt.
3. While the cakes are cooking, remove the lid from cabbage and cook off any excess liquid. Transfer a nice mound of the cabbage to each of 4 heated plates or bowls. Without cleaning the skillet, add the beer, mustard and caraway and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a good simmer. Whisk in the butter, 1 cube at a time, emulsifying. Cook the sauce down until it will lightly coat a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning.  You may want more mustard.
4. To serve, drizzle the sauce over the cabbage, allowing it to coat the plate as well. Spoon a few of the heated beans into the cabbage and sauce. Top the cabbage with two piping hot, crispy polenta cakes, and garnish with fenel fronds or other herbs.

How to Plan a Vegetarian Meal by Answering Three Easy Questions

As a vegetarian, one of the things I hear all the time is "I'd like to eat less meat, but I just don't know how to plan a vegetarian meal". Without the familiar routine of building a plate with meat at the center, many perfectly competent cooks find themselves at a loss for how make a dinner that will be truly satisfying.

I've been a vegetarian and a serious cook for 25 years, so I've planned and prepared several thousand such meals. It may seem like it requires great creativity, but actually the secret couldn't be simpler. I'll show you how to do it by answering three easy questions. Better yet, you can start with any of the questions, and it will help inspire and narrow down answers to the others.

1. What grain or starch do I feel like eating?
2. What food culture am I in the mood for?
3. What's fresh?

Let's walk through these questions and with each one I'll share the simple thought processes that lead to a full vegetarian menu. At the end, I'll point out some pitfalls to avoid.

What grain do I feel like eating?

This might seem like a funny place to start, but actually I find that the grain or starch plays the same anchor role in a vegetarian meal that meat might play otherwise. For example, if I want rice then immediately I'm thinking: risotto, paella, curry, sushi, Mexican food, red beans and rice, ... we no longer have a blank sheet of paper. In fact it is an embarrassment of riches! Other grains are more tightly associated with a particular cuisine. If couscous is the foundation, then a Middle Eastern or North African meal is likely to be in the works.

Let's take a look at a couple of examples. In the first one, the grain (polenta) leads us to the culture (Italian), which in turn leads us to the side dishes. Seasonal fruits and vegetables help us fill in the blank canvas. In the second case, the grain (farro) is paired with seasonal ingredients (chanterelles and apples) in a modern American style, that gives us a rather free hand to choose a simple salad and dessert.

A Meal Based on Polenta

I'm absolutely mad for polenta, the Italian staple of cornmeal cooked until soft and dosed with a healthy amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Polenta is a pretty neutral base that can take many of the same accompaniments as pasta. In this case I was serving it in late fall, when hearty greens like chard are very good (question #3). Keeping with the Italian theme, I chose gorgonzola dolce (a mild blue cheese that willingly yields into the surface of the polenta), and garnished the bowl with a drizzle of top-notch balsamic vinegar.

For a simple family meal, I would just serve this with a preface of a simple green salad with a tangy dressing or some sauteed green beans with lemon zest. To make it into a dinner party, we could start with vegetarian minestrone or grilled eggplant with a spicy fresh tomato salsa, and serve a crostata for dessert, using whatever fruit is in season - or that we've frozen from the summer.

(Did you know polenta is also popular in Argentina? Here's a riff on serving it in a South American dish, with chimichurri).

And Another Based on Farro

It was a chilly, rainy fall day in Seattle, so a hearty, warming grain like farro suited my mood. If you haven't worked with farro, you should definitely give it a try - it is healthy, has a nutty flavor and a satisfying but pleasant chew. You can find farro at any natural foods store or upscale market.

Apples and chanterelle mushrooms were both in season, answering question #3, and I realized that their natural sweetness when sauteed would complement the grain. I decided to splurge on a generous ration of butter and Calvados (apple brandy) just to make sure the farro wasn't too healthy.

This dish seems more Pacific Northwest than European. I would probably serve it with a first course of arugula or another peppery green with shards of parmesan, and finish with just some ripe figs for dessert. Well, maybe I'd break out the blowtorch.

What food culture am I in the mood for?

The biggest mistake that Western cooks make when they aim for a meatless meal is to try and convert down-home Americana to be vegetarian. There are some ideas there, but they tend to run out pretty fast or lead to clumsy substitutions for meat. If you look to other countries you'll find a bounty of choices. Just about every culture in the world has a variety of dishes that are either inherently vegetarian or easily modified.

I don't know about you, but my cravings are often pretty culturally specific. If I go more than a couple weeks without Thai food, my fingers start to twitch uncontrollably. Sometimes nothing is going to do but a big plate of refried beans and rice with a cheesy enchilada or chili relleno. Or maybe it is an Italian feast that you ardently desire. Wherever it is, odds are there are dishes and flavor combinations just waiting for you.

A Blowout Mexican Feast

For an example, let's go for a killer Mexican dinner. We'll actually have two grains here: rice, and corn tortillas. Although tacos are mainly street food in Mexico, they are fantastic for an informal dinner party.

The formula for great vegetarian tacos is pretty simple: start with a substantial base, like winter squash or grilled tofu, add sauteed vegetables, cheese or crema, and a bright and spicy fresh salsa or slaw. Here are three options: achiote-rubbed butternut squash tacos, roasted potato and asparagus tacos with a kohlrabi slaw, and grilled tofu and bell pepper tacos with grilled pineapple salsa.

Now let's go for broke. You obviously don't have to make all of these dishes, just choose the ones that you have time for: refried beans, green rice or red rice, homemade salsa and ridiculously good guacamole, maybe a quick jicama salad with orange and radish. Take it over the top with a traditional burnt sugar flan.

Want to make this a whole lot simpler? Skip the tacos, and just serve rice and beans, salsa from a jar, guacamole and grated cheese for a healthy weekday menu.

These Swiss chard, onion and Monterey Jack enchiladas would be another fine option instead of the tacos. They are good for a crowd because they finish in the oven, so there is less to fuss with at the last minute. Any or all of the same side dishes would be perfectly welcome.

What's fresh?

The past few years have seen a tremendous change in our understanding of seasonality and local produce. Most of us know now that asparagus is fresh in the spring, and peaches in the dead of winter are probably going to be... dead.

As you become a more confident cook, you can start by buying the vegetables that look beautiful at the farmer's market or grocery, knowing that you can turn them into a coherent meal. The huge bonus is that by starting with the freshest, tastiest produce you can lay your hands on, you won't have to do much to make a delicious meal.

Some vegetables, like eggplant, can go anywhere from India to Italy and back, while others will narrow your focus considerably. Fresh bamboo shoots are probably going to enjoy a visit to China more than, say, New Mexico.

Quinoa Cakes and a Dinner of Homefries

As an example of cooking based around what is fresh, let me refer you directly to these quinoa cakes, served with a veritable riot of fresh produce from the farmer's market: caramelized zucchini, corn relish, and a cucumber and tomato salad. That is a whole meal in a bowl.

For an even simpler dinner, what do you do at the end of August when your backyard is full of homegrown potatoes, the tomatoes are at their peak, and a co-worker brings you eggs laid that morning? You make crispy homefries of course, using the potatoes instead of a grain as the starchy base. The cultural frame here is pure Americana.

What can go wrong?

Once you've started to master vegetarian dishes from around the world, you can go overboard and start mixing and matching too much. Risotto is great and green curry is great, but if you are going to try and serve them in the same meal, you are risking a grave battle on your palate. I'm not saying fusion menus can never work, but I wouldn't go there on a first date unless you are quite sure you know what you are doing!

Also, it can be easy to get in a rut. Once you've mastered, say, polenta, you can find yourself serving basically the same dish over and over again. The cure is simple: keep using it, but search the web or look through cookbooks to find variations.

For example, the basic polenta dish above could be made with green beans or eggplant instead of chard, and you could use a young pecorino instead of the gorgonzola. Or polenta can be allowed to cool and then baked or pan-fried and served with tomato sauce. It could be served with a rich ragout of wild mushrooms, topped with a poached egg, or hit with a generous dose of fresh pesto at the peak of basil season. Keep mixing it up and you'll never grow bored.

Summary

Planning vegetarian meals doesn't have to be any more difficult than meat-centered meals. By following these three simple rules (learn to focus on the grain instead of the meat, look to cultures around the world for ideas, and cook with the best, freshest ingredients you can find), you will discover a universe of options. Take a look around Herbivoracious for more inspiration, and let me know your best vegetarian meal planning tips!

(Cooked) Carrot and Radish Salad - Recipe

Salad with Cooked Baby Carrots and Sliced Radishes in a Ginger-Lime Dressing

It is still early season at our farmer's markets in the Northwest. The booths aren't full yet, but I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what to make with a limited palette. Small, super-sweet carrots and radishes in every color are two of the items that caught my eye this week.

When I think of salads, I tend to focus on raw ingredients and forget that cooked and chilled vegetables are a perfectly valid option. This dish is an easy and pleasant exception, especially if you already have a pot of water boiling for pasta.

You'll want to pay attention to your technique when boiling the carrots. The water should be in a good sized pot at a full boil and well salted. Check them frequently for tenderness, and the very second they are done, plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking, preserving the texture and color. This is very simple, but the details matter.

You could do the same dish with baby beets or turnips or even potatoes and it would be just as wonderful. You could also elaborate with say, toasted sesame seeds, or a bit of pesto made from the carrot tops.

The recipe is pretty flexible about amounts, and will make more dressing than you need; you can use it the next day in a different salad.

Since staging at Canlis I've become attuned to the option of intentionally not emulsifying dressings, allowing the oil to separate to produce an attractive look on the plate. That is what I did here. If you want it to emulsify, add a small amount of mustard or xanthan gum, whiz the heck out of it just before serving, or use the traditional technique of adding the oil in a thin stream while whisking

Cooked Carrot and Radish Salad
Vegetarian, Vegan, and Gluten-Free
Serves 4

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice or lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
• salt to taste
• 1 bunch of small, sweet carrots with tops attached
• 4-6 radishes, preferably of varying colors
• a few tiny sprigs of dill
• finishing salt (this Haleaka Ruby would be amazing)

1. Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil and set up an ice bath.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the olive oil, citrus juice, and ginger. Add salt to taste, and reserve.
3. Peel the carrots and trim the tops, leaving about 1/2 inch of stem.
4. Thinly slice the radishes, using a mandoline if available.
5. When the water is boiling, cook the carrots until tender, checking them frequently with the point of a knife. When they are just tender, remove them immediately to the ice water.
6. When you are ready to serve, drain the carrots and pat them dry. Give the dressing a quick whisk and toss the carrots with some of it. Transfer to a serving platter, and arrange the radish slices amongst and over them. Drizzle more dressing over the top. Garnish with the dill and finishing salt.