Braised cabbage with eggs

Totally winged this one, based only on a rough description of a similar cooking technique, but it was good. Serves 2.

1 smallish onion

1 tbsp schmaltz + 1 small handful gribenes (or 2 slices diced bacon; basically you want some animal fat and associated little bits of meat)

1 tbsp bland cooking oil

1/2 a medium head of green cabbage, in 1-cm-wide strips

3 sprigs fresh dill

2 c water (or broth, beer, or wine)

2 eggs

Cook down the bacon, or melt the schmaltz; add oil, then gribenes and onion, and stir. When the onion’s clear, add the cabbage and dill and stir in thoroughly, along with a bit of salt. When it all hits cooking temperature, add the liquid. Bring to a simmer, then make two little depressions in the stuff and crack the eggs into them, breaking the yolks. Grind black pepper over the top, cover, and let it simmer on low until the eggs are cooked, at which point everything else will be done too. Serve with bread for soaking up the juice, and a decent strongly-flavoured beer — Dunkelweizen, perhaps, though the doppelbock was pretty good too.

Possible variations: Cantonese-style with laap cheong, rice wine, and no dill, served over Chinese rice; or using butter instead of meat fat.

Mussels: a note

We bought a kilo of frozen New Zealand greenlip mussels ($7) over the weekend at Ai Hoa Market in L.A. Chinatown. The brand was Sanford Sustainable Seafood (http://live.isitesoftware.co.nz/sanford/).

Today I cooked half of them, very simply: I sauteed a half-cup or so of minced shallots in a tablespoon of butter, added a cup of white wine (Charles Shaw chardonnay) and the frozen mussels, and simmered them with the lid on until they were done. Then I served them with some Berbere bread from Elat Market.

We added some lemon-garlic spaghetti (with Sciabica olive oil, thanks Dad!) and a salad with lettuce, mung bean sprouts (aka Asian iceberg lettuce), a handful of salted fennel tops, and tangerine vinaigrette. Also a couple of glasses of the chardonnay that I’d opened.

Seriously, these were the best mussels either of us have ever had. Big and juicy, just a little chewy, very clean flavoured, with an incredibly rich, complex, almost mushroomy aroma and a lingering sweetness about them.  The broth was heavenly. I cannot overstate how good these mussels were — and I wasn’t even all that terribly hungry, as I’d already taken the edge off with the salad, so it wasn’t just that. I could eat so many of these. I’m noting it here so that I remember the brand and store.

Also, the Charles Shaw chardonnay put in a lackluster performance when we first tried it with pasta carbonara, but in this dinner it was excellent. It seems to suit seafood and citrus flavours very well.

Adventures in accidental inoculation

What is the microbial culture used to make Zhenjiang black vinegar?

This has suddenly become an even more interesting question, because I just made three jars of a really excellent green-tomato pickle, and I think the flavour can be largely credited to my thoughtless incorporation of Communist Space Bugs. Procedure follows.

Day 1.

2 pounds each:

• green tomatoes, cut into matchsticks (mostly Roma)
• finely sliced red onions
• shredded carrot

Combine with about 1/2 cup salt in a big pot, and let it sit for a few hours. Then pour off the surplus liquid and add 1 generous quart of white vinegar (5% acidity), 1 T ground coriander, 2 T whole black mustard seeds, and some more salt; then simmer until the onions have gone soft. Turn off the heat, mix in 1/4 cup Zhenjiang black vinegar, and set it out somewhere at room temperature to ferment.

Day 3: In the evening, put it in the fridge.

Day 8 [note: these days may be less important, could probably reduce to 1 or 2 as for cabbage soup]:

Take it out of the fridge and taste it. Add another cup or two of white vinegar, about 1 T of fresh coarsely-ground black pepper, and more salt as necessary. Jar by boiling-water method; this makes almost exactly 3 quarts.

Experimental cooking: champurrado brownies

Champurrado chile brownies.

Dry: about 1 cup fine-ground (yellow) cornmeal, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda.

Hot: 5-6 oz brick dark chocolate, 1/4 lb butter, inside of 1 vanilla bean, 1/3 cup combined pasilla and california chile powder (mill with a bit of sugar to get it finer), 2 tsp cinnamon. Melt first three together and then mix in the rest.

Wet: Mix the hot ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir in 2 eggs, then about 1/2 cup milk or until it looks runny enough to be brownie batter. Pour into square greased pan; bake at 375 until done.

Impressions: Aroma is prety much perfect. Correct proportions, complex enough, and each flavor is important overall. Deep-flavoured chocolate is good here. May be slightly heavy on the cinnamon. Texture-wise, the lack of wheat flour makes it interestingly particulate, which is definitely good. It also disguises the remaining coarseness of the chile powder. Rather fluffy; it’s more like cornbread in texture than brownies. Daniel doesn’t mind but I think it’d be better if it were denser.

Notes for next time: Leave the baking powder out; the eggs should leaven it enough. Maybe decrease cornmeal slightly as well? Use slightly less cinnamon. If buying chocolate use Scharffenberger 70%. Try a different kind of cornmeal if convenient — red or blue might be tasty.