Cabbage

Spanish Sower (Janet, who is gardening in Ecuador these days, and who has a fabulous blog I should link to once I learn how to do that) asked for a cabbage recipe.
I'm a bit stumped. I love cabbage. Donna and I each have fond memories of staying up all night eating a whole head of raw cabbage in high school, and Sunflower Spinner and I giggle about an all cabbage meal we made not that long ago. Yet I don't have a single showcase recipe, at least not a recipe one could easily pull together in a small apartment in Los Bancos. Both of these are very different takes on steamed (or could be stir-fried) cabbage. In general, cooked cabbage should a) not boil (it can become stinky and all the nutrients go with the water) and b) be infused with tasty ingredients (say, onions and soy sauce or apples and caraway).

Sparkling Squirrel's Everyday Cabbage

1 head green cabbage
1 onion
soy sauce
oil
(seasame seeds or something else crunchy to sprinkle)

Chop onion and saute it in a little oil. Chop cabbage. Add cabbage to pot. Sprinkle with soy sauce, seasame oil if you have it and a little water. Cover and steam until cabbage is cooked. Sprinkle with seasame seeds if you have them. Add more soy sauce if you like it.

Red Cabbage

This is based on my mom's red cabbage, based on some Eastern European recipe she found somewhere. I don't know that it wouldn't work with green cabbage, but red cabbage has always gone better with sweet flavors to me.

1 head red cabbage
2 apples
some fruit juice
fruit jelly or brown sugar
vinegar (small amount)
caraway seeds (or cloves, cinnamon, etc.)

Chop apples and cabbage and place in pot with a little juice (water is fine) a little sweetner and some spices. Steam until cabbage is done. You can play with the color by playing with the pH with juice and vinegar (Don't over vinegar! But if you do, add more sweetener.) I prefer whole spices, in part because they impart a wonderful winter-y smell to the whole house, and in part because I've ruined this by sprinkling on too much ground cloves, cinnamon or caraway seeds before and the whole spices are better infusers and can be removed. Very different from most people's expectations of cabbage.

Asian Slaw is my favorite raw cabbage recipe. I'll save it for later unless Spanish Sower or someone else requests sooner.