Garden cooking

Cabbages and things

Marika Hansbury Tenison

Some of my best friends have been known to turn up their noses at the common or garden cabbage. Not for them to talk of 'cabbages and kings' in the same breath; they think of the family of Brassica oleracea as being a humble smelly plant that smacks of watery schoolday meals, dingy bedsitting-rooms and slovenly landladies. How much they miss, all those who don't or won't appreciate the cabbage in all its many varieties. Cabbage is still the cheapest vegetable on the market and one or other of its varieties can be grown all the year round; most are extremely easy to grow, hardy and need the minimum of care and attention paid to them. The cabbage family is probably more versatile for cooking purposes than any other vegetable.

The Romans believed cabbages could be a useful antidote to drunkenness and an aid to warding off the plague; Cato gave them high praise and Tiberius was known to give his son Drusus stick for not eating enough of the greens. Certainly the vitamin and calcium content of fresh cabbage is very high indeed, and provided these are not killed by overcooking there is no doubt that a cabbage a day can do you just as much good as an apple or a lot of other things. I'm told that the best hangover cure in the world is a mixture of cabbage juice, yoghurt and honey, but I must admit I haven't yet had a hangover bad enough to be tempted to try this out.

One tends to think of the cabbage family as consisting of spring cabbage, firm round white cabbage, crinkly-leaved Savoys and the dark red cabbage which is so popular pickled. In fact, the family of Brassica oleracea has a hundred different varieties and is closely related to the tight miniature Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and the various broccolis, kale and curly greens. I think I have eaten cabbage in one form or another in every country which I have ever visited, including such out of the way haunts as Amazonas and New Guinea.

In China the cooking properties of the cabbage are highly prized and it was the Tartars who picked up the idea of pickling cabbage from workers building the Great Wall of China. The basic diet of these wall builders was cabbage in the summer and rice in the winter, so they invented a method of preserving the cabbage by fermenting it in salt and rice wine.

I happen to love sauerkraut, but, although it is perfectly possible to make it in your own home, I really would not recommend the process unless you happen to have a shed at the bottom of the garden where you can store it. I visited some friends in a block of flats in Zurich recently. As we climbed

the stairs I was almost asphyxiated by the revolting smell drifting up from below, which combined all the odours one dislikes most. Apparently it came from vats of sauerkraut fermenting in the basement and would, my host told me cheerfully, disappear after about a month when the barrels would be nailed down.

From Poland and other Balkan countries come delicious and inexpensive recipes for cabbage soups, easy to make, full of goodness and rich enough to make a main course. For six to eight servings you will need four pints of beef stock; one tablespoon dripping; two leeks; two uncooked beetroots; two carrots; twelve ounces firm cabbage; two stalks celery; six ounces boiled bacon; one large onion; three tablespoons tomato purée; one and half tablespoons white wine vinegar; one tablespoon sugar; two bay leaves; two stalks parsley ; salt and freshlY ground black pepper and a carton of sour cream. Wash and thinly slice the leeks. Peel and shred beetroot (wearing rubber gloves, as beetroot stains the skin badly). Peel and slice carrots lengthwise and cut into thin matchstick strips about an inch long. Trim leaves from celery and finely slice the stalks. Peel and chop the onion. Finely shred the cabbage.

Melt the dripping in a large heavy pan. Add one beetroot, the vegetables except the cabbage and cook over a medium heat, stirring to prevent sticking, until the fat has been absorbed. Add enough stock just to cover the vegetables, the tomato puree, sugar, bay leaves and parsley, season with salt and pepper and cook over a medium heat, still stirring every now and then, for twenty minutes. Add the cabbage, remaining stock and vinegar and simmer until vegetables are all tender.

Cook the remaining beetroot in half:pint of water until it is just tender and add it to the soup with the boiled bacon cut into medium-sized dice. Remove the bay leaves and parsley stalks if you can find them and serve each bowl of soup with a tablespoon of sour cream floating on top of it.

The large leaves of the Savoy cabbage, a winter vegetable that comes in early December, make an excellent stuffing material. A rich minced mixture wrapped In steamed leaves with their tough central core cut out and the leaves made into neat parcels with the filling tightly enclosed can make a really well-flavoured dinner-party dish and one of the best recipes I have ever tasted was a simple Cornish pasty wrapPed in a steamed cabbage leaf and then steamed again until the pasty was cooked; the pastry was so light that it really did disappear In one's mouth and all the flavour of the meat

and vegetables had been captured by the cabbage casing.

If you are boiling cabbage before seasoning it, stick to the following method and You cannot possibly go wrong. Shred firm green or white cabbage and put it into one inch of cold water with a finely chopped small onion and a teaspoon of salt for a medium cabbage. Put on a tight-fitting lid, bring to the boil and turn over the cabbage to, ensure even cooking. Cook for seven Minutes until the cabbage is only just tender (It should always have a bit of a bite to it). Drain well and toss in butter with plenty of freshly ground black pepper, or mix in sour cream or double cream, a sweet and sour Sauce (Chinese style), or fold the cabbage Into a well-flavoured cheese sauce, turn into a serving dish, top with breadcrumbs and dribble over a little melted butter and brown In a medium hot oven.

It's even worth cooking enough cabbage, kale or brassicas to leave some leftover for those most delicious of all dishes, bubble and squeak or Colcannon. Bubble and squeak is straight leftover mashed potatoes and greens, well mixed, with some minced nr leftover meat seasoned with salt and Pepper ([like to add a touch of cayenne too) and fried in a flat cake until it is really crisp underneath. Invert the cake on to a warmed dish to serve.

Colcannon is the Irish version of a dish of cabbage and other vegetables which omits the potato and goes under other names in parts of the British Isles. In northeast Aberdeenshire it is known locally as 'Kailkenny' and in the Borders by the delightful name of `Rumblet humps.' Often the cabbage or kale is combined with freshly cooked boiled carrots and leeks and then served with cream and hot melted butter.

If you have ever had the delicious Japanese or Chinese deep fried seaweed that they sprinkle on top of some dishes and would like to imitate that crisp, crunchy texture, try deep frying very thinly shredded dark green cabbage that has been really well dried after washing. Have the fat really hot, watch for spitting and cook the cabbage for just long enough for it to crinkle up and become crisp. Drain well on kitchen paper to remove excess oil,

If you grow varieties of the Brassica oleracea family, don't overdo it because anyone will get bored by too much of a good thing. Twenty-five plants should produce about seventy-five pounds of food, so vary your varieties giving yourself a choice of succulent and healthy greens all the year round. Remember too that turnip tops make delicious greens and so do the tops of Brussels sprouts plants which taste in between spring cabbage and sprouts and that the stems of all cabbages and cauliflower can be cut out, trimmed, cut into even strips and cooked like asparagus stalks to serve with melted butter or a Hollandaise sauce.

One of the best drumhead cabbages to

grow yourself is Green Express, firm, compact and round and ideal for winter salads. Combine finely shredded white cabbage with some grated carrot, a few raisins or sultanas and a well seasoned mayonnaise, or lightly sauté the cabbage in a little olive oil until it is just tender and toss it with some chopped green or red peppers in a vinaigrette dressing, or just add it raw to any mixed salad in the place of lettuce or other greens.

Red cabbage is as easily grown as white and is delicious spiced, cooked with apple and served with any bacon, pork or game dishes: a pinch of caraway seeds makes a good flavouring. Finely shred a medium red cabbage and put it in an earthenware dish with one ounce dripping or butter; half-pint chicken or white stock ; two tablespoons white wine or cider vinegar; three-quarters pound coarsely grated, peeled, cooking apples and two tablespoons soft brown sugar. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of caraway seeds, mix lightly, cover tightly and cook in a medium oven for one hour.

Eating cabbages, by the way, can cause flatulence and, indeed, they are one of the vegetables forbidden to astronauts before they set out for a trip into space. If you are planning to do justice to a large amount of any of the cabbage family or its relations, especially if they are to be served raw, bear this in mind when planning the rest of your day's or night's entertainment.