Stuffed Asian Cabbage Rolls

Whenever I get bored with my diet, or when I've had too much dairy, meat and starch (which is often), I always turn to Asian flavors to refresh and satisfy my palate. Hot, salty, sour and sweet combined with fresh aromatics like ginger, garlic, mint, basil, cilantro and lime - it always hits the spot.

My introduction to Asian cooking at home was the Nina Simonds book, Asian Noodles - a simple primer for cooking a variety of Pan-Asian soup, salad and noodle classics.

It was this book that began my habit of storing Asian staples in my pantry so I could satisfy my Asian comfort food cravings whenever I wanted. Now I'll just pick up a protein and whatever vegetables I need and come home and make Cinnamon Beef Noodles, Peanut Noodle Salad or Thai Red Curry soup in a pinch.

Just a few of the pantry essentials I keep around are: soy sauce, red curry paste, canned coconut milk, Mirin, a sweet rice wine used for cooking and Thai fish sauce. The words 'fish' and 'sauce' together seem to scare a lot of people but if you love and eat Thai food, you're already enjoying it without realizing it. Fish sauce in Southeast Asia is like salt in America, they season everything with it.

I picked up a copy of Jamie Oliver's new magazine, the eponymously titled, Jamie at the book store this summer and in it were a couple of great looking cabbage recipes including this one. To the plain eye, cabbage is perhaps the least sexy vegetable sitting in the produce aisle, but what a work horse and I love how quietly it carries all the other ingredients without demanding any credit. Kind of like the supporting cast in all those Jennifer Aniston movies. Ouchie.

Anywho, I finally got around to making them this week. I love this recipe and honestly can't wait to make them again. It required little skill, satisfied my craving for Asian flavors, was (is) incredibly healthy and I responded like an excited child to the perfect little packages that fit right in my hand. I also love anything that requires dipping. That said, I think this would make a great snack or lunch or you can double it as a main for dinner. You could pair it with a bowl of steamed rice with chopped scallions and a simple miso soup. Done.

Stuffed Asian Cabbage Rolls from Issue #2 of Jamie Magazine

You will need a food processor for this recipe.

Ingredients
1 white cabbage
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 fresh red chili, halved and seeded
Small bunch cilantro
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled (use the back of a spoon to scrape the skin off, it works like a charm)
2 skinless chicken breasts cut into large chunks
soy sauce
rice vinegar
chili oil (see below) to serve

Instruction

Put a large pan of boiling, salted water on to boil. Peel back the outer leaves on the cabbage. Coax and click off 8 round leaves (it doesn't matter if they tear a little). Core the cabbage, reserving the stalk; chop the cabbage into quarters and set aside.

Drop the 8 leaves into the boiling water for 3 minutes, or until you can pick one up and bend it easily. Remove to a tray to cool down.

Put your garlic, chili, cilantro and ginger into a food processor and whiz for 30 seconds. Ad a pinch of sea salt and the chopped cabbage stalk and pulse for 30 seconds to break it down a bit. Add the chicken and one quarter of the cabbage and pulse it for 30-60 seconds until the flavors combine and you've got a nice coarse chicken mince.

Put a piece of plastic wrap on a board and scoop the mince on to it. Divide it in eight equal amounts.

Grease a large colander or steamer tray (that fits comfortably into a pan) with a bit of chili oil or olive oil. Take a soft cabbage leaf in your hand, scoop one pile of chicken mince in the middle then fold in the sides until you have a closed package. Lay it in the colander with the leaves tucked under. Repeat 7 more times.

Pour a few inches of water into the pan that fits your steamer and put over a medium flame to boil. When the water's boiling, place the colander on top so it fits into the pan and seal with a lid or some foil and steam for about 10 minutes. Do not take the lid off. When time's up, cut one and see if it's cooked through - it will be obvious.

Serve right away with a dipping sauce of equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar in a little dish. You can also do just soy if that pleases you.

Jamie also suggests a little chili oil which can be bought or made. here's a quick recipe for homemade chili oil:

Buy 2 or 3 different dried chilis at your Asian grocer, remove stems and heat in very hot and dry pan for about 1 minute. Put them in a high powered blender or pulse in the food processor with an inexpensive pint of olive oil and blitz for a minute or two. Keep in a jar in a dark, cool place. Use liberally!

Pork Burgers A La Nigel Slater

I don't know about you but I crave Asian flavors. It's become a pattern that my craving comes very suddenly and without warning and I get this unreasonable urge to sate it immediately. I usually end up going out to sate it instead of making something at home.

I try to remedy that problem by keeping as many Asian food staples in my pantry as possible. They're generally inexpensive and useful in a myriad of ways. I don't pretend to know how to recreate a lot of the dishes I love, at home but having some of the basic ingredients around like kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, red chile paste, mirin, a good dark soy sauce, ginger, basil, cilantro, fish sauce, coconut milk and hot, fresh or dried peppers means I can occasionally throw something together that will satisfy me in a pinch. I know that sounds like a lot to think about but the ingredients last a little while and all that might literally run you about $12 to $15 at an Asian market.

And thank god for Nigel Slater's book The Kitchen Diaries. He's a well known food writer in London and it's his personal diary of meals recorded for one full year and divided into months so it's very seasonal. He's also an incredibly unfussy and almost lazy cook, which I love, and everything in the book makes me drool.

Example: So one day he happens to have bacon and an avocado at home so he makes the bacon in a fry pan, pulls it out crisp, throws some sherry vinegar in with the drippings to deglaze the pan and then tosses the whole shebang over the avocado and eats it with rye bread.

Are you kidding me? Sign me up!

The way this book is written continually underscores that cooking is about PLEASURE (remember pleasure?); it's a sensualist's dream if you ask me. Reading it makes me ache to cook, now how's that for a glowing endorsement?

He also loves flavors from warm climates such as Southeast Asia and India and it's definitely reflected in many of his recipes. So far, I can vouch that so much of what I've made from his book is easy (beginner easy) and incredibly satisfying.

I made his Pork Burgers with Lime Leaves and Cilantro last night and ate it with a little homemade cucumber salad. Just cucumbers, thinly sliced red onion, cilantro, some rice vinegar, a touch of sugar and salt.

Break out the Riesling!

Adapted from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries

scallions - 4
hot red chile peppers and their seeds - 4
garlic - 4 medium cloves
the stalks and leaves from a small bunch of cilantro
ginger - a thumb-sized lump
limes leaves - 6
(also added some basil leaves and a touch of fish sauce to mine)
*smoked pancetta or slab bacon - 4 oz
*ground pork - 1.25 lbs
a little veggie or peanut oil for frying

Chop scallions, peppers, garlic and cilantro and finely grate ginger. Roll and shred the lime leaves very fine (and basil if you use it).

Throw it all in the food processor and process until it's finely chopped and well mixed like a paste. Scrape the paste out into a large bowl, and add a couple dashes fish sauce if you please.

Cut the pancetta or bacon then process in the processor to a coarse mush. Add that to the spice paste in the bowl along with the ground pork and mix with your hands adding a little salt and pepper along the way. Chill for a half hour in the fridge to meld flavors.

Roll the seasoned, chilled pork into about twelve balls and flatten into patties. Heat a heavy, shallow pan, add some oil and cook for several minutes a side over relatively high heat until they brown nicely and cook through the middle. Squeeze some lime juice on top and eat with cucumber salad and jasmine rice optional.

*If you can find local pork, I highly recommend it. It benefits you, the pigs and the environment. In Chicago, Twin Oaks Farms sells their sustainably raised pork at Green City Market on Saturdays.