One good place to contact in San Diego: http://www.sandiegorabbits.org

One good place to contact in San Diego: http://www.sandiegorabbits.org

Thanks for the great article…it was hysterical!

Use the Cabbage in Cabbage and Noodles. I grew up in a town with many Eastern Eruopean descendents and this is a favorite. Chop cabbage and an onion. Saute in olive oil unitl a bit browned. Add salt and pepper (lots of pepper!) Add to cooked egg noodles or bow tie noodles. Add butter to taste.

Hope these ideas helped.
Bonnie

Re: Kiwi fruit. It’s a wonderful meat tenderiser. Chop it up and rub all over beef, lamb or pork and marinate for an hour or so. Scrap off all the excess and bin it before cooking. (Then you’ve used it but didn’t have to actually eat it!).

Kohlrabi is used in german and central European cuisine — I am still working on getting my kohlrabi legs under me.

Cabbage is easy — look at indigenous recipes of people who eat cabbage aka Eastern Europeans. Steam the cabbage and toss it in butter with toasted caraway seeds. There is sweet and sour cabbage (red cabbage). Always, you can make pierogies with potatoes and cabbage. I have made the absolute best stuffed cabbage (golabki) with fresh cabbage. The freshness of the cabbage takes a mundane dish to a new level. Cook up the hamburger with garlic and onion. I toss in a little tomato paste. Steam the cabbage (save the water) and roll up the hamburger. Use some of the cabbage water, tomato paste and tomato sauce to make a little sauce. Put a little sauce in the bottom of a casserole and then add the rolled cabbage. Pour the rest of the sauce over the rolled cabbage.

More importantly, although we sell mostly to professionals, I have been preparing family dinners for over 30 years for spouse, children, and grandchildren, including non meat eaters and periodic vegetarians. I do not accept that there is a recipe to make every bit of produce palatable but certainly there are ways to make root vegetables and greens not just acceptable but valued as they are in our family.

First, a method. I often cook for 2 to 4 these days but make recipes routinely that feed 8-12 (or more). I use a 13 quart cast iron, dutch-oven. I store leftovers in containers that run from moderate size to individual portions and place uneaten containers of these in the freezer. If food goes immediately from cooking utensil to air-tight container (where it is allowed to cool), prefereably with no air contained in the container and then immediately to the freezer, it is “flash-frozen” and does not suffer taste degration. Not the same as fresh, but very, very close.

Secondly, the cooking. Use onions (red) and peppers (colored bell, jalepeno, poblano, anaheim) to flavor and moisten your root vegetables (turnips, parnips, any kind of squash including butternut) and greens – mustard, kale, turnip, dandelion, etc. Greens should be washed so as not to be gritty, dried and cut. Onions and peppers should be washed and dryed before preparation (Below).

Greens

Season your onion/pepper mix (all peppers seeded;onions and peppers cut into small pieces) with salt, pepper, red-pepper if no spicy peppers included and you want it spicy.

Greens should be cleaned, dried and cut into small enough pieces. These are not required to be miniscule, any good chopping will do. Saute’ greens and remove from dutch oven or large pot. Use good, extra-virgin olive oil, a tablespoon or two for the greens. Saute at low-medium heat.

Put 2 to 4 fluid ounces of olive oil in your pot. Heat on low-medium heat for a minute or two. Put onion/pepper mixture in pot. Put in the greens that you have previously saute’d. Sprinkle paprika over the top of the greens. This adds flavor and thickens the liquid. If you have a heavy cast iron pot, less liquid should “cook off”. This could cook up to 60-120 minutes at lowest heat. It should be checked every 30 minutes. if you do not have a heavy cast iron pot, use any pot large enough for your quantity of greens and add 1 cup of water.

Root Vegetables

Pretty close to the same recipe except saute’ the root vegetables to begin with for 5-8 minutes or so at least, turning once. Root vegetables should cook for no more than 30-45 minutes even with a heavy pan. Do not put water into these vegetables. Mix thoroughly before placing the lid back on for the 30 minutes cooking. The onion/pepper mixture should “cook down”. Check every 15 minutes, stirring thoroughly.

Family and friends go for these home cooked vegetables.

Depending on pot, altitude, etc., cooking times might have to be adjusted. The important thing is to not let the vegetable mixture burn. A dish is done when vegetables are fork tender and good to taste. Eat with fresh, crusty bread.

Obtain any vegetables that you might not have separately if you want to thoroughly enjoy the ones that you do have, especially the abundance of greens and root vegetables that you describe.

I also love sweet potatoes, yukon gold potatoes, and turnips cut into steak fries, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, baked at 425 until golden.

Enjoy the turnips!