Recipe Of The Week: Stove Top Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage comes in 4 styles: green cabbage with smooth leaves, red with purplish-red leaves,
Savory cabbage with crinkles leaves and Chinese cabbage with tall leaves.  Savory and Chinese cabbage heads are not packed as tightly as the red and green types.  Chinese cabbage is sometimes called celery cabbage because it looks like a celery plant.

Like all cold crops, cabbage can be direct seeded, but it is usually started from transplants.  Start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before planting out.  Set early cabbage 12-18 inches apart and late cabbage 18-30 inches apart.  Rows should be 30-36 inches apart.  Cabbage likes fertile soil with plenty of moisture and full sun.

Cabbage can be used as soon as he heads have a solid feel.  If you have many cabbages ripening at the same time, prune some of them by twisting the stem 1/4 turn.  This keeps the plant from taking in as much water, slows maturity and prevents heads from cracking.

Green cabbage if good fixed anyway...raw, in salads, cooked, steamed, braised or fried.  Red cabbage as a sharper flavor and coarser texture so it needs to be cooked longer.  Savory cabbage has a more delicate (some say superior) flavor than the red or green.

Overcooking cabbage gives it a strong flavor and odor...watch cooking times carefully.  Cooking celery with cabbage helps cut the strong cooking order of cabbage.

Solid heads can be stored for 3-4 months in cold storage with high humidity, although the flavor gets stronger in stored cabbage.

Chinese cabbage is more closely related to mustard than to cabbage.  It is often used in quick stir-fries or eaten raw in salads. 

Chinese cabbage does not transplant well.  Sow seeds thinly in rows 24-30 inches apart.  Thin seedlings to 18 inches apart.  Chinese cabbage matures in 75-85 days.  If it freezes before heads form, you can still eat the greens.

Cabbage is an excellent source of vitamin C and bioflavonoids.

Chinese cabbage keeps for a week in the refrigerator.
Yield:  1 pound = 4-5 cups chopped

Stove Top Cabbage Rolls

1 pound of ground beef
1/4 cup of chopped onion
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1 cup of cooked rice
10 large cabbage leaves
boiling water
2 cups of peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
garlic salt
2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons of sugar

Mix beef, onion, salt, pepper and rice.  Cover cabbage leaves with boiling water and allow to stand about three minutes to make the leave pliable: drain.  Roll a portion of meat mixture in each leaf: fasten with toothpicks.  Heat remaining ingredients to a boiling point in a covered skillet.  Add cabbage bundles and simmer, covered until tender...about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.