Kale Pesto with Fusilli

Summer is many months away, but I find myself dreaming of the bunches of fresh basil I picked from the garden (yes, we have gardens in Brooklyn!) last summer. In an effort to bring a bit of summer sunshine to the kitchen, I made kale pesto instead of classic basil pesto – lacinato kale is one of my favorite fall and winter vegetables. No, it’s not quite basil, but it will do for now, as we wait for the snow to melt and the spring buds to finally open. (Is it just me, or has this winter seemed to last forever?)

I recently had a version of this kale pesto at Franny’s restaurant here in Brooklyn, and of course I got a bug to recreate it in my own kitchen. I think this recipe comes pretty close. I used walnuts because I didn’t have any pine nuts on hand (and I have to admit, they’re not my most favorite of nuts) – but pine nuts could be easily substituted. I would hesitate to use anything but lacinato kale for this recipe – I think curly kale would be far too bitter.

This recipe makes a scant 1/2 cup of pesto or less – you only need a tablespoon or so per serving of pasta. It would also be lovely with grilled chicken or fish.

Ingredients:

1 cup lacinato kale, roughly chopped (about 1 small bunch of kale)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons walnuts, lightly crushed
Kosher salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or less)
2 tablespoons Pecorino-Romano cheese
2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Extra cheese for serving (if serving with pasta)

Special Equipment: Food processor

Procedure:

1. Add the kale, garlic, walnuts, and a generous pinch of salt to the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a several times to combine.
2. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil through the feed tube of the food processor. Depending on the consistency you like, you may not use all of the oil, so pour slowly. Run the machine continuously for a minute or two to obtain a very smooth consistency. Add more oil if the consistency of the mixture isn’t smooth.
3. Add the cheeses and pulse to combine.
4. Taste and correct for salt.

Pulled Pork

Hi everyone. I’ve missed you. I’ve been gone for a long time. A digital detox is what I’ve been on. Sometimes you have to step back in order to move forward. Right? But I’m back! And with my return I thought I’d share with you a very easy recipe for pulled pork made in a crock pot. Is there a better way for me to celebrate my return to blog-dom than with pork?? I think not!

A few necessary items about pork, to begin. I used a beautiful bone-in pork shoulder from a local farm. I like to eat meat from local farmers because it’s easier to find out about the way the animal was raised. I get really freaked out about factory-farmed meat, and importantly, I think meat from commercial factory farms tastes different (in a bad way). The only problem is that locally-sourced meat tends to be a lot more expensive than commercial meat. My solution is that I just eat less meat! Less meat, but better quality, more delicious meat. It’s a compromise I’ve made in my life despite my abiding love for all things pork. So. That’s that.

You’ll notice that, aside from the spice rub, this recipe has very few ingredients. Essentially, I’m a lazy cook and I gravitate towards recipes that don’t require a huge amount of prep work, especially on week nights.  I call for 1 1/2 cups of “cola” in the recipe – I used China Cola because it doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup, which is another food-like product that I just don’t fancy. (Do I sound neurotic?) In some places, you can get the big-named sodas with sugar, although you’ll probably have to look hard. The same principle holds true for the barbecue sauce. You can make your own (I like the looks of this recipe) or find good quality, high-fructose corn syrup-free (it’s in everything, seriously) sauce, which is what I did. I usually doctor commercial sauce with extra vinegar because I like a combination of ketchup-based sauce and vinegar-based sauce. A sweet-and-sour approach, if you will. (There are so many schools of barbecue out there – all of them delicious….I don’t want to start any wars here. I think of myself as embracing a pan-barbecue outlook, having lived or spent time in many top-notch barbecue states, such as Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas, and North Carolina.)  You can also vary the spice rub to your liking – I think fennel and sage would be nice additions.

If you don’t have a crock pot, you can put the pork in a low oven (300°F or so) for 4-5 hours (or more, depending on how big your pork shoulder is). Check the meat after 4 hours – if it’s falls apart easily, it’s ready.

Ingredients:
(Serves 6-8 as sandwiches; slightly less as a platter)

For the Spice Rub:
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon maple sugar (or substitute additional brown sugar)
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the Pork:
One 2 1/2 to 3 lb. bone in pork shoulder
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
One 12 oz. bottle cola (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup barbecue sauce (plus extra vinegar to taste, if necessary)
Salt

Special Equipment: a crock-pot that can accommodate the meat

Procedure:

For the Spice Rub:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Place pork in a glass or ceramic baking dish.
3. Rub half of the mixture all over the pork, covering all sides evenly. (You’ll have leftover rub mix. Just cover tightly – it will save indefinitely.)
4. Cover the pork and refrigerate for 3 hours or longer, preferably overnight.

For the Pulled Pork:

1. Layer the onion slices on the bottom of the crock pot.
2. Place the pork on top of the onion slices.
3. Pour in the cola.
4. Cover the crock pot. Set the crock pot to “high” and let cook for 4 to 5 hours, or until the meat is falling apart. (Start checking the meat after 4 hours. It should start releasing a lot of liquid fat after a couple of hours.)
5. Once the meat is done, remove it from the crock pot and let cool slightly. Pour off accumulated fat, onions, and liquid and discard. Give the crock pot a quick wipe with paper towels.
6. Once the meat is cool enough to handle, shred into “pulled” pieces using your fingers or a fork, discarding bone and gristle as you go.
7. Return meat to cleaned crock pot. Add the barbecue sauce and optional vinegar, to taste. (Chile flakes would also be nice if you like it spicy.) Set the crock pot to warm.
8. When meat has re-heated, serve on buns or as a platter with collard greens, biscuits, or cornbread.

Notes: This recipe is easily doubled or even tripled – if you have a big enough crock pot!

Grilled Shishito Peppers

I’m not afraid to go out on a limb and say that shishito peppers are the most delicious peppers ever in the history of peppers. They are so good I had to cook them up two different ways. The first: a classic method for cooking shishito peppers – toss them in a bit of oil, drop them on a hot grill pan or cast-iron skillet, and cook until hot and blackened in spots. Then toss with a bit of kosher or sea salt. (Wait! I just gave the recipe away! Do I really need to type it up now?) The second method involves a bit of frying. I use a very simple batter to fry up various summer produce, shishito peppers being a recent favorite. The batter results in a crispy exterior that won’t fall off. (Contrary to popular wisdom, I fry in extra virgin olive oil. It tastes good.)  Try the batter for squash blossoms, zucchini rounds, patty pan squash slices, jalepenos…pretty much any kind of summer produce that you can get your hands on.

Shishito peppers are not spicy, so I like to add just a tiny bit of cayenne to the salt after grilling or frying – I like spicy. Of course, this step is entirely optional. Also, you can strain the olive oil after frying and re-use it so as not to waste perfectly good extra-virgin olive oil.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2-3 as an appetizer)

For the pan-roasted peppers:
1 cup (or more) shishito peppers
1 tablespoon (or more) extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Cayenne (optional)

For the fried peppers:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1 cup (or more) shishito peppers
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Cayenne (optional)

Lemon or lime wedges for serving

Special Equipment: Grill pan, cast-iron skillet, or heavy-bottomed pan

Fried Shishito Peppers

Procedure:

For the pan-roasted peppers:

1. Heat your grill pan, cast-iron skillet, or heavy-bottomed pan over very high heat.
2. Toss the peppers with a bit of extra virgin olive oil. Drop the peppers on the hot skillet, and cook, turning occationally, until the peppers have softened and are charred in spots.
3. Remove from heat and sprinkle kosher salt and the optional pinch of cayenne over the peppers. Eat piping hot.

For the fried peppers:

1. Put the water in a small bowl. Sift the flour into the water, stirring with a fork or a small whisk until the flour has been entirely incorporated into the water. You should have a mixture as thick as skim yogurt. (If your mixture is too thick or too thin, add a bit more water or flour as needed.)
2. In a medium, heavy-bottomed skillet, add extra virgin olive oil to come about an inch up from the bottom of the pan. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil is very hot (drop a bit of the batter into the oil – it should immediately turn a golden brown color and start to float to the top of the oil).
3. Dunk the peppers into the batter, letting the excess batter drip back into the bowl. Add the battered peppers to the oil and fry until golden brown, turning halfway through cooking. Depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook the peppers in batches. (Don’t crowd the pan: it will immediately lower the temperature of the oil and will result in a soggy, not crisp, crust.)
4. Drain on a paper towels and sprinkle with kosher salt and the optional cayenne while still hot.
5. Serve very hot with lemon or lime wedges on the side.

Fresh Cranberry Beans

It took me a while to catch on to the beauty and deliciousness of fresh shelling beans. I think I had always been unsure of the best way to cook them, my primary bean experiences having been with the dried and canned varieties. Then I found fresh cranberry beans at my local farmer’s market. I don’t know about you guys, but sometimes I get a little emotional about my food – I mean, these beans were just so beautiful, both in the pod and out. I shed a little tear. (Unfortunately, the beautiful mottled cranberry color of the fresh, uncooked beans gets cooked out, leaving you with a rather boring-looking greyish-cream bean. But the memory of the raw bean lingers on.)

I made a super-simple salad with a bit of arugula, but think of this post as a fresh bean primer – you can alter this recipe in so many ways. Experiment with different types of greens (finely shredded kale would be nice, or chopped endive). Add a chopped fresh chile. Experiment with the types of herbs you use. Add a pinch of cumin and a squeeze of lime juice. Or a squashed anchovy. Pile up on toasted bread rubbed with a clove of garlic. Serve the salad while the beans are still a bit warm, or at room temperature. The possibilities, as they say, are endless.

If you can’t find fresh beans, dried or canned are an acceptable substitution, but I implore you to try to find fresh beans at least once this summer. There is a tremendous difference in texture and I think you’ll like it. Marcella Hazan taught me how to cook fresh beans in her awesome Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. This recipe is loosely based on several of her recipes.

Fresh Cranberry Bean and Arugula Salad

Ingredients:
(Serves 3-4 as an appetizer or side dish)

1 pound fresh cranberry or other fresh beans in the shell
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
The juice of 1/2 a lemon or lime
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fresh herbs, finely chopped (either rosemary, sage, chives, parsley, or cilantro)
1 cup baby arugula leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Procedure:

1. Shell the fresh beans. Put the beans in a medium, heavy pot and cover with water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover and simmer gently for about an hour, or until the beans are tender. (Note: do not salt the water.)
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, olive oil, lemon or lime juice and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
3. Drain the beans and gently rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
4. Toss the beans in the dressing. Taste and correct for salt – you will probably need to add quite a bit more salt at this point. Add the fresh herbs to taste and the baby arugula leaves. Toss very gently to combine. Add a few grindings of black pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Golden Beet Soup with Buttery Croutons

Beets this time of year are so tender and sweet – I bought a bunch the other day at the farmer’s market and they cried out to me, “Please puree me into a velvety soup that tastes decadent but is really (gasp!) quite healthy.” Really, they said that. (And OK, maybe the buttery croutons aren’t 100% healthy, but you could always omit them. I did use multigrain bread.)

I roasted the beets a couple of days before to save time. Roasted, peeled beets will keep in your fridge for at least 2-3 days. You could also omit the thyme and add a dash of garam masala or curry powder, or a touch of cumin. And instead of croutons you could chiffonade some beet greens as a lovely garnish. Or add a swirl of crème fraîche, sour cream, or yogurt. Or a few drops of extra virgin olive oil and perhaps some sunflower seeds? It’s really quite a versatile soup. Oh, and did I mention that it can be served hot or cold?

Using a blender instead of a food processor will result in a much smoother puree.

Ingredients:
(Serves 4 as an appetizer; 2-3 as a main dish)

For the Beet Soup:
3 medium-sized golden beets, washed and trimmed
2 tablespoons coconut or extra virgin olive oil
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 large shallots, peeled and chopped
1 large sprig fresh thyme, leaves removed and stem discarded
1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups water
Kosher salt
Pinch cayenne pepper
Juice of 1/2 a lime or lemon

For the Buttery Croutons:
2 slices multigrain or whole-wheat bread, crusts removed
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon coconut or extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt

Special Equipment: Blender or food processor

Procedure:
For the Soup:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. Wrap the trimmed beats in tinfoil and roast directly on the rack in the oven for 45 minutes or longer, or until the beets feel tender and are easily pierced with the tip of a pairing knife.
3. Let the beets cool, then slip the skins off and chop into 2-inch chunks.
4. In a medium saucepan, heat the coconut or extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the celery, shallots, and a small pinch of salt and stir to coat. Continue to cook and stir until the celery and shallots soften, about 8-10 minutes. Reduce the heat if the vegetables start to brown.
5. Add the thyme leaves and garlic. Cook and stir for another 1-2 minutes, or until the garlic is fragrant.
6. Add the chopped beets and the water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and to soften the vegetables further.
7. Remove from heat and puree (in batches, if necessary) in the blender or food processor. (Take care blending hot liquids! Steam can make the blender lid fly off. Trust me.) Check for consistency – if too thick, add a bit more water. (If it’s too thin for your taste, you can always return the puree to a pot and cook over low heat for a few more minutes until the soup is of the consistency you dream of.)
8. Stir in the lime or lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne (to taste). Taste and correct for salt.

For the Croutons:

1. Cut the bread into even-sized cubes as big or small as you like (mine were about 1/2 inch).
2. In a small, heavy saucepan, heat the butter and coconut or extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat until the butter stops foaming. Add the bread cubes and a pinch of salt and toss to coat. Cook and stir (or continue tossing) until the bread cubes are crispy and golden brown. Drain briefly on paper towels.

To Serve:

1. Ladle out a serving of soup into a bowl and top with croutons, or with your desired topping of choice (see above).

Garlic Scape-Walnut-Basil Pesto

Scapes are actually the stems of the garlic plant. And they’re green and taste like garlic. I use them on top of pizza, in pasta, and as a replacement for garlic in lots of other recipes. This is a super easy pesto recipe that uses raw garlic scapes. It’s pungent and oh-so delicious. Stir it into to hot pasta, risotto, or spread on a mozzarella sandwich.

You can play with the proportions of the garlic scape-to-basil ratio to suite your tastes – if you like it really garlicy, stick to the proportions I have listed below. If you like it more basil-y, reduce the garlic scapes to 1/2 cup and add and additional 1/2 cup basil.

Garlic Scapes

Ingredients:
(Makes about 1 cup pesto)

3 tablespoons walnut pieces
1 cup garlic scapes, washed and roughly chopped
1 cup basil leaves (tightly packed)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus additional if necessary)
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated

Special Equipment: Food processor

Procedure:

1. Toast the walnut pieces: in a small, dry skillet, add the walnut pieces and toast over medium heat until lightly browned and fragrant. Cool.
2. In the bowl of the food processor, combine the cooled walnut pieces, the garlic scapes, the basil, a pinch of salt, a grinding of black pepper, and the olive oil. Pulse until a rough paste forms. Add additional olive oil if the mixture is too dense.
3. Scrape the mixture into a bowl. Stir in the parmesean. Taste and correct for salt.

Corn Shoots with Bacon and White Miso Butter

This is a riff off of David Chang’s corn with bacon and miso butter recipe from Gourmet, which happens to be one of the best corn recipes ever. Sadly, corn isn’t in season yet. So, as a way around the lack of springtime corn, I found these amazing little corn shoots at the farmer’s market that the farmer’s sign said had been sprouted from popcorn (wheels are turning, I know – can I do this at home??). They are super sweet and a bit bitter all at once. And they taste like corn! (Shocker!)

The miso butter is delicious on lots of other vegetables – peas, favas, grilled or roasted asparagus, potatoes…actually, so is bacon, now that I think about it.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon white miso paste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
4 slices bacon, chopped vertically into thin batons
1 jalapeno, chopped fine (seeds and ribs removed if you don’t like spicy)
2 green onions (white and green parts), sliced thin
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped fine
2 cups corn shoots, roughly chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Procedure:

1. In a small bowl, combine the white miso paste and the butter until well blended. Set aside.
2. Add the chopped bacon to a medium, heavy saute pan. Cook over medium heat until the bacon is crispy and has rendered most of its fat.
3. Turn the heat up to medium-high. Add the chopped jalapeno, and cook and stir for 1-2 minutes, until the jalapeno pieces have just started to soften.
4. Add the green onion slices and the garlic, and cook and stir for 1-2 minutes more.
5. Add the corn shoots, and cook and stir for 1 minute more.
6. Add the miso butter and a grinding of black pepper, and toss to coat. Taste and correct for salt.
7. Serve immediately.

Serves 2-3 as a side.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

With few exceptions, my general philosophy is that homemade food tastes better and is a lot cheaper than commercially-prepared food. While the “taste better” part of that philosophy is, admittedly, a bit subjective and hard to covey over the internets, the “a lot cheaper” part is subject to actual quantitative analysis and can be proven, much like a scientific hypothesis from your 8th grade biology class would be. My theory: that homemade tomato sauce (a.k.a., spaghetti sauce, a.k.a., marinara sauce) is cheaper than the store-bought kind, even those brands loaded with high-fructose corn syrup (lots are, you know – check it out), which is a super cheap sweetener used to cover up the flavor of super low-quality and acidic tomatoes. But as I thought about it, I wondered if my homemade version would really turn out to be cheaper than store-bought, given that I tend to favor high quality ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil. Doubt started to creep in. Homemade might be the winner in the taste department, but maybe not in the price department. The only way to figure out this very pressing problem was to conduct a brief “scientific” study. My results are outlined below.

Objective: to find out if homemade tomato sauce is cheaper than store-bought tomato sauce.

Method: using some fancy culinary school math, I calculated the actual cost of my go-to simple tomato sauce (recipe below), including the cost per tablespoon of the somewhat expensive olive oil I like to use. I then compared the results to the cost of a couple different varieties of spaghetti sauce on the market, based on a quick trip to my local grocery store.

Results: The price of my homemade tomato sauce, using expensive extra virgin olive oil (at $16+ per bottle) and organic San Marzano tomatoes was $3.98 for a little over 28 ounces. The cost of commercial tomato sauce ranged in price from $6.29 (Amy’s Organic) to $2.99 (Newman’s Own). A cost-comparison table is below:

Conclusion: Although I used high-quality ingredients, my homemade sauce was cheaper or approximately comparable to store-bought. Or, alternatively stated, my homemade sauce smacked down the store-bought kind.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
One 28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes, crushed with your hands
Red pepper flakes
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Procedure:

1. In a medium, heavy saucepan, add the olive oil and chopped garlic, and turn the heat to medium. Cook and stir the garlic until it turns golden and starts to smell delicious. Do not let the garlic brown!
2. Immediately add the crushed tomatoes, a few pinches of red pepper flakes, a generous pinch of salt, and one or two grindings of black pepper.
3. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat, then immediately turn the heat down to medium low and let simmer for 20 minutes or so, or until it’s as thick as you’d like. (If you like your sauce a bit smoother, you can crush the tomatoes further with a potato masher or a hand blender.)
4. Serve with any kind of pasta, or use as a base for lasagna, or puree further and use as pizza sauce.

Irish Soda Bread with Brown Butter, Rosemary, and Black Pepper

Being a quarter Irish myself (I didn’t get the name “Megan Colleen” for nuttin’), this is my nod to the most American of Irish holidays, St. Patrick’s Day. Rather than a post on green beer and corned beef, I thought I’d keep it simple with a recipe that is surprisingly quick and easy. (And what’s better than fresh bread in less than an hour? Nothing!) So this might not be the most traditional of Irish soda breads, but it sure is good.

Soda bread is very much like a giant biscuit. It’s leavened with baking soda (hence the name) and baking powder instead of yeast. Like all good biscuit-like products, the key is to not over knead. This recipe is barely adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe from a couple of years ago. I always think that I’m going to experiment with other flavors, like maybe roasted garlic, cumin, and red pepper,  or brown butter and golden raisins, or…something else. But I always come back to the brown butter, rosemary, and black pepper combo, because it’s so delicious.

A tip about making brown butter: it really helps to do it in a stainless steel pan (rather than a dark pan, like nonstick) so you can see the second the butter starts to brown. You want to remove the pan from the heat immediately after this happens, because the residual heat from the pan will continue to brown the butter solids.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for topping the bread
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or substitute 1 cup white whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose flour)
1 3/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with a slipat or with parchment.
2. Add the butter to a small saucepan, and turn the heat on to medium. Swirl the butter around in the pan until the butter solids begin to turn a golden brown and start to smell delicious and nutty. Immediately remove the pan from the heat to stop the browning process. Set aside.
3. Combine the rosemary, black pepper, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour.
4. Stir in the buttermilk and the brown butter until just combined.
5. On a lightly floured counter, gently knead the dough until it has just come together, about 5 turns.
6. Cut the dough in half. Shape each half into a ball and flatten slightly.
7. Place each ball on the prepared baking sheet, no less than 4 inches apart. Grind additional black pepper over the tops of the breads.
8. Using a sharp, small knife, cut an 1/2-inch deep “X” in the top of each bread.
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the breads are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Pan-Fried Cabbage

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup prosciutto, shredded with your fingers
1/2 small onion, or 2 shallots, very thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 head small green cabbage, cored and outer leaves discarded, very thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
1-2 Thai chilies (or 1 Serrano chili), thinly sliced
Pinch sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used Champagne vinegar)
3 tablespoons water or chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Procedure:

1. In a large saute pan, add the butter, olive oil, onion or shallot, and prosciutto. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until the onion or shallot is lightly browned, and the prosciutto starts to render its fat.
2. Add the cabbage, the chilies, a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, and a grinding of black pepper. Cook and stir until the cabbage has started to lightly brown in places.
3. Add the vinegar, and cook until it has evaporated.
4. Add the water or stock, and cook until it has evaporated.
5. At this point, the cabbage should be cooked through and tender. The amount of liquid you add will depend on how thinly you sliced the cabbage. You may need to add additional water or stock if your cabbage is cut thickly.
6. Taste and correct for salt. Serve hot.