Asian coleslaw with cabbage, carrots, lime and sesame seeds #187

Asian coleslaw is a great fresh, crunchy and sometimes spicy variety of coleslaw that also can be served like a small appetizer or tapas even if you usually serve it as a side dish. In comparison to regular coleslaw this is very different, much fresher in both texture and flavor.

I use white cabbage as my base for the salad and then add what I might have at home, this time this was carrots, spring onion and a bunch of herbs but you can use celery, apples, beets, pears, papaya and a bunch of other vegetables.

Same goes for the dressing, in this recipe I used sesame oil, olive oil, lime juice and chili but you can use soy sauce, lemon, vinegar, sriracha, oyster sauce and make the salad equally good but different for every time you serve it. Only downside from regular coleslaw is that this one won´t keep for very long, I usually serve it the same day, you can save it one or maybe two days but it won´t be as good as on the first day. If you still want to prepare you can make the dressing and cut the vegetables a day ahead and dress the coleslaw a few hours before dinner time.

Asian coleslaw with cabbage, carrots, lime and sesame seeds

white cabbage
carrots
spring onion
lime
sesame seeds, roasted
sesame oil
olive oil
dried chili, strips or flakes
cilantro
chives
salt, pepper

The veggies

Wash the cabbage and slice thin, remove any big stems before, add to a big bowl and sprinkle with salt, leave for one hour. This make the cabbage softer and it will loose some of it´s water. Discard the water from the cabbage. Peel carrots and cut to thin strips, slice the spring onion and roughly chop the cilantro and chives. Combine all the vegetables in the bowl.

The dressing

With dressing you´ll need some measurements, for this dressing use 3 parts olive oil, 2 parts lime juice and one part sesame oil.

Combine olive oil and sesame oil,  wash limes and grate the skin into the oil, then squeeze and add the lime juice. Add the chili, sesame seeds and season with salt and pepper.

Final steps and plating

Combine the dressing with the vegetables and check the taste, adjust if necessary. Serve on small plates with a lime on the side or as a side. Good luck!

Quick kimchi #174

Kimchi is one of the trendiest things you could stuff your mouth with at the moment but good kimchi can be hard to find especially if you´re not blessed with an Korean restaurant nearby. And maybe you don´t feel like waiting for weeks to be able to eat some great cabbage. That´s when you should try my quick kimchi recipe.

I make this using savoy cabbage but you can change it to any kind you like, the sauce is mixed using fish sauce, ginger, sambal oelek and garlic. I then quickly fry the savoy cabbage in a little bit of oil to soften it and give it a little extra flavor. Then marinate it while still slightly warm and serve within an hour.

This is nowhere near a authentic kimchi but the flavor is amazing and it will give you a small taste of the real thing. Also I added a few leafs of Thai basil to my paste because I really like the liquorice notes. If you´re in luck and have an Asian grocery store around you can also look for kimchi paste. I have tried a few of those and they are also OK to use for this quick variation.

Quick kimchi

savoy cabbage
Asian fish sauce
garlic
ginger
sambal oelek
vegetable oil
Thai basil (optional)

Rinse and remove the big stem from the cabbage. In a blender add equal parts of garlic, fish sauce, ginger and sambal oelek and mix into a paste. Add vegetable oil to a frying pan and add the cabbage and roast for a few seconds. Combine the cabbage with the paste. Check flavors and adjust if necessary. Also feel free to reduce or increase any ingredient if you like it any other way, good luck!

Pork belly with red cabbage #148

Pork belly is as always a great way to serve pork, as always with cuts like this try to do a little bit extra so you can serve leftovers a day or two later. Why? Well the taste is amazing and since the belly needs to be cooked for about a day there is no extra effort in to doing a bit extra once you do it. Also it´s better to do the meat one day ahead of serving to give it time to set and get cold. This will make it easier to cut in serving size pieces and the won´t fall apart as easy.

Pork belly with red cabbage

fresh pork belly
red cabbage
butter
salt, pepper
vegetable oil
sugar

Season the pork belly with salt and pepper and roast whole in the oven on low to medium heat until it´s tender. This will take somewhere between six and ten hours. Leave it to chill in the fridge over night. Cut the belly in serving size pieces and remove and excessive fat. Sear the belly in butter and vegetable oil in a pan until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.

Cut the cabbage in big chunks but remove any thick stems. Fry the cabbage with salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar in butter until almost cooked through. You want to keep a little bit of crunch but still have it soft and without the raw cabbage taste. Serve.

Black cabbage with lemon, Parmesan & roasted garlic #122

Black cabbage or Nero di Toscana as it´s also known as is an Italian dark green cabbage that it packed with flavor and has a great texture. Serving cabbage on it´s own is not something you see that often but it taste really good so give it a try. 

The secret behind almost all great tasting cabbage recipes is a healthy dose of butter and salt and that goes for this recipe as well. And of course this is great as a side dish to both fish or meat dishes. 

Black cabbage with lemon, Parmesan & roasted garlic

black cabbage, nero di Toscano

Parmesan cheese

garlic

olive oil

salt, pepper

lemon

Rinse and remove the thickest end piece of each leaf on the cabbage, the stem of smaller leafs are ok to eat, take a bite of a raw one and you will feel how much you need to take off. Peel and slice the garlic and heat some olive oil in a pan, add the garlic and let it get soft in the olive oil. 

Add the cabbage and butter and roast the cabbage until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Put the cabbage on a plate and squeeze lemon juice on top and grate some olive oil on top. Serve warm.