In the Mood for the Savoy Shuffle?
14 March 2008 by Jean Johnson
At least I think there was a dance called the savoy shuffle back in the Roaring Twenties. At any rate, savoy cabbage is a whole lot more fun that regular old plain cabbage. If you find some of this crinkly, almost psychedelic cabbage there’s no end to what you can do with it.
There’s good old corned beef and cabbage for those that get into the St. Paddies Day thing. Or there’s slaw.
In the case of this particular savoy cabbage, I started out aiming for a warm salad and sliced half the cabbage thinly, giving it a quick chop so the pieces weren’t too long. Then I piled the fetching savoy into my cast iron wok on high heat with a little water, sliced onion, and grated carrot. Flash cooked veggies were mine pronto. Ready and waiting.
I dressed the works with fish sauce (easy does it on this salty, umami brew), crushed red chiles, a chopped pear or two for sweet, and fresh lemon juice for sour (wishing I’d had a lime on hand). Then I found a can of coconut milk in the cupboard and decided to heck with the salad. In went the coconut milk along with pinches of coriander and turmeric, and a fresh chop of cilantro at the end when I tossed in cooked prawns.
Some serious yum, this flash cooked, ten-minute meal was–and it all started from the humble cabbage. (True, I used the fancy Savoy because it’s so gorgeous my artist’s soul can’t resist it, but I could have just as easily made do with regular cabbage.)
