The problem with cabbage.
I would like to share a tale of moderate-woe, in the hope that this would be a caution to all you folk who, like me and Douglas, pick up all sorts of random things in the supermarket that you never get round to eating. (Emma, who plans her meals in advance, need not take heed).
The cabbage sits on the shelf. Deep purple-red, looking healthy, shiny, full of vitamins. It calls out to you. Ooooh cabbage, you think, just like-a mama used to make in your distant and slightly distorted memory. You add it to the trolley.
Fast forward 2 weeks, and you’re out of food, hungry and desperate you rummage through the fridge. Nothing…..except, hiding at the back of the vegetable rack…..the cabbage is lurking. Not looking quite so healthy now, it is nevertheless surely still full of leafy goodness and vitamin Purple. You can’t ignore it. It would be wasteful to go and buy something else. But what to cook?
The recipe books, which include 100s of years of granny-wisdom, include “broiled cabbage”, “sweet and sour cabbage” and “spicy baked cabbage”. All of which take 2 hours in the oven, hence ensuring that the cabbage is truly dead. “Never eat an undercooked cabbage”. Yours truly not having 2 hours to spare before extreme grumpiness sets in, I cobble together bits of the recipes - an apple, some wine vinegar, lemon rind, and bung it all together in a pan for 10 minutes.
Well, boys and girls, I’m going to surprise you - this tale actually has a happy ending. The cabbage was dead enough after 10 minutes and both Doug and I lived to tell the tale. It actually tasted OK. However, it was very nearly a disaster, and in the spirit of “health and safety first”, next time I’m going to write a shopping list.