Eat Well: Of Cabbages and Kings

The following post was written by my mom, WWW. Thanks, mom!

R & B are ahead of schedule and after seeing Rebecca last weekend, I am pretty sure they are much bigger than cabbages this week. I would even venture to suggest that they are actually the size of (ahem) large watermelons. But as much as I would love to write about watermelons, especially since they have somehow miraculously cured Rebecca’s acid reflux, I don’t want to overlook the often-neglected cabbage. I have recently come to believe that it might be the most important vegetable in our diet.

It was my sister-in-law, Nancy, who shared this epiphany with me last time she was visiting. We were marveling at the fact that her and Larry’s octogenarian parents (Rebecca’s grandparents) seem to have discovered a secret formula for the fountain of youth as they actually seem to get younger with age and could both pass for 70. All of a sudden her eyes got big.

a couple'a eighty-somethings kids road-trippin' in Big Sur

“I know what it is,” she exclaimed. “Cabbage! Raw cabbage!”

“Oh my GOSH…you’re RIGHT,” we all agreed. You see, Betty and Milt Woolf eat, on average, two raw cabbages a week, which I am pretty sure is more than the national average. And they eat it in the form of coleslaw (both traditional mayo based and with a sweet vinaigrette).

We never had coleslaw in my house growing up. I don’t know if this is because it was a regional food back then or because my mother is English. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember ever eating raw cabbage in my childhood. We ate it cooked with corned beef (not a personal favorite) or at our local Mexican restaurant as a warm salad (delicious) but never raw. When I first travelled with Larry to New Jersey to meet his parents in 1976, I watched my future father-in-law as he made “the best coleslaw in the world.” His secret ingredient Marzetti’s Slaw Dressing. It simply made the most delicious coleslaw I had ever eaten. I became so in love with this “recipe” that for years I brought it to pot-lucks and served it as a side dish for summer patio parties, almost embarrassed to share how easy it was to make.

Marzetti’s has gotten really expensive so now my father-in-law makes “Almost Marzetti’s” (recipe below). And to mix it up, he and my mother-in-law now make a vinaigrette coleslaw, too. Both of theses slaws are sweet, so for those of you who want a more savory slaw, try making the dressing with some mayo and sour cream, dill weed, a little dill pickle juice and caraway seeds (recipe care of my friend, Catherine!)

I have many times mentioned in this space how much I love cabbage—stir- fried, chopped in salads, in soups. You can even roast it. I keep a cabbage in the refrigerator and put some into any stir-fry or salad I make. Behold:

I made a salad with oil, vinegar, a little sesame oil and black sesame seeds for an Asian taste, but any salad vinaigrette works well with cabbage, and what is great about cabbage salads is they keep several days. In winter, we eat cabbage soup regularly. You can juice a cabbage with other vegetables for a healthy tonic.

Cabbage is a known anti-oxidant and ancient remedy for all that ails you, so I think my sister-in-law may be onto something. Maybe we should revise Ben Franklin’s adage to “A cabbage a day keeps the doctor away!”

Grandpa Milt (86 years young) still bikes twenty miles a day. EVERY DAY.

Grandma Betty, triplet, & 84-years-young'n (building castles with Fable last summer)

Almost Marzetti’s Coleslaw

2 cups Mayo

2/3 cup sugar

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

2 T yellow mustard

1 cabbage, grated or sliced thinly and chopped

1 grated carrot

celery salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and chill for several hours.

Sweet Vinaigrette Coleslaw

1 cup oil

1 cup vinegar

2 T celery salt

1 T kosher salt

1 ½-2 cups sugar

1. Mix ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour over:

3 lbs shredded cabbage

1 diced green pepper

1 red onion, grated

2. Chill.

Roasted Cabbage

1 cabbage

olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

Quarter cabbage and then slice slice into ½ inch thick slices. Brush with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast at 375 until brown and caramelized, turning frequently after 10 minutes.

Squeeze lemon juice on the cabbage and sprinkle with lemon zest:

***

To a long life. L’chaim!

Love,

WWW & GGC

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

-Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass