Russian pickled cabbage

Pickled cabbage is my childhood favorite. When my mom comes to visit me as she does annually, pickled cabbage is at the top of the most-requested list. This time, I asked her to make me enough to last me through the winter. It's a wonderful side dish for any meal, lightening the palate between bites - or a guilt-free snack for any diet. The primary difference between pickled cabbage and sauerkraut is in the length of the fermenting process, days instead of weeks. As a result, it has a fresh salad-like taste instead of the overpowering "sauer" in sauerkraut.  The best part - it keeps forever (well, nearly) and it's quite simple.

Ingredients:

• Cabbage
• Iodine-free fine salt
• Carrots
• A big pot

When buying cabbage, make sure it looks crisp, and does not feel soft.  It is best to use an enamel pot so the fermenting process does not ferment the seasoning off your cookware.

Preparation:

Shred the cabbage. Shake the salt three times while chanting "Abracadabra!".  (Though optional, the step really puts you in the right mood.)

Place about two inches of cabbage in the pot. Grate 1/4 cup or so carrots loosely on top. Sprinkle a tablespoon of salt.  Repeat layer by layer. When finished, squash the cabbage as much as possible, using fists works well, until it gives juice.

Fermenting

Place a plate or lid on top of the final layer. It should fit inside the pot, leaving an inch or less around the edges.  Put something heavy: a brick, a rock, a jar of water on top, to keep the pressure on the cabbage.

Keep the pot at room temperature during the fermenting process.

Each day, open the plate and poke deep holes in the cabbage to allow gas to escape. Press the plate and the weight back on.

Fermenting usually takes 4-5 days. Don't hesitate to taste it. Longer fermenting process will result in more sour cabbage.

Place in jars, squeezing out most of the juice and refrigerate. Fill the jars to the top, squashing the cabbage - they'll keep longer. Certainly for 3-4 months.

Serving

I like pouring a little oil over the cabbage and will occasionally chop up some onion to give it an extra kick. Use it in recipes in place of sauerkraut for a less overpowering flavor, but otherwise similar results. Cabbage is a wonderful replacement of potatoes and grains in beef and vegetable soups in general. Pickled cabbage makes it slightly sour for a classic russian soup щи (shi). (Here is a random recipe I found to give you the general idea.)

Enjoy!

Reference

I have found a youtube video describing the making of pickled cabbage. It looks very similar to what my mom does. One exception is, my family does not hesitate making a large pot while the lady recommends a small amount.  Just don't forget to press down on the cabbage each day, allowing it to give off more juice, and make holes!

Also, the Choose-Healthy-Food blog article, which includes this video has a variety of tips on making/troubleshooting the process.  I hope it helps!

Simplifying: an almost Paleo diet

Mark Sisson's newsletter this week says:

It's nice to have goals, but you have to have a plan of attack to succeed. Full health is achievable, certainly within a year. But break it down, start with a few specifics. Make this "the year I stop drinking soda!" or "the year I go camping once a month!" Let total health blossom as a result of achievable goals.  

For me, this was the encouragement I needed to proceed with a plan that I had made for myself. A while ago, I blogged about the advice I gave my dad to start paleo gently. Recently, I have taken a page out of my own book and relaxed the requirements I had set for myself initially, focusing on the following principles:

1. Paleo is a high-fat high-protein diet. I tell my kids, "meat is what gives you energy to do the things you want." For me, what I want is to be a successful parent who is not too exhausted for the patience, creativity and physical activity the job requires. I can also use the extra kick a good Paleo meal gives me for my after-hours personal and professional activities.
2. Grain is not acceptable as a food group. However, I will use it as an herb, if you will: boy, does flour-based gravy taste good! And while Trader Joe's sweet potato fries are far better than anything I can create, they contain gluten to give them the shape and crispiness.
3. High sugar fruits should be avoided. But fruits, particularly the healthy variety, can be part of many quick and wonderful snacks. Better than bagels, eh?
4. A little healthier is better. I just don't sweat it so much any more. When we go to have sushi, I get some sashimi, but the sushi rolls are my favorites. I've quit torturing myself and eat the whole thing.
5. There is such a thing as healthy desert: dark chocolate, fruits/berries with whipped cream, cheesecake, even meringues. I want just plain unabashed decadence to be part of my lifestyle.

This is enabling me to cooperate with my non-paleo family in creating meals. As a result of making this change, I am working with my live-in mother-in-law and depending on her to create meals that are pretty good, instead of facing the lonely task of planning, shopping and cooking strict paleo.

One of the tricky parts she is actually helping me is: introducing more fat into the already-cooked meals. My husband is trying to lose weight in the mainstream way, by avoiding fat and counting calories. So how do we sit down at a single table?

Here are some ideas I have worked out:

1. Adding butter into sauces at the table.
2. Rendered (which I figured out means fried) salt pork fat, resulting in delicious bacon bits (only much better than bacon) sprinkled in with the food.
3. When we bake chicken, we use a mix of low-fat white meat and high-fat dark.
4. I sprinkle almond slices & shredded coconut on top of meat sauces
5. Avocado is frequently a good side.
6. My dad is going to buy me some Russian salt pork, called "salo". I remember it from my childhood. It is intended to be eaten raw, on top of a sandwich, or fried up like bacon bits. The difference is, whether raw or rendered, it melts in your mouth, losing the stringiness of bacon due to a different salting process. I have to write about it once i have some!
7. If all else fails, I round out the meal with a high-fat desert (see dessert listings above).

I feel good again. My kids are not aggravating me. Even my mother-in-law is pretty good company. Yesterday I was completely sleep-deprived, having stayed up half the night for no good reason.  I was falling off my feet - but I never lost my temper, went shopping, cooked dinner and passed out cuddling with the babies. I will put this get-back-to-paleo operation as an unqualified success thus far.