SimplEdibles: HERBERT'S AUSTRIAN CABBAGE DISH

RECIPES THAT DON’T REQUIRE YOU TO THINK TOO MUCH, PLAN AHEAD OR DO ANYTHING TOO HARD OR TOO SCARY.

Lest you think that this blog is boring, I wanted to add something you've probably never seen before and will never see anywhere else. What could be so good about cabbage, you say? Well, wait until you've tried THIS cabbage. My mother tried and tried to get me to eat her boiled cooked cabbage when I was a child, but she never succeeded because it was awful. It had no taste at all and was all slimy and ugly on my plate. This cabbage has no relation whatsoever to any other cabbage I've ever seen or eaten. In fact, I consider it the Cadillac of cabbage dishes. Cabbage is definitely not one of those things that you think about as exciting or delicious. In fact, it's easy to overlook the cabbages when you are shopping for vegetables. What can you possibly do with a cabbage? Well, here is something that will change your opinion of the lowly cabbage and give you something to fix that will be fun and good at the same time. I first learned about this cabbage dish when Bing and I went to Hawaii several years ago and stayed with my friend, Lynn and her husband, Bill, on Molokai. There we met Herbert who was also visiting them and was from Austria. He was a retired mountain climber and guide and we soon came to appreciate him and his wit and humor as well as his love of life. He was also a great cook and I loved watching him in the kitchen with his big chopping knife making all sorts of amazing dishes and this is one of them. He explained that during World War II when he was just a very small boy, there was very little food and sometimes cabbage is all they had for dinner. His mother was very inventive and came up with many different ways of preparing it. He watched her and learned from her and I did the same as he taught me how to make this. He called it Tyrolean Cabbage because he was from the Tyrol in Austria or the Austrian Alps. So here is Herbert's Tyrolean Cabbage:

1. Start with a medium-size head of cabbage. Any smaller and it won't be enough and if it's too big, the measurements of the other ingredients won't work.

2. Chop it up as finely as possible and spread 1/2 of the chopped cabbage on a cloth towel at a time.

3. Sprinkle it with salt--not too much, just enough to cover it.

4. Roll up the towel and twist it as hard as you can to get all of the moisture out of it.

5. Meanwhile, heat up a large frying pan and add 2 T. of oil to it. When you have all the cabbage squeezed out, add it to the oil in the pan. Then add 2 tsp. caraway seeds to it. Cook and stir until it starts to lose its crispness. Add 2 T. sugar and keep stirring.