It’s that time of year – the moment for spring cleaning your fridge. You are craving some fresh greens but planting season has barely begun in the Northeast. Sautéed bagged greens have worn out their welcome and you want something to taste fresh. My suggestion is to turn to the reliable old green cabbage that has made it through the winter in the back of your refrigerator (and needs to be cooked anyway) and liven it up with some fresh herbs.

Spring cleaning is one of the few annual rituals I actually participate in wholeheartedly. I dive into dusting, wiping, washing and vacuuming with a kind of mania I don’t have for cleaning the rest of the year. I think that I hate the heat of summer so much that I try to go into it with the most strenuous cleaning behind me. It is also a great time for purging the your pantry and fridge of anything which has been in there too long – oils or nuts that smell rancid, horseradish that has lost its zip (time to make fresh), the jalapeños you meant to use but are now a mushy blob in a bag – you get the idea.

If your cabbage is looking a little sad, soak it in some icy salt water after slicing to perk it up. You can sauté in a combination of olive oil and butter for flavor or simply use olive oil and toss in your herbs just as the cabbage finishes cooking. If you don’t like dill, use parsley or cilantro. Err on the side of more herbs than less. If you want to vary the dish, add some carrots, sliced or julienned, or if you want to sauté an onion or some garlic before adding the cabbage, go for it. My only unwavering advice is to be very careful not to overcook the cabbage. You want the cabbage to be green and not soggy. This dish is a breeze to prepare, tastes great and packs a nutritional punch (cruciferous vegetable plus herbs). What could be easier to cook as the weather warms and we look forward to the arrival of spring greens?

(For a few other spring suggestions for using up things in your vegetable drawer or year round vegetables, see my past posts on carrots, watercress, cabbage salad, parsnips and watermelon radishes).

SAUTÉED CABBAGE WITH FRESH DILL

• 1 small head of cabbage (firm, heavy and unblemished is best)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (or 1 oil and 1 butter)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2-4Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (I like a lot but you might like less-taste to see)
• 1-2 Tablespoons water

Cut the cabbage into 6 sections (vertically through the core) and then slice each sixth into thin slices. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and when hot add the cabbage. Add a tablespoon or two of water, as needed, to help the cabbage cook quickly and add the salt. Sauté until just starting to soften but still bright green. You want to keep a bit of crunch. Remove from the heat and add the pepper and the fresh dill, toss and serve.

This dish keeps well when refrigerated for a couple of days and tastes good at room temperature, if you don’t want to reheat it.

A note on the ceramics:

I got this Sunshine Cobb earthenware bowl last spring at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia and it has quickly become one of the most used in our home. It is the perfect size for rice, yogurt, nuts – so many things – and the texture keeps it from slipping out our hands when washing. I enjoy the contrast of the glossy interior and the sandblasted matte exterior as well as that color – it is pure sunshine! Cobb makes a wide range of really appealing functional ceramics from whiskey cups, tumblers and mugs to rectangular servers, garlic keepers and vases. I just may be tempted to collect (and use) an assortment in all her beautiful colors!

One of the tastiest winter vegetable dishes I make is also one of the easiest. It is a simple sauté of a handful of nuts with spices and chopped cabbage but the total flavor is much richer than its individual components. This recipe makes a satisfying meal when served with rice (and, perhaps, a salad) or can be used as a supplemental side.

Cabbage is an inexpensive and nutritious winter vegetable that stores well for months in the refrigerator. It is one of the few local green vegetables we can depend on being available through the fall and winter. Cabbage is known historically for having saved sailors on ships from scurvy because of its high vitamin C content. It is also easy to prepare various ways: fresh in a salad, salted and made into sauerkraut or cooked by steaming, boiling, baking or sautéing. If you don’t overcook it into a sulfurous mushy mass (overcooking is what gives it a bad reputation), cabbage can be quite delicate, savory or tangy, varied by seasoning. When used raw in a salad, it can be sweet and crunchy, depending on the individual cabbage, of course. (When buying cabbage, search for a heavy, dense head with fresh looking, crisp outer leaves).

This curried cabbage recipe is from Yankee Magazine, a surprisingly good source of interesting, reliable recipes, alongside the small town stories, foliage reports and event listings. I tweaked it slightly, playing with the spices a little. If you want it spicier, add more mustard seeds and if you don’t like spicy, leave them out altogether. On the other hand, if you like your cabbage sweeter, add some raisins, currants or even dried cranberries toward the end of cooking. If you don’t like cashews, try almonds or walnuts. Whichever way you choose, this curried cabbage will be quick and tasty.

Curried Cabbage with Cashews

• 3 TBs olive oil (or 2 oil and 1 butter for flavor)
• 1/2 cup raw, unsalted cashews
• 3 TBs (or about 3″) raw ginger, minced
• 1 heaping TBs cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
• 1 small (about 1 1/2 lbs) or 1/2 of a large cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp ground turmeric or 1TBs freshly grated turmeric root
• 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add cashews, ginger, cumin and mustard seeds.

Cook, stirring often, until cashews are golden and all smells fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

Add cabbage and turmeric and cook, stirring often, until cabbage is just tender, about 8-10 minutes. 

Season with salt and pepper and top with fresh, chopped cilantro. 

Serves 4-6 and keeps up to 3 days in the fridge.

Hot peppers are having a moment. Among the overflowing bins at the farmers markets, you can find ripe Poblano, Cayenne, Serrano, Banana, Habanero and Jalapeno peppers. All these varieties may be used fresh, chopped into salsa or added to cooking foods for varying degrees of heat. Hot peppers will keep for some weeks refrigerated but to use them through the winter months, they need to be preserved. Small red chilis may be dried and crumbled or ground but Jalapeños, in my opinion, are best pickled.

Pickling peppers is about the easiest type of cooking I know. You simply place the washed Jalapeños in clean glass jars, along with some carrot, onion, garlic and spices, pour a cold brine over them, close them tightly, and store in the fridge for a few months until pickled. You can slice and cook the peppers in a brine (also known as escabeche) and then jar them but since the cold brine, in essence, cooks the peppers for you, why bother? The only reason I can think of is if you need to eat the peppers right away. When you put them up in cold brine, you can taste them after a couple of months and see when you think they suit you. There are terrific canned Jalapeño pickles (La Morena is a brand I use when I don’t have any of my own put up) but they are so simple to make – give them a try.

I first found this recipe in Padma Lakshmi’s wrenching memoir with recipes, Love, Loss and What We Ate: A Memoir and adapted it only slightly by adding sliced raw garlic and cumin seeds and adjusting amounts of seasoning to satify my palette. Vary the flavors based on your own preferences. If you hate coriander and cumin, use dill seeds and black pepper, for example. You don’t need special canning jars – any clean glass jar with a clean lid will do. I like to use jars of varying sizes both to accommodate the size of the peppers (small jars for small peppers, etc.) and to have some smaller jars to squeeze into the gaps in my already full refrigerator. 

I didn’t grow up eating spicy food but, living in New York, I have learned to enjoy it. If something savory tastes good, my husband and son think it will taste even better with hot sauce so I try to find ways to add heat. Jalapeños are on the milder side of hot on the Scoville scale, the standard measurement of capsaicin or spiciness. Pickling them adds complexity and allows us to use them all through the winter months. Pickled Jalapeños are delicious added to grain salads, omelets or frittatas or served alongside meat, fish and poultry. Some little slivers can really zip up a deviled egg, tuna salad or taco and the liquid can be used in a salad dressing or marinade to perk it up. If you make a few extra jars, you’ll be able to give them as gifts just when the weather gets colder and friends need a little pick-me-up.

PICKLED JALAPEÑOS 

For the brine dissolve 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in 2 1/4 cups of white vinegar.

In a mixing bowl, toss together:

• 12-14 fresh Jalapeños, washed
• 1 medium carrot, sliced on an angle
• 1 tsp. coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 1/2 small onion, sliced in thin crescents

Place peppers, along with the carrots, onions, garlic and seasoning in 2-3 jars (depending on the size of the peppers and the jars. 2 pint sized jars of 1 pint and 2 smaller jars usually works well