Besides Broccoli, There Is a Whole World of Rabies
Fuck cabbage. Once a year, my gardener friend wholeheartedly encourages me to grow dirty vegetables, and every year I remind her that my opinion on the subject has never wavered. (“I know, I know, but rabe is so good!”) While I will praise the absence of any virtue in godforsaken cabbage to the last breath, I can admit that rabe cabbage is quite edible. But the thing is, it’s no tastier than any other type of rabe, and certainly not a reason to curse the planet with another cabbage plant.
The thing is, you have to eat rabe (also known as “raab”) and the world is full of it, especially now in the height of spring. Unless you’re into gardening, you’ve probably only been exposed to rabe through broccoli (sometimes known as rapini, and as it happens, not actually broccoli at all ), but the truth is, rabe is just vegetable flower sprouts. which are screwed on.
What is chatter?
To dig a bit here (heh): the point of gardening is often to get plants to bloom, and those flowers to be pollinated by our sexy buzzing friends. They then produce fruit in the form of a tomato, pepper, or pod. For some vegetables, the prize is the root itself – turnips, radishes and carrots. And in the case of cabbage, what we eat is actually the flowers themselves: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, mustard greens.
When dunzo plants, they go to seed, which means that they then throw away the flower stems. These flowers open and the flower seeds become new plants. Since the plant now spends all of its energy creating these seeds, its base tends to suffer in flavor. When this happens we call it “shooting” and it often happens during temperature shifts.
What is a slave (or raab)?
Usually you collect these seeds and pack them until next year, but in some cases, like cabbages, if you collect them before the flowers bloom, you will have a whole new vegetable to enjoy in the kitchen. This magnificent set of circumstances is maddening.
Rabe is a delightful consolation prize for this time of year, when the conservatories are ready and the spring crops have yet to appear. While you might not be able to get your hands on anything other than broccoli rabe unless you’re a gardener or neighborhood gardener, the greens section of Asian markets is a great place to try.
I spend many days taking a bowl and filling it with Brussels sprouts, cabbage, arugula and broccoli (but never cabbage). They don’t need much to be tasty. I snack when I choose because even raw they are damn good. As with sprouts, you will notice slight differences in flavor between them. While Brussels sprout and cabbage rabe are mild, arugula and mustard green rabe are tangy, all four of the following preparations can be used on any type of rabe.
Rabe as an appetizer
Either eaten raw, with a little EVOO, salt and pepper, or baked with the same and a little citrus juice, rabe crunch is delicious on its own.
Rabe greens in oyster sauce
The real delight of a good Chinese restaurant is what they do with the greens, and I get very excited when I see a dim sum cart approaching with plates of Chinese broccoli topped with umami-rich oyster sauce. To get the same flavor at home, wash the rabe and then add a couple inches of water to a deep frying pan. Lightly salt it, and when the water boils, add the rabe. It should lighten very quickly, which means it’s cooked. Cool the slave quickly in cold water, then place on a towel to dry. You can also shake it up in a salad bowl if you have one.
Empty the saucepan and return it to the fire. Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to the pan and, when it boils, 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger and 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. Move it around while the pan is over medium heat for 60 seconds and then add the cold and hopefully dry rabe back into the pan and stir to coat for 60 seconds.
Put all the contents on a plate, and then pour the oyster sauce on top of your taste.
Fried Rabe with Almonds and Balsamic
It’s an easy way to spice up almost any vegetarian dish a bit. Simply fry the rabe in a skillet over medium heat with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, turning the rabe frequently to coat with oil and brown well. This should take 60-90 seconds. Drizzle the vegetables with balsamic vinegar and toss again, taking time to taste so you can adjust the balance of sweetness from balsamic to salt. Now drop the chopped almonds into your palm and stir to coat for 15 seconds or so, then remove from heat and serve. Imagine it on top of risotto, polenta (or grilled polenta pie), a plate of creamy white beans, or if you’re not a vegetarian, a perfectly cooked steak or chop. A little grated parmesan on top would do the trick.
Fried Rice Rabe
No matter how often I draw on the influence of Asian cuisine, this is not my culture, so I always, at best, appreciate the work of others. The best fried rice cooking advice I’ve ever gotten was from Jane Hashimawari , who has been cooking on Instagram for much of the pandemic with a dry humor that I’m especially excited to watch. She takes the boiled rice, which is at least a day old, so it has dried up, and then breaks it with her hands. She then makes sure that each grain of rice is coated with oil before frying it in a pan.
I start fried rice by cooking the individual ingredients, and in this case, while you can add whatever you like, including seafood, meat, and other vegetables, I find fried rice with just ginger, garlic, rabe, and egg to be hearty. food. Fry the rabe before adding the rice, drizzling generously with sesame oil. Now add soy sauce or other flavoring (I use this recipe from Woks of Life to get a nice balanced flavor from honey, shaoxing wine and soy sauce). Just before you’re done, it’s time to add the eggs so they can shake. When it’s off the stove, I add some sesame seeds on top.
The attraction of a slave is that most people are not even aware that a treasure trove is appearing in their garden right now. It would be polite to point this out as you stroll around the neighborhood this weekend in search of spring skies. As you wander, feel free, like me, to lean in and whisper into the inexplicably inedible but world-famous leaves of the world’s favorite cabbage: ” Fuck you, cabbage, and your perfectly ordinary slave.” ”