First, in July and August, it was spring onions and lettuce. So much salad after a dearth of green things all through fall and the beginning of winter. Next, it was carrots, which often became carrot cake. Now tomato season is finishing off. She let me take the rest of the cherry tomatoes home with me because she thinks they are "too acidic." To me they are little red balls of sunshine. I can't remember the last time I had a tomato this good. Maybe when I was a kid and we visited CT and my uncle's garden... there's nothing like super-fresh.
The whole time all of these veggies are running their course, there has been cabbage plants hulking in their midst. During the winter, we ate their leaves, which was a previously unknown veggie to me. Me and my host sisters were in charge of dinner one night, and Nilsa told me we would make vegetables and rice. This sounded amazing to me after many dinners of fried food, but I had no idea what would be providing the "bulk" to our veggies... I mean there were carrots and green onions to put on it, but what was IT? Turns out it was the new leaves of the cabbage plants. We picked bunches of the darker green leaves and cut them up finely. Enough to fill a whole big soup pot. And then we simmered them with piles of carrots and green onions until they all wilted into green oblivion. Then we added some salt and a bit of tomato paste and served it over rice. Spectacular. My host dad (who pretty much only eats meat and pasta) was a bit less impressed. He asked me what we were cooking and since I didn't want to say cabbage (since I knew he would make a face), I said "a surprise!". Julio looks at me dead-pan and says "that's not a surprise, its cabbage!" I don't think I have laughed so hard in ages. May not sound funny to you guys but now its like the running joke with them. Its probably also funnier in guarani :)
And now, all of these cabbage plants have heads too, and my host mom has been pawning them off on me weekly. First I made some salad, then "fried cabbage" (sauteed cabbage, onion, garlic and carrot with an egg cracked in it at the end) but today I was feeling a bit bored of the usual, so I decided to try my hand at cole slaw.
Although I was raised in the South my whole life, cole slaw has never been my thing. I think I have had too much over-mayonnaised or soggy cole slaw to want to give it a chance. But I did a search on food.com for a recipe and out popped this one, which was mayonnaise free and had apple. I was intrigued. The results were SO tasty. Makes me think I'll be able to get through the 4 heads of cabbage in my fridge after all.
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| My host mom's garden a few weeks ago...this isn't even all of it! |
Mayo-Free Cole Slaw
1 small l head of cabbage, shredded
1-2 carrots, grated
handful of green onions, chopped or 1/2 a white onion, diced fine (I am not much of a raw onion fan so I used the green ones...)
1 apple, grated (trust me on this one)about 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp fresh ginger (or powder)
Mix it all up and let it chill well
I had it with bean burgers for dinner...stellar.
Other than my adventures with cabbage, things are going well. Only 6 months left, and I am trucking along. Tomorrow is World Hand Washing Day, so I gotta get a move on and plan my charlas! Chau!
