rien wrote:

Antonius wrote:I might try that with a few merguez or ladies' thighs (I mean the kind of meatball, folks) and some sparrows' tongues (I mean the the pasta shape) on the side.

Unfortunately, there were no ladies' thighs on the menu, but there might have been some sparrow's tongues. I say "might" because there appears to be several bird tongues in the pasta world. If I'm not mistaken, the Italian Lingue di Passero - from Puglia? - is a wider form of the "little tongues," linguine. But there is also a North African pasta shape that I've seen referred to as sparrow's tongues and "lisan asfour" that is more like orzo.

In the context -- harissa, ladies' thighs, merguez -- the Italian item was clearly not what I had in mind.

The form of pasta I did have in mind is especially popular in Egypt and indeed like orzo in shape, though the form obviously suggests something other than barley to the inhabitants of the Arabic-speaking world.

lisaan 'tongue', 9uSfuur 'sparrow, finch'.*

There is an Egyptian LTHer who could perhaps fill us in further on their use.

Antonius

*'9' is intended to indicate the voiced pharyngeal fricative in Arabic ("9ayn"). 'S' is intended to indicate the 'emphatic' or pharyngealised sibilant ("Saad").

Bubble and Squeak is mentioned above, in the original post, but no recipe is given. Perhaps that's because it's almost too simple. You just need leftover boiled cabbage and potatoes. Chop an onion, fry it in a bit of butter or drippings, heap in the cabbage and potatoes, add more butter or drippings, if necessary, mixcabbage and potatoes thoroughly, smashing the mixture down to flatten it, then fry until it begins to get brown on the outside (during which process it will, of course, both bubble and squeak). Yum. Traditionally served with bacon at breakfast, but also considered a dandy side dish for roast beef.

When my daughter was young, we always celebrated her Irish heritage with a big St. Patrick's Day party. This cabbage dish is so mild that each time we served it some of the guests were surprised that they liked cabbage after all. It has a nutty flavor. This is also good with roast ham or lamb.

Scalloped Cabbage

Shred cabbage by passing through grating disk of food processor
Place shredded cabbage in shallow baking dish and sprinkle lightly with salt
Fill dish about 1/3 of the way (not more than halfway) with heavy cream
Coarsely grate Parmagiana cheese, and spread as much as is desired over the cabbage.
Bake about 45 minutes in a 325 degree oven (time needed depends on amount of cabbage and depth of baking dish). Serve.

One way to get better flavor in stuffed cabbage rolls is to use WHOLE pickled cabbage heads. Similar to sauerkraut, except putting the whole head into a brine. This takes months and my family often joked about the smell coming from the basement as "leaking gas." We would have barrels and barrels of pickling cabbage down there or, preferably, out in a shed. The "sauerkraut" flavor cooks into the ground meat (we used a mix of beef and pork), rice, onions, and some Italian-seasoning mix. In Chicago you can buy pickled solid cabbage heads at some Serbian (or Bosnian or Croatian) delis: ask for "kiseli kupus" = sour cabbage.

Seljanka,

Welcome to LTHforum.

I've done a lot of pickling over the years, though I have avoided sauerkraut due to the odor.

I had not heard of whole pickled cabbage before. I make my stuffed cabbage rolls with napa cabbage, I finish with sauerkraut and bacon on top. Since I love sauerkraut, I would be very interested in trying pickled cabbage leaves. How much do these whole pickled cabbages cost?

Thanks for teaching me something new at the crack of midnight!

Regards,

I was in Devon Market (Devon east of Clark, the old Butera) on Sunday and there were a stack of packaged pickled cabbage heads in the produce section. They're in the south-east corner of the store and labeled as "Kiseli Kupus" in a shrink-wrapped plastic bag with green labeling. I bought a head and it cost about $1.95! I haven't cooked with it yet, but have a few recipes if anyone's interested (including vegan-style).

Lalich makes their own pickled cabbage heads. They keep them in back so you have to ask.

Lalich Deli
8133 N. Milwaukee Ave., Niles, (847) 581-1120
4208 W. Lawrence Ave., Chicago, (773) 545-3642

Hi,

FYI - I have begun fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut for the very first time. My reluctance has always been over the first week's processing emitted a bad odor. My work area is not very, very far from where it is quietly bubbling away.

The cabbage is 10-days into the process to find the odor mild and very unobtrusive. I am making only 20 pounds in a 3-4 glass gallon container, which may be an insignificant quantity to overwhelm with its odor.

Sauerkraut or bust!

Regards,