I’m headed out of town this weekend to enjoy the snow in New York (why does this sound unpleasant already?) and to pick up a bridesmaids dress (ah, that’s why!) Sadly, because I’ve been busy and out of town a lot, I also had tons of stuff in the fridge that was plotting… oh yes, it wanted to go bad while I was away. But really, I’m much too clever for that.
So what does one do with spinach, tomato, cabbage, onion, pepper, and brie?
The sandwich was pretty simple– a roll, some brie, a tomato, and spinach sauteed with garlic until it gave up all hopes of life– all tossed into the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes, when the brie melted.
Sweet and sour braised cabbage… much more complicated. I started off with two pieces of bacon in my trusty large frying pan, but you could just as easily start off w/ 2 tbsp of butter or olive oil. I heated the bacon until almost crispy, then added a red onion, sliced thinly. Once the onion had condensed and brightened in color, I added a small head of red cabbage and 1 red pepper (though the blogosphere seems to recommend apple), sliced thinly. Note: I find it easiest to cut the cabbage into quarters and slice away from there.
After sauteing for a few minutes, I added 1/4 of a cup of vinegar, 1/4 cup of raspberry jelly, and 1/8 cup of soy sauce.
You could certainly cut out the jelly with good results, but I wanted sweet and sour rather than savory. I then simmered the mixture on low heat, covered, for about a 45 minutes. At the end of that time, I added 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp horseradish, and some cracked black pepper to add heat; you could probably do this with any mixture of peppers and other spicy condiments, but my absolute favorite is the mustard. Something about mustard and cabbage is counter-intuitively wonderful. (I’m not pregnant. I swear.)
After simmering the mixture until the rest of the liquid evaporated, about 15 minutes, dinner was ready, and while the courses didn’t exactly match, I was happy with both. Now, if only I could learn to hold my liquor….
This entry is part of Sweetnick’s ARF 5-a-day Friday. Check out the other entries here.
2 Comments
February 28, 2007 at 3:38 am
Yum! I’m not a big sandwich fan but this looks SO yummy!
February 21, 2008 at 1:01 am
[...] Newcomer Veggie Love is up first with a delicious melty Brie sandwich with spinach: [...]