CABBAGE-CENTRIC

 

I’m in a cabbage state of mind. With a plenitude of cabbages from the garden, I have been searching my files for cabbage recipes. With only one or two people to feed, a single cabbage goes a long way—half a head makes a veggie main dish for one meal, coleslaw with another quarter, an addition to Asian stir-fry for the rest. I even pulled out The Joy of Cooking in search of a recipe for sauerkraut (but did not try it). This week it’s trinxat, a Catalan dish of cabbage and potatoes.

I posted a recipe for trinxat way back in 2014. The recipe was taken from Chef Jeff Weiss’s book, Charcutería, The Soul of Spain. With the addition of butter, that recipe is rather more cheffy than the traditional, rustic dish, which is made with pork fat and olive oil. 

The traditional recipe comes from the Catalan region of the Cerdanya, the top northeast of Spain, where the Pyrenees mountains divide Spain and France. It can be made with scraps of pancetta, bacon, pork sausage, or Catalan butifarra sausage. Trinxat means “chopped” or “mashed,” as the cabbage and potatoes are crushed while frying in pork fat. 

Trinxat makes a splendid supper dish or might be served as a vegetable side. (For a vegetarian version, omit the porky bits and use additional olive oil.) 

Hash-brown cabbage and potatoes are topped with bacon and garlic, served with tomato sauce alongside.

Catalan Cabbage and Potato Hash

Trinxat

The idea is to fry the cooked cabbage and potatoes into a sort-of cake, somewhat like a potato tortilla. Start by boiling the cabbage and potatoes. Drain them well. Fry them in bacon fat, crushing them with a wooden spoon or potato masher until completely smashed. Press the mixture into a round cake, firming up the edges, and let it brown on the bottom. Either flip the mixture over, like a thick pancake, or, in the manner of a potato tortilla, hold a flat plate over the skillet and reverse it, turning the vegetables onto the plate, then sliding them back to brown on the reverse side. Unlike a tortilla that is set with eggs, the trinxat is not firm enough to hold its shape. It will slump. Never mind. Spread it out into a cake again and let the bottom brown. If the mixture falls apart, just scoop it up and serve it like hash. 

Serve the trinxat, if desired, accompanied by a simple sofrito (fried tomato sauce). 

Serves 4.

8 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (½ cabbage, about 1 ¾ pounds)

2 ½ cups diced potatoes (1 pound)

Salt

6 tablespoons olive oil

4-6 ounces pancetta, bacon, butifarra, or pork sausage

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1/8 teaspoon cumin seeds

Freshly ground black pepper

Cook the cabbage and potatoes in boiling salted water until very tender, 20 minutes. Drain well. Return the vegetables to the pan over a low heat to evaporate all the moisture. 

Cut the pancetta or bacon into strips. If using sausage, remove from casings and break into pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a non-stick skillet. Add the pancetta and garlic and fry until pancetta is crisp. Remove the pan from the heat, tip it so the oil runs to one side, and skim out the pancetta and garlic. 

Return the pan to the heat. Add the cabbage and potatoes. Use a wooden paddle, spoon, or potato masher to chop and mash the vegetables until they are reduced to a lumpy mush. Stir some of the pancetta and garlic into the vegetables, reserving the rest to garnish the top of the dish. Season with salt to taste, cumin, and pepper.

Firm edges.

Keep turning the vegetables until they are thoroughly heated. Now press them into a cake, using the wooden paddle or spatula to firm the sides, pulling them away from the rim of the pan. Add 2 tablespoons of oil around the edges of the “cake.” Keep frying on medium-high until the vegetables begin to smell like they are browning on the bottom.

Slide hash back into skillet.

Lightly oil a flat plate that will fit over the top of the skillet. Hold it tightly on top of the skillet and reverse the cake onto the plate. Don’t worry if it loses its round shape. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. With a spatula, push the cake off the plate back into the skillet. Again, smooth it into a round cake and firm the sides. Let the bottom brown. 

Either slide the cake out onto a clean serving plate or, again, reverse it onto the serving plate. Top it with the reserved pancetta and garlic. 

Trinxat shaped into individual patties.

Another rendition of trinxat. Here the cabbage-potato mixture is shaped into patties and fried. That recipe (along with a chef's recipe for sofrito tomato sauce) is here.

More recipes from my cabbage repertoire:

Murcia-Style Cabbage with Garlic 

Cabbage and Sausage with Pine Nut Picada

Cabbage and Potato Gratin 

Cabbage Stuffed with Meat 

Meat-Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with Olives 

Cabbage Roll-Ups, Sevilla Style with Brava Sauce

Mallorcan "Dry" Soup with Cabbage 

Navarra Pork and Cabbage Soup (Garbure) 

Madrid-Style Cocido with Cabbage

Coleslaw with Olive Oil Dressing 

 

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HASTA LA VISTA, BEANS

I  first posted this green bean story early in November, before I had figured out how to format a blog. Readers told me they were seeing code mixed into the text. So, I will try posting it again. By now, the garden beans are finished and I’m delving into my cache in the freezer.

I’ve been eating lots of green beans from my garden. Southern Spain has a year-round growing season, so this is the second planting. The first, harvested in early summer, were wide, flat romano beans. The second crop, just finishing, are skinny haricot beans.

Last week when my son, Ben, and grandson, Leo, were visiting, I got them to help me pick the last of the beans. My six-foot tall son easily reached the ones at the top of the poles that had eluded my stretch. I sent the five-year-old scooting between the rows to pick those hiding at the very bottom. Then, off to the kitchen to cook a heap of beans.

Earlier in bean season, I rarely did anything more complicated than blanch the beans and dress them with extra virgin olive oil. I love green beans fresh from the garden so much that I enjoyed them in solitary splendor rather than as a side dish. Although, heaped beside grilled fresh tuna and sliced tomatoes, an Andalusian take on niçoise salad, they were outstanding.

But these end-of-season beans needed a little more cooking. Some were even mature enough to shell, discarding the leathery pods. I turned to my all-time favorite Spanish vegetable recipe—verduras salteadas con jamón, vegetables sautéed with serrano ham. This is a great way to prepare almost any vegetable, alone or in  combination. Besides green beans, asparagus, fava beans, artichokes, chard, broccoli and  peas are great choices. So, this is a recipe for all seasons.

American friends who visit me in Spain often complain that Spanish meals, at least in restaurants, are short on vegetables. Markets are heaped with fresh produce, but vegetables, other than potatoes, don’t turn up on the dinner plate as a side with an order of meat, poultry or fish. However, menus often list vegetable dishes along with salads, as starters. This one is a traditional favorite.

I serve these sautéed beans as a starter or, with the addition of quartered hard-cooked egg, as a main dish for lunch or a light supper. The diced serrano ham (vegetables, yes, but not vegetarian) serves as seasoning. You could use (unsmoked) pancetta if serrano ham is not available. The beans need to be par-boiled before sautéeing—a short minute for tender, baby beans or as long as five minutes for older ones.

So, it’s hasta la vista, beans. A great finale. But, I’ll be seeing them again soon, as I’ve packed enough in the freezer to last me through the winter. While frozen ones don’t have the lovely texture of fresh beans, they will be just perfect in this sauté recipe.

Green Bean and Ham Sauté    
Habichuelas Salteadas con Jamón

Serves 1 as a main dish; 2 as a starter; 4 as a side.

1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, sliced crosswise
¼ cup diced serrano ham (1 oz)
2 cups cut-up, par-boiled green beans
2 tablespoons chopped red pepper
crushed red chile flakes (optional)
salt and pepper
chopped parsley
hard-cooked egg (optional)


Heat the oil in an earthenware cazuela or skillet. Add the garlic and ham and sauté until the garlic begins to turn golden. Stir in the beans, red pepper, chile, if using, and salt and pepper. Sauté on a medium heat 5 minutes.

To serve, sprinkle with chopped parsley and garnish with quartered egg, if desired.