Recipes abound for quick, innovative main dishes. Much fewer are ideas for interesting but not too intensive vegetable sides. I tend to get stuck in a rut, always preparing the same veggies the same way. Often, inspiration comes less from cookbooks or websites than from friends. This was the case recently when I overheard a my friend Isabel's mother, Carol, describe a cabbage recipe while on the phone with her husband. My ears perked up when she mentioned poppy seeds, which I've never seen paired with cabbage, but which immediately seemed to make sense. Part of Carol's ancestry is from Hungary, and there cabbage is sauteed and tossed with more than a dash of poppy seeds. Sometimes apples are in the mix, and often the cooked cabbage is tossed with a roughly equal amount of cooked egg noodles. Carol also explained that cottage cheese is frequently mixed in to make the dish richer and creamy.
Last night, I needed a quick dish to accompany a grilled leg quarter leftover from a Super Bowl party I attended. A few days before, I'd bought a head of cabbage specifically so that I could make the Hungarian dish. I had no apples, cottage cheese, or egg noodles, though, so a healthy dose of poppy seeds (two tablespoons for one head of cabbage) was the primary adornment for the cabbage, which I'd roughly shredded and browned along with a sliced onion in a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil. I also added a liberal sprinkle of black pepper and a tablespoon of sugar, and, of course, salt to taste. The dish is yummy, unusual (for me, at least), and very easy to prepare. I can't wait to try all the variations of this Hungarian delight.
