Colcannon is Irish mashed potato with cabbage, and it is one of those surprisingly wonderful recipes that have you going “aha! I understand how this became a national dish”. It has just four ingredients and like any of those classics that every kid remembers grandma making, there are more versions than you would think possible with so few ingredients. This is mine.
Remember fridge pickles? This is just another variation on that theme, and a really good way to use up cabbage if you are finding that the cabbage moths have ramped up to a level where the last of them have to be harvested now. If you want quick and easy, ready tomorrow, very delicious, failsafe, and will last for at least two or three weeks in the fridge (but you…
All my cabbages are maturing at once, and it won’t be long before it is a race between the cabbage moths getting them and them bolting to seed. So we are eating lots of cabbage. And this is one of the best ways I know. to use lots of cabbage. This is highly inauthentic Okonomiyaki – please don’t @ me, real Japanese cooks. This is Okonomiyaki featuring what I have…
There are many, many organic remedies for cabbage moth caterpillars (and the web moth caterpillars that will be next to arrive). There are nets and traps and fake moths and eggshells and trichogramma wasps and dipel. But the only one I reckon is worth the time and effort for results is timing.
Okonomiyaki are a Japanese cabbage pancake, and if you are conjuring up images of British boiled cabbage or bubble and squeak, you’re on the wrong track. Okonomiyaki are comfort food, crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, not very cabbagey at all. Recipe:
Some years I don’t bother with European cabbage. My winters are short. The cabbage moths are active right into autumn, and back by mid-Spring. Cabbages take up a surprising amount of room. You harvest them once (unlike broccoli or silver beet) and then they’re gone. And then I have a cabbage year and remember why I love them and vow I will plant cabbages every year.
This recipe fills two dozen wonton wrappers – what we get in a packet of wrappers from the supermarket. Using bought ones makes the recipe really really fast and easy, but making your own isn’t hard especially if you use a pasta machine, so I’ll include the wrapper recipe too.