Napa cabbage doesn't come from California's famed Napa Valley wine centre. It also doesn't come from NAPA Auto Parts (fine store, but we prefer JC Whitney for all our automotive parts/accessory needs). It originated in China and is now enjoyed throughout Asia (it's the most common base for kimchi, a spicy Korean delicacy). We bought a head for use in a vegetarian potsticker recipe; since we'll have plenty of leftovers, we decided to wrap a bit of this in bacon and report on the results.The results
Yummy--the leaf, and especially the hardy spine portion, held up well to bacon-baking, retaining a significant crunch while soaking up a nice amount of bacony flavor. We've had brussels sprouts in bacon--we think we might take some more of the napa cabbage leaves, chop 'em up, and stir-fry with some bacon and shiitake mushrooms to accompany the potstickers as a side dish.
The conclusion: Bacon + napa cabbage = yum
Heey.. I made bacon eggrolls the other day and they kicked ass. I grated two napa cabbages, yellow bell pepper, a carrot, a giant lump of ginger and some garlic!
ReplyDeleteI diced a half pound of bacon and cooked it to naer-crispy and threw in the garlic, ginger, and some soy sauce to get as much ginger flavor into the bacon as possible. I also tossed in a pinch of nutmeg to be different. Then I threw in the cabbage and let it cook a bit. When it all changed to a nice yellow color, I threw in the bell pepper, carrot, a little lemon pepper and salt. Let it all cool down, roll into eggroll wrappers and deep fried those in peanut oil until golden.
OMg I'll never eat a plain pork eggroll again. In the future, I'd use an entire pound of bacon instead of half.