The Eat Local Challenge: Day 4

Steamed Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

(Nplooj Zaub Pob Qhwv Cub)

from Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America

The mixture used to fill these glistening, fat cabbage bundles is similar to egg roll filling, and, like egg roll filling, every Hmong cook makes it a little bit differently.

Ingredients

10+ outer leaves from 2 large heads of American* or napa cabbage

(or substitute iceberg lettuce leaves)

3 - 2oz packages (bundles) Asian vermicelli noodles (aka cellophane, bean thread or glass noodles)

1 lb ground pork*, chicken or turkey

4 green onions*, white and green parts, chopped fine

1/4 cup cilantro*, finely chopped

1 small can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

3 medium-sized carrots, finely shredded

6 pieces black fungus (they are really black when dry)

6 medium-sized white mushrooms*, chopped fine

1 tsp salt

1 tsp MSG (optional, I did not use it)

1/2 tsp course-ground black pepper

2 Tbsp oyster sauce

a few drops sesame oil (I used about 2 tsp)

2 eggs, stirred

Preparation

Remove and wash the large outer leaves of the cabbage, being careful not to tear them. With a paring knife, cut any tough root-end away from each leaf. In a large pan, bring 3 quarts of water to boil. Once the water is boiling, submerge 1 cabbage leaf (or lettuce leaf) at a time in the water for a second or two. The leaves should become pliable but not limp. Drain and lay the leaves on a plate and set aside.

While preparing the leaves, soak the vermicelli noodles in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes (or follow the directions on the package), or until soft. Using a fine-mesh colander, completely drain the noodles (and rinse and drain, otherwise they become one huge mass of noodles and are hard to mix later). With kitchen shears, snip the noodles into approximately 1-inch lengths. In a large bowl, use your hands to mix the ground meat with the noodles, green onions, cilantro, water chestnuts, carrots, black fungus and mushrooms. Add the salt, MSG (if using), black pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly.

Using a plate as a work surface, place 1 cabbage leaf on the plate and about 1/3 cup of the filling on the leaf. Roll up the leaf as you would an egg roll, tucking in the sides as you roll. Discard any leaves that have large tears, since the filling would leak out (small tears do not matter). To steam the stuffed leaves, fill a large flat bottomed bamboo** or metal steamer half full of water and set it on the stove over high heat to boil. (I put my bamboo steamer into my wok and it works very nicely.) Gently place each stuffed leaf in the top part of the steaming pan. The stuffed leaves can be stacked on top of each other. Cover the pan and steam the stuffed leaves for about 30 minutes. Remove the steamer from the stove, take the lid off of the steamer, and allow the steam to escape. Then carefully lift each stuffed leaf onto a serving platter. Serve hot.

In the end I have to say they were delicious!!! The only things I would do differently is increase the salt by maybe a 1/2 tsp, up the pepper to at least 1 tsp, and maybe double the cilantro. We also dipped our rolls in a mixture (in 1/3 increments) of soy sauce, mirin and water.

Note: when there were options, the ingredients that were bolded were the ones I chose to use.

+ I ended up filled 25 leaves with 1/3 cup filling (it made a lot of filling!)...if that gives you any idea.

* All locally grown/raised.

**Make sure you line the bottom of the bamboo steamer with some of your extra, too small cabbage leaves...otherwise you will pick up some of the bamboo taste.