Simple Sautéed Chinese Cabbage--Thursday Quick Take

This is a simple dish, true, but feeding the family day after day doesn't have to be elaborate.  Sometimes a simple side is just what's needed.

I love appliances.  I can be gone from the house from 4 to 6:30 pm and still sit down for dinner--including a fresh vegetable from the CSA farm share--at 6:45.
Earlier in the day I'd sautéed some chunks of chicken breast and tossed them into a crock pot along with a bottle of Thai red curry sauce.  I started a pot of brown Basmati rice in the rice cooker. Then I actually turned on the crock pot on to low and left for my chauffeuring duties.  While I was out I was pondering a side.  I could slice up some veggies with dip.  Or reheat the leftover creamed chard.  Then I remembered we'd gotten a Chinese cabbage the day before in the farm share box.  All set!  I got home, preheated the skillet while I was chopping the onions and slicing the cabbage, and we would have sat down to eat 15 minutes later.  We didn't, for another 30 minutes, because my son decided to take the dog for an extra long walk.  At least the dog didn't get loose, like that other time.

Simple Sautéed Chinese Cabbage

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 head Chinese cabbage, sliced into 1/2 inch-ish slices (separate the mostly stem from the mostly leaf)
Crazy Janes Mixed Up Salt (or salt and pepper) to taste
1 Tablespoon butter or cooking oil of your choice

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add a turn of oil.  Sauté the onion 3-5 minutes until it begins to soften.  Add the thicker stems of the cabbage, sauté and additional 5 minutes.  Add in the cabbage leaves and sauté 3-5 minutes until wilted.  Shake a bunch of Crazy Janes over top, and finish by letting a pat of butter melt over the dish.

Beef and Bok Choy Pie

The inspiration for this pie came from my family's love of pasties (the Cornish hand held meat pie) combined with my interest in tourtiere (the Canadian meat pie), coupled with a pile of bok choy from the CSA farm share and a freezer full of cow.  The result is very tasty (there was fighting over the leftovers).  Definitely a keeper.  I bet you could swap the bok choy for Swiss chard, tat soi, collard greens, or kohlrabi.  I stopped short of calling this a pot pie-the filling was moist but not really gravy-like.  If you are not lucky enough to live near a Penzey's, look near the chicken stock/vegetable broth aisle for jars of spoonable soup base.  It really makes the dish.

Broccoli Rabe, Mushroom, Roasted Garlic Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella and Fresh Tomato Sauce (Pizza Night!)

I hate to waste edible food.  When I get greens from the farm share, I prefer to use the entire stem.  You will rarely find me using a recipe that calls for, say, discarding Swiss chard stems.  But when I read in the farm share newsletter that the stems of broccoli rabe (adorable how spell checker changes this to 'broccoli rage') could be used like asparagus, I decided to use the rest (leaves and florets) in a pizza.  With mushrooms, because I think they have that whole 'earthy' thing going on together.

As usual, I couldn't decide between sauces for the base.  So this recipe uses an amazing tomato pesto sauce recipe I got from Heather at In Her Chucks.  The sauce is so light and fresh that I kept the toppings simple and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Oh, and what did I do with the stems of the broccoli rabe?  I chopped them up, nuked them, and added them to tuna casserole.  I do not recommend doing that.  While they tasted fine, it ruined the familiar homey comforting that you expect from tuna casserole.  Luckily my son ate all the leftovers.