Thai Shrimp & Cabbage

The cohutt household had never eaten much cabbage in the first 25 or so years of our existence; perhaps we purchased a head or two to make slaw and I seem to recall a warm cabbage dish of some sort being served along the way, but cabbage has definitely NOT been a staple around here.

A couple years ago I decided to a few heads; my 2nd summer season of 0bsessive bed building/vegetable growing was winding down and I decided to expand my winter gardening experiments.

Well there is nothing like freshly grown (fill in the blank) from your own back yard as motivation to learn new recipes for new foods (“I grew this so by god we are going to find some way to prepare it that won’t make us gag” syndrome).

Oddly, we immediately decided that we really liked fresh cabbage, experimenting with it braised, sauteed, in soups, and in slaw and stir fry concoctions. Funny how this works.

Last winter I was browsing recipes and came across this one:
Thai Shrimp & Cabbage

The basic ingredients are listed on the linked page, although I have never measured anything in the 3-4 times I have prepared this so far and (as usual) substitute some items for convenience and by preference/whim. My ingredients end up more like this for 2 1/2 -3 hearty servings:

2-4 cups shredded cabbage
2-3 tablespoons oil (use 2/3 of it with the cabbage and the rest with the shrimp), I have used both corn and olive oil, basically what was in my pantry (no canola here.)
several very thinly sliced rings out of an onion, more if using a sweet onion, less if not.
1 or more garlic cloves, depending on type and availability, chopped
1 lb of flash frozen shrimp uncooked, peeled and de-veined. large is better than small imho but not super jumbo etc.
4-6 tablespoons water
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1/2-1 teaspoon hot Asian style chili oil/flakes

How to prepare it:

1. Chop the cabbage, stir fry in roughly 2/3 of the oil for less than 5 minutes. You want it to have changed to the brighter color of green but still retain some “crunch”. Set it aside (keep warm).

2. Add the remaining oil to the same skillet and over low heat add the onion and garlic; don’t scorch or overcook it, just let it go somewhat translucent, releasing that terrific aroma.

3. Add a little water and turn up the heat to medium/high. In a minute when the water start to “boil”, add the rest along with the soy and shrimp and stir fry quickly for 2-4 minutes. (While the shrimp is in the pan, prepare individual servings of the warm cabbage in bowls.)

4. When the shrimp turns pink, quickly stir in the chopped cilantro and pepper oil/flakes.

Serve immediately over the cabbage.

What is looks like:

Ingredients ready; Note I subbed a small immature head of spring or “green” garlic (all of it) and a small sweet onion:

Monster Kitteh heard shrimp was on the menu:

Kitten was correct:

Cabbage is done quickly, note color vs the top picture:

Chopped garlic (not smashed or minced)

Sweat the sweet onion on top of the garlic for a couple minutes

Shrimp, water & soy into the pan:

Oil and cilantro ready:

“Pink” shrimp is ready, immediately after adding the cilantro and pepper oil

Thai Shrimp & Cabbage served: