Cabbage

One of the great things about cabbage is that it's available year-round. It's also easy to grow and has a long shelf life. One drawback - to some cooks - is the pungent odor associated with cabbage, a drawback that's easily dealt with. Overcooking is usually the reason for the strong cabbage aroma. If cabbage is cooked quickly, the strong smell will not only be avoided, but the finished product will be crunchy and retain more of its vitamins. The key to fast cooking is shredding the cabbage.

Food sales this week combine the best of St. Patrick's Day favorites with Lenten specials, notably fish. Right at the top of the list of best buys is cabbage. That extremely healthful cruciferous vegetable is available throughout the area this week at super-bargain prices, such as 12 cents, 9 cents - even 5 cents a pound. Pair it with one of the many corned beef briskets featured in area markets at prices from $1.29 to $3.29 a pound. (Prices vary with the leanness, thickness, and curing method involved.

Makes one gallon 1.    In a large bowl, dissolve salt in ½ gallon water. Soak cabbage in salt water for 3 to 4 hours. 2.    In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine garlic, ginger and fish sauce and process until finely minced. 3.    In a large bowl, combine daikon, scallions, garlic-ginger mixture, chili powder, 1 tablespoon salt and sugar, if using. Toss to combine thoroughly. 4.    Remove soaked cabbage from water and rinse thoroughly.

A South Philadelphia produce man fell in love with the oranges and cherries of the Atlantic City slot machines and wound up with egg on his face after mortgaging his love affair with a 46-year-old New Jersey woman, the district attorney's office said yesterday. Carmen L. Leckerman, 52, gambled that his girlfriend would not discover he was using one of her properties to borrow money, Assistant District Attorney William H. Wolf Jr. said. "He lost the gamble," said the prosecutor.

The trickiest part of making stuffed cabbage is separating and preparing the leaves. Most home cooks use the parboil technique: Rinse the exterior of the cabbage and remove a few of the outer leaves. Then heat a large, sturdy pot of salted water over high heat. Insert a large two-pronged fork into the base of a head of cabbage. Once the water boils, submerge the cabbage beneath the water and rotate the fork. The leaves will begin to soften and separate. After this happens you can use a knife to cut the individual leaves off the base and push them away.

Dear Polly: When I cook red cabbage, it always fades and turns an awful shade of bluish pink. Is there any way to keep the pretty color of the cabbage? - Mrs. H.C. Dear Mrs. H.C.: Try adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the cooking water. It helps preserve the color. Also, sauteeing instead of boiling the cabbage maintains a better color, especially if the cabbage is only lightly cooked and left a bit crisp (tastier that way, too, to my mind). Dear Polly: Buy yellow lawn chair webbing and make yellow bows out of it to honor our men and women going overseas.

Cabbage, a good source of Vitamin C, is often overlooked by cooks because they associate this inexpensive and long-keeping vegetable with an offensive cooking odor. Most times, the objectionable odor is created by overcooking - a waste of both time and nutrients. Quick-cooked cabbage will not only free the kitchen from any objectionable odors, but it also will have a bright taste and crisp texture. And prepared in a microwave, cabbage is surprisingly mild and pleasantly crunchy.

Cabbage is a great choice for winter menus. In this season it is one of the few vegetables that is reasonably priced. Besides, this cruciferous vegetable is highly recommended by nutritionists, and research indicates that it can help protect the body from cancer. In preparing cabbage, many of us tend to fall back on standbys such as coleslaw. Yet for cold weather meals a heartier way to prepare it is much more appealing. Some of us remember our mothers' or grandmothers' satisfying, slowly cooked cabbage dishes, but we hesitate to prepare them as they seem to involve a lot of time and effort.

Making stuffed cabbage rolls is generally done on weekends, when more time is available. They not only can take from one to 1 1/2 hours to cook, but preparing the leaves can be time-consuming, difficult and frustrating. First, boil some water. Let a head of cabbage rest in it for about 10 minutes, so that the leaves become limp and thus easy to remove without tearing. They also become pliable enough to be rolled around meat without breaking or cracking. And while the cabbage head is in the boiling water, the meat can be mixed and the sauce made.

You may never have thought of coleslaw as a cure, but evidence is piling up that this humble veggie may have at least some preventive powers where certain cancers are concerned. According to the American Cancer Society, cabbage (and cabbage cousins like cauliflower and broccoli) may lower the risk of some cancers of the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts, including those cancers caused by cigarette smoking or exposure to chemicals. One study showed that those who never ate cabbage were three times more likely to develop colon cancer than those who ate cabbage at least once a week.

It's time to take back the kitchen insist the authors of a little cookery book - "The Lost Art of Real Cooking" (Perigee, $18.95) - that just might stir up a kitchen revolution. Ken Albala, a culinary historian, and Rosanna Nafziger, a farm-girl-turned-writer, say it's time to reclaim the old-fashioned satisfaction and flavor that comes with cooking from scratch. Here are two recipes from this most charming book.   Basic Citrus Marmalade   The classic marmalade orange is the unpalatably sour Seville orange, but you don't have to have Sevilles for marmalade - sweeter oranges, grapefruits, Meyer lemons and bergamot oranges work fine.

We now have JG (for Jose Garces ) Domestic taking its best shot at warming up the chilly lobby of the Cira Centre, the iceberg of an office building tethered, by skywalk, to the classic bones of 30th Street Station. Domestic has a faux farmhouse thing going on - shelves populated by nicked watering cans and countertop balance scales, antique milk bottles and implements designed, blessedly, before the age of the digital readout. There are also, in this multiroom, 175-seat arena, acres of maple-hued pine, both knotty and not. And I'm still weighing whether the decor (there's plaid in there, too)

The trickiest part of making stuffed cabbage is separating and preparing the leaves. Most home cooks use the parboil technique: Rinse the exterior of the cabbage and remove a few of the outer leaves. Then heat a large, sturdy pot of salted water over high heat. Insert a large two-pronged fork into the base of a head of cabbage. Once the water boils, submerge the cabbage beneath the water and rotate the fork. The leaves will begin to soften and separate. After this happens you can use a knife to cut the individual leaves off the base and push them away.

The Polish call them golabki and Russians golubtsy . In Azerbaijan, they're kelem dolmasi , and generations of Jewish grandmothers called them prakkes . But it is stuffed cabbage all the same. And by any name it is deliciously satisfying on cold winter days. Some recipes use beef, pork, or lamb, rice or barley, onion and parsley. Others add apples, raisins, sauerkraut, bacon, or tomatoes. They're served with an avgolemono or egg-and-lemon sauce in Greece.

Construction could grind to a halt on the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market in Southwest Philadelphia because of a delay by the state legislature in approving millions owed for construction work. The General Assembly has not yet enacted the fiscal 2010 Capital Debt Act, which would authorize millions in new borrowing, affecting hundreds of capital projects statewide. The new market, on Essington Avenue, is strapped with $15 million in unpaid invoices from subcontractors, developer Brian O'Neill said.

Starting in June and continuing through the dog days of summer, Hawk Krall - "My full name is James Hawk Krall," he says, "but no one has ever used James" - has stalked the American hot dog in its native habitats, an Audubon of the bun, sketching the specimens he has bagged in his curious and patient hunt. By this month, he'd done portraits of the fried or griddled Texas Wiener (said to have debuted in Paterson, N.J., of Greek parentage); Hawaii's Puka dog, a Polish sausage stuffed in a hollowed-out bun and garnished with pineapple salsa; a creamy Slaw Dog (with spicy chili)

Bryant Terry writes that this tempeh recipe is adapted from one of his favorite cookbooks, "The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen" by Peter Berley. OPEN-FACED BBQ TEMPEH SANDWICH WITH CARROT-CAYENNE COLESLAW 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice 3/4 cup tamari 1/4 cup canned tomato sauce 1 large chipotle chili in adobo sauce 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1/4 cup agave...

Makes one gallon 1.    In a large bowl, dissolve salt in ½ gallon water. Soak cabbage in salt water for 3 to 4 hours. 2.    In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine garlic, ginger and fish sauce and process until finely minced. 3.    In a large bowl, combine daikon, scallions, garlic-ginger mixture, chili powder, 1 tablespoon salt and sugar, if using. Toss to combine thoroughly. 4.    Remove soaked cabbage from water and rinse thoroughly.

Here are a few of the dishes local pubs will serve for St. Patrick's Day celebrations. And there'll be none of your mom's corned beef and cabbage here! MCGILLIN'S CHOCOLATE LEPRECHAUN 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup 1/2 cup ice 1/2 cup half-and-half 2 shots non-alcoholic vanilla extract 2 tablespoons mint jelly (or mint syrup) 1 green candied cherry Squirt chocolate sauce around inside a martini glass. Put ice, half-and-half, vanilla extract and mint jelly in blender and blend until creamy.

Near the intersection of Bustleton Avenue with Byberry Road, which is to say in the farthest corner of the far Northeast, you will note in a shopping center that features a Home Depot and a Hong Kong-style banquet hall, a generic box of a supermarket that goes by the equally unevocative name of Net Cost. It is the southernmost of the Net Cost empire, which includes four outlets in Brooklyn, and one in Staten Island, all designed to appeal to the tastes of Eastern Europe's emigres - to the Russians and Ukrainians, the Czechs and Poles who have resettled in those precincts, and similarly in Philadelphia's far Northeast.