Transformation of a Cabbage

Our Chinese cabbage has been doing great but they are starting to bolt. We’ve been making stir fry with some of the cabbage and it has been great. Ok, *Chris* has made the stir fry. Anyway, I have been dying to make my own sauerkraut after seeing my brother make his own last year so that is on my agenda to make but I’ve also wanted to make chow chow. My grandmother used to make it a lot, well she canned most things out of her garden or from the farmers market and had a shelf full of jarred items in a small hallway in the house I visited growing up. I don’t remember eating a lot of chow chow, mostly because I thought it was a grown up thing to eat, but here I am a grown up and I wanted to make it.

I had my mom email me my grandmother’s recipe and I dug right in. Except I didn’t realize it was going to make so much! I mean, I know three cabbages, but geez, this was a lot! Her recipe also called for onion and green tomatoes, but her recipe also didn’t make nearly as much. I ended up buying one white onion and about six tomatillos because I couldn’t find any green tomatoes at the store. I should have bought about sixteen tomatillos and two more onions! But that’s ok, because in my research on chow chow, there are many different ways to make it. Some with less cabbage, some with more, some sweet, some tangy. It seems that there is no ‘right’ way to make it, which is really a lovely thought!

I nibbled a taste as I putting it into the jars and it tasted just as I remembered. I was worried as I was drowning the cabbage in apple cider vinegar that it was going to be too vinegary, but nope, pretty darn good! I’m planning on trying it out tomorrow morning with some hashbrowns and eggs for breakfast! But, I’m hoping I can expand the use of it, put it on rice and beans and other dishes that need a little kick.

Have you made chow chow?