Sunday, December 11, 2011

National Fusion

Just did this dinner: Theme was to cook dishes representing the National heirtages of each guest. We had Swiss, German, Filipina, Italian, French-German (Luxembourg), Polish, Russian, Santa Fe, and 'American (the melting pot so to speak). Here's the menu -- I'll blog in the week's ahead on dishes/recipies.

National Fusion

Fondue plus
Swiss-German-Filipina

Fromage Gelatine mit Gebratene Ente
French-German

Soup
Kapusta ala Canard et Onion
With
Mini-Popovers
Polish-Russian-French-American

Seafood
Scallops Hollanaise de Moutarde
Luxembourg

Citrus Glace’ ou Gelato
French/Italian

Tex-Mex Pulled Pork with Yam Chips
Santa Fe

Caprese Salad with Basil Cream Cheese
Italian-Capri

Entrée’
Osso Buco Agnello ala Russ
Sugar Snap Peas
Ravioli with Portobellos
Italian-Russian-Oriental

Dessert
Cranberry Shortbread with Cream Custard
American

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

American Fusion

American Fusion

This is a meal I cooked awhile back. I'm not going to give the full recipes or even ingredients, but just speak to the menu and concepts.

The general idea was to create dishes that reflected American Influence on a variety of other cuisines and dishes.

Small Plates

Sushi Lasagna
Rice in a Blanket
Coconut Crab Orbs

Instead of rolling the sushi, for the lasagna (Italian and certainly a favorite of Americans), I layered the ingredients and then cut it into rectangles (see picture below). Need to use a sharp knife for this and I found using toothpicks before cutting helped!

Rice in a blanket of tuna ( you know the old pigs-in-a-blanket).

Coconut crab orbs -- crag cakes plus coconut plus deep-frying quickly




Soup

Shrimp and Lobster Bisque
and
Petite Sourdough Brioche

New England with a twist of French. The sourdough starter was from San Fran.

Seafood
Cajun Beans and Shrimp

Already a fusion with abit of the ol' south tossed in -- slightly spicy.

Salad
Country Tomatoes and Cucumber
with
Basil Cream Cheese

This was basic down-home-grown veggie salad with a thought in another direction with the cream cheese...Tangy and a hint of spice with Thai Basil.

Entrée’
Peppered Roast Duck
with
Summer squash Melange

Different types of pepper that reflect a variety of cuisines and give a burst of flavor on top of that rich taste of duck. Roasted slowly with coals. The summer squash was decidedly southern-style.

Dessert
Plum-Almond Custard Tart

Another go with basic French and country flavors.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Gumbo and Cornmeal Popovers ala Koob

I had a hankerin' for some Cajun food the other day and decided to whip me up some gumbo. Here's what transpired:

Gumbo

canola oil
butter
flour
cajun spices (see below)
two large chicken breast halves cut into mouth size chunks
1/2 lb of shrimp (ditto above)
salt to taste
1 small zuchinni
4 oz chopped spinach
1 medium chopped tomato
about 3-4 cups lobster stock (which I just happened to have on hand)or chicken/shrimp stock
rice (3/4 cup/cup dry, then steam or cook)
[Note: I skipped the okra -- wife doesn't like, and I can take or leave, hence the zuch and spinach]

A note on cajun seasoning: I used a generic brand, but you can make your own. Here is one attributed to Paul Prudhomme:

4 Tbsp. salt
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. onion powder
2 Tbsp. dried basil leaves
4 tsp. dried thyme leaves
4 tsp. black pepper
3 tsp. dried oregano leaves
2 tsp. white pepper


A good bit of Cajun cooking is all about the Roux and I have played around a bit with the whole concept of this for the last couple of years. No sense in letting the southern boys and girls have all the fun -- rouxes can be used in a variety of cuisines!

make a mixture of about two tablespoons of cajun seasonings (depends on how spicy you like things) and 3/4 cup of flour. Dredge chicken chunks in this until well-coated. Place oil and a couple of tablespoons of butter (you can use all butter, but watch your heart!), to coat a frying pan about 1/8th-1/4 inch thick for frying. Heat to med-high/high and begin frying the chicken chunks. Set aside when seared on all sides and a crust develops [Note: most of this will dissolve in the Gumbo eventually, but that adds to the flavor -- a Gumbo is essentially a soup or stew.]

When the chicken is all done, dump the remaining flour from dredging in-with the leavings in the pan oil. Heat on medium high until the roux begins to develop (flour will start to brown). Now comes your creative and taste part:it depends on what type of flavor you want how long you cook the roux. light brown is mild; dark brown richer. Experiment. Important: don't let the roux burn. any black or black flecks is not good. So you have to watch this and stir off and on. If it sits, it will burn.

Meanwhile take your stock and begin to heat it. Then add about a cup of the heated stock to the pan with the oil and roux and voila, you have a gravy. Dump this with all its goodness (scrap it all into your soup pan even the dregs at the bottom). Add remaining stock and simmer for (however long you need -- just don't let it burn on the bottom, at least a half hour). Add fairly finely chopped zuchinni the last fifteen/twenty minutes, shrimp the last ten, and spinach the last five.

Gumbo is served in a soup bowl over some rice. Place a 1/4 cup of rice or so in bottom of dish and spoon over all that rick goodness of the gumbo. YUMMY!

Meanwhile the Cornmeal Popovers:

Checkout one of my other posts on popovers. Add to the basic recipe -- 1/2 cup of cornmeal, a bit of sugar if you like it sweet, to taste, and an additional 1/2 cup of milk. Cook as normal. This works! I just did it. They pop as nicely as regular popovers.

Best,

Joe Koob

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Black-tip Shark Steak Dinner

I got two nice Black-tip Shark steaks at a local market recently. This dinner for two was a result.

You don't often find Black-tip Shark available, at least in my local area, and it is a good semi-firm white fish that can stand up to grilling, poaching, high-heat cooking -- your choice. In this case I decided to poach the fish and enjoy with a 'sauce within a sauce.'

Ingredients:

Two shark steaks -- about 1/2 lb each (mine were about an inch+ thick)
Creamed spinach
Shirred eggs (two)
Lobster sauce
Roasted red pepper sauce
Rice

For the steak:

I poached the steak in about 3/4 inch of liquid:

water
white wine (about 1/4 cup)
juice of one-half lemon
pinch of bouquet garni

Poach on a slow roll until just done, about 7-10 minutes.

For the spinach:

4 ounces or so fresh spinach coarsely chopped
olive oil
heavy cream (or light sour cream)
white pepper (or black)
salt to taste

Saute spinach in olive oil in a skillet until nicely wilted, sprinkle on seasonings, stir in a bit of cream or sour cream to smooth out

Shirred eggs

Place a tablespoon of heavy cream in a small baking dish (one for each egg of a size for egg to fit nicely -- see picture). Place egg on top, dollop top with a bit of butter and a bit more cream. Bake in oven to desired doneness (runny or hard). (Or you can make poached eggs.)

Rice: I used plan white rice, rinsed to get some of starch off, cooked as usual (one cup rice -- two cups water, bring to a boil, reduce to low simmer until liquid absorbed).

Roasted red bell pepper sauce

one medium red bell pepper roasted
1/4 cup light or non-fat sour cream (you can use the regular stuff, depends on whether you want the fat content)
juice from 1/4lemon

You can roast bell peppers on your grill, or under a broiler, or you can now buy them jarred in a store. If you do yourself, roast until outer skin is blackened, but flesh is still moist (turn as needed). Cool and then peel of charred skin.

I used my food processor to mix this up well. Note: this is almost a red pepper coulis and you can vary it at will, just don't overpower the fish.

Now for the clincher: the Lobster sauce

I made this sauce as I would make a lobster bisque only it was thicker.

Mirepoux (finally chopped carrots, celery, onions)-- about a cup's worth
butter and olive oil (or canola oil)
one-two small lobsters (the more the richer the sauce)
heavy cream
seasonings (light pinches of herbs to your taste)

Boil lobsters in large pot until done (5+ minutes). Cool. Reserve liquid. [Note: to use less liquid and not have to cook it down, I use only enough water to cover half the lobster, then I turn them once while boiling).

Saute mirepoix in butter and oil until it begins to brown (how brown will affect the richness and flavor of your sauce/bisque, I like it fairly brown, but be sure not to burn).

Cut up lobsters, remove meat, and save everything including all the liquid that comes out as you disect them. Return all shells,liquid, etc., to the pot with reserved liquid and simmer for 1/2 hr to an hour. You want to glean all those great flavors from the lobster shells, etc.

Strain the lobster liquid, toss out carcasses. Add mirepoix to liquid and simmer again for a 1/2 hour, add any herbs you wish at this time (all of this simmering will help reduce the amount of liquid and thicken your sauce). Strain the liquid again reserving mirepoix. Add the mirepoix to a cuisinart or blender with a small amount of the liquid and blend on high for a couple of minutes. Then strain this through a medium fine sieve pushing as much of it through as possible. The twice-cooked mirepoix adds to the flavor and thickness. Add this mixture back into the rest of the liquid and simmer again. Add cream (you don't need alot, a few tablespoons will do). To thicken further you can add a bit of flour to some of the liquid and heat to a higher temperature for a bit. You can also add some light sour cream to help smooth out more and it will add fewer calories and fat than the heavy cream. Add in some of the lobster meat, chopped. Voila! (Use the rest of the lobster meat for some other delectable dish.

Put together: see picture below. And serve immediately. Enjoy.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

High Fiber/’Low-Carb’ Bread

High Fiber/’Low-Carb’ Bread

First – this will be a bit longwinded for me – sorry, but need to cover the bases.

Well, the high fiber is right; the ‘low-carb’ part is perhaps a bit of an obfuscation – in counting carb circles high fiber is considered to off-set some of the carbs and this bread does have fewer carbs than probably anything you can buy store-wise.

First: Baking bread is NOT a science, it is more of an art. So dispense with the notion that everything has to be measured precisely and handled ‘just so’ for it to work. Making bread is actually quite flexible, you just need to have a feel for what you’re putting in and what it does once it’s in there. I can’t cover all of that here, but I’ll try to give you some basics. [My wife and kids will tell you I don’t measure anything when it comes to bread. I just dump stuff in, but then I have lots of experience and a good sense of what I’m doing.]

Here are the fundamental ingredients you will need for almost any yeast bread (Note, ‘almost’ you can delete some of these and add lots of things and still have a successful bread, but those are more specialty things).

Wheat Flour – white, whole wheat, spelt, high-gluten – something with gluten
Salt
Oil/butter (fat)
Yeast – dried active granular is preferred, but sour-dough and other types can be used
Warm Water (liquid)
Sweetener – I almost exclusively use honey, but there are lots of options and ‘sweet is always optional.

That’s it. Dump relevant quantities together, push it around a lot, let it rise, push it around again, let it rise, bake. Voila!

Now to make this much more complex and succeed with the High Fiber/’Low-Carb’ premise we’re going to get a lot more specific.

Things you can add:

Flours: wheat (white, whole wheat), spelt, buckwheat, rye, oat, soy, and…?
Other fiber ingredients: wheat germ, wheat bran, oat bran, rolled oats, flax seed or flax meal (better), millet meal, and…?

There are other things, but these are most readily available at super-markets or specialty stores (e.g. Whole Foods).

What you need to know:

White flour is considered BAD – empty carbs with little fiber

Most wheat flours have similar levels of carbs/cup but the ‘whole grain’ flours have lots more fiber than white thus off-setting the carbs somewhat
Soy flour has 8 gm carb/quarter cup, versus 19-21 for other flours – it’s the low-carb gem of the bunch, but lots of people don’t like the flavor – use sparing as mentioned below

High-gluten flour has lower carbs than white and can help with the rise of breads without white flour

Fiber ingredients increase the fiber and help balance out the carbs.
IMPORTANT: you can try lots of things, but I recommend NOT using more ‘fiber-type’ ingredients than your flour. You can balance it anyway you like otherwise. Probably 2/3 flour to 1/3 fiber is a good rule of thumb. I have made really high-fiber crackers, but that’s another animal all together. For bread you don’t want it too heavy.

Making a High Fiber/’Low-Carb’ bread:

Decide whether you want any white flour or not. None is best, but then I recommend a bit (1-3 tablespoons) of high-gluten flour to help the rise.
Choose a wheat flour – whole wheat is standard and easily available. I also use spelt flour (a type of wheat, sort-of) available at specialty markets – get the whole-grain variety, it also comes in ‘white’. It has a nutty wheat flavor, very nice. NOTE: the majority of your flour should be wheat. If you want to add other flours – oat, soy, rye, etc. my rule of thumb is a quarter to a third cup max per loaf (see recipe below).

Fibers: same deal as the other flours – quarter of a cup goes a long way and keep with the maxim of more flour than fiber additions.

Here’s a basic recipe. Feel free to substitute at will based on the recommendations above:

Wholewheat fiber bread: makes tow loaves
Four cups whole wheat flour (or spelt)
2 Tabls high-gluten flour
½ cup rye flour

1/3 or ½ cup soy flour – (NOTE: you probably don’t want to add lots of soy flour to a bread, a little helps with the carb count, but it also can have a marked affect (not necessarily pleasant) if it overpowers the wheat. This much works fine).

¼ cup oat bran
¼ cup wheat bran
¼ cup flax meal – great for you!

Approx 1 and 3/4 cups luke-warm water (hot will kill the yeasties) NOTE: use of liquid can change based on the day – a humid day like the day I am writing this can change the amount by as much as a ¼ cup!!!

½ cup of honey (any type will do) – I like whole-grain breads sweet. Lessen if you don’t or add more if you feel like it. Just remember it changes the liquid amount if you add less or more.

One package active dry yeast (fast or regular, whatever tweaks you)

1 tabls salt

½ cup oil – I highly recommend Canola oil – one of the GOOD oils

Dump it all in a bowl, or your bread maker and set on ‘dough’. NOTE: I highly recommend that you do NOT use a bread maker for baking. I never use my baking setting. Especially for whole grain breads which take longer to rise, generally. If kneading, add enough liquid to make it easy to knead without being really sticky. Knead for 10-15 minutes.

Important for bread maker: check in on it every few minutes while it is kneading. You will have to judge the moisture level and texture. In a bread maker I like the texture to be a bit wet, sticky wet (which would be more difficult kneading by hand). If it looks at all dry, it is, add some more warm water. I use a bread maker most of the time and let the dough setting run its course AND THEN SOME. Even with the high-gluten flour whole grain breads tend to take awhile to rise – two hours isn’t unusual. Let it rise until doubled or more.

If doing by hand after kneading place in lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel.

Hint: find a warm place to rise – inside a car in the late spring-early fall with the sun on it is ideal. Today many ovens have a bread-rising function.

After first rise: Punch down (you can just start the dough setting again and let it knead for ten minutes). If using the knead/bowl method, punch down with your fist and knead again for 5-10 minutes.

Place in two greased/oiled bread pans. Rise again in a warm place until more than doubled (Use your best judgment). Preheat oven to 325-350 (ovens vary!). Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Take out of oven. After a couple of minutes slide out of pans onto a cooling rack. Cool 5-10 minutes. Enjoy the first slices hot with butter!

If it doesn’t rise: if you did everything right, it should, but sometimes the yeasties are just not cooperating. You can try to salvage (I have done this enough times) by adding some more yeast and a bit of water. Mix it up REALLY well again, and let it rise again. Another alternative is to let it rise overnight at room temperature. Sometimes it just takes the little guys awhile to get going.

P.S. I almost forgot the nuts and fruit: other additions which also help the 'carb' level of this type of bread is to add a 1/2 cup of nuts/seeds (chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.) and/or dried fruits (raisins, cran-raisins, dried blueberries, etc.) YUM!Just add to the basic recipe while kneading or after the first rise.

Feel free to ask questions.

Best,
Joe Koob

Friday, July 29, 2011

Squash Lovers Unite

Got Squash? Ours are still coming in -- yellow summer and zucchini. [Actually on a side note last year I had yellow zucchini in my garden and liked it even more than the green -- forgot to get seeds this year.]

As promised here is a recipe for squash fritters (related to potato pancakes/potato latkes).

There are lots of possibilities here, so be brave an experiment. Here's what I just did:

1 medium yellow summer squash, grated/julienned*
1 medium zucchini grated/julienned*
1 nice sized mild banana papper grated/julienned*
1 medium-large egg
ruffled basel chopped
salt/pepper
oil for frying**

Note: you can also add onion and/or potato. I have made these this way as well. Here I stuck with my garden fresh veggies.

*I used the julienne grater on my cuisinart and sent the veggies through it -- perfect for this sort of thing

**Oil -- to wax a bit on frying oils: Olive oil is fine and will add some flavor depending on the complexity of your oil. Canola oil I find better as the veggies don't tend to stick as much as with olive oil AND I just read that canola oil (flax and safflower) all have more antioxidants than olive oil. Interesting!

After the veggies are grated take the mass a handful at a time and squeeze the excess liquid out (give it a good squeeze). Place in bowl, add the egg, basel, spices (you can get creative here as well), and mix well. [Note: you can add flour to help the binding and in making nice uniform round fritters, but I didn't and it isn't necessary. I like the helter-skelter look of uncontrolled squishing -- after all I'm irreverent!]

The tricky part: you should have about a 1/4 inch (or slightly less) oil in a frying pan. Heat to medium high to start. Take a handful of your mixture, mold it in your hand to a round, place in the oil and immediately pat down to desired thickness (see picture below). Place other rounds until pan is full with some spacing inbetween then turn heat down to medium. [Note the higher starting heat helps set the patty. But you want the whole thing to cook through before it browns too much -- hence turning the heat down to medium. Fry until nicely browned on one side, then flip each round. Fry until brown on second side and cooked through. Place on dish with papertowel to drain. Serve hot.

Can be served with sour cream ala Latkes, but these are good just as they come out with a bit of salt.


Enjoy!

Joe Koob

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Summer Veggies

Wow! I've hit the jackpot this year with my vegetable garden so far with new raised individual plots for my 'vine' plants aka squash, cucumbers, watermelon. As such I've already been using and giving away fat cucumbers, summer and zucchini squashes and hope to have watermelon as well.


Here's one recipe and some ideas for using this type of bounty.

Zucchini boats

One summer during my graudate years I worked as a vegetarian cook at a summer music camp. The recipe below was fairly typical of things I created for the vegetarian campers. Use your imagination for variations.


Makes 4 servings

One medium-large zucchini fresh off the vine
olive oil/butter for sauteing
fresh basil (I used purple ruffled)
fresh chives
two medium small potatoes
milk or cream
freshly grated hard cheese (parmesan, romano, pecorino, etc.)

Note: you can cut the squash several ways: two large boats (halve the zucchini length-wise and divide into portions later), or form four medium boats (length-wise, then halved), etc.

Halve the zucchini length-wise and then scoop out the insides until you have about 1/2 inch (give or take) thickness for all the walls. [Save the insides, but if there are large seeds, you can discard that portion. You will use about half of what you scooped out.]

Optional -- you can par-boil (in boiling water for 4-5 minutes) the zucchini halves (which is what I did) or bake until tender. Advantage of parboiling until almost soft is that the zuchinni boats stay more moist and they don't need to bake very long later. Solely baking them takes considerably longer -- 30+ minutes and tends to dry them out a bit. Another advantage is that you can cook the potatoes at the same time. [If you decide to bake, brush halves with olive oil before adding filling.]

Stuffing: Peel pototes and quarter. While parboiling the squash halves and potatoes start the filling.

Filling: Place olive oil in skillet and fry over medium heat the chives and about half the saved insides of the zuchinni (medium-fine chop) until cooked through -- few minutes. Add chopped basil during last minute to wilt.

When potatoes are soft for mashing remove from pot. Note: my zucchini halves were done about the same time -- remove these and place on rack or in strainer to drain. Mash potatoes in medium bowl, add milk to moisten, add fried veggies and cheese, season with salt/freshly ground pepper. Mix well with fork.

Fill zucchini halves with mixture (should be enough to form rounded mounds in boat halves/quarters. Place on oiled baking dish and place in oven near top (so it browns a bit) for ten minutes or so. Sprinkle with more cheese or butter at end. Serve hot.

Variations: you can add additional veggies to the mixture -- swisschard or spinnach make nice colorful and healthy additions (chop and then wilt with the basil); add other herbs/spices; try other cheeses, and so on. Note: for the health conscious -- a little hard cheese has not so much fat as soft cheese and goes a long way flavor-wise. Try blue cheese or stilton for a kick.

Next time: summer (yellow) squash and zucchini fritter patties.


For all you cucumber lovers -- fresh garden cucumbers are a good foundation for starting a flavorful Greek salad.

Enjoy

Joe Koob

P.S. Now that I know how to add images, maybe I'll take some pics of food!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Popover Heaven

Popovers are one of those wonderful dishes that actually don't take much work and you can tweak them in many ways. They are also SIMPLE and don't take much effort to make, not to mention very, very yummy.

Unfortunately in a traditional sense popovers are like souffles -- people avoid them because they can be tempermental -- not really!

Popovers are to have fun with and they go with almost anything, but they are especially good with soups, bisques, and the like. Here is the simple recipe I made with lobster bisque the other day for dinner with my wife.

Popovers makes -- 4 nice-sized popovers(Can be doubled, tripled, etc.)

2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt (halve it if preferred)
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter
popover pan generously greased with butter (muffin tin will also work)
1/2 cup shredded sharp white cheddar cheese (optional)
See below for variations

Beat eggs lightly and mix in with flour, salt, and milk until smooth, do not whip, lots of air bubbles are not good. Stir in melted butter. let rest for 10 min to 30 min. or so.

James Beard debunks one traditional myth regarding popovers in his book "American Cookery." You don't have to preheat the tin or oven to very hot temperature. These guys work just as well starting in a cold oven and heating it to 425-450 degrees.

Once rested blend in gently the cheddar cheese. Pour into popover cups until 3/4 to almost full (if you want more 'pop' above the pan, fill them more).

Pop (sorry about that) them into a cold oven and set to 425-450. Bake 25-35 min. (watch carefully with light on). They are done when golden brown to brown and 'popped'. Some people like them more done than others; I go for a medium -- they hold up well enough after removing, but aren't dry and dark brown.

If you greased well they should slide out of the pan easily. Stick a sharp knife in the side near top to release some of the steam -- this helps them hold their shape better as you serve them.

Note: popovers, like souffles do fall a bit. One partial solution to this besides the above, is to make 'mini-popovers'. I have done this in a variety of pans -- mini-cake pans, mini-muffin pans, etc. Very cute and yummy, too. I had one guest at one of my dinners eat five of these.

Serve immediately -- hot with butter. Very yummy.

Variations: You can pop (ouch) any number of ingredients into the batter or into the center of the batter after it is poured into the cups. I have used a wide variety of cheeses and herbs. Placing a small chunk of brie, or blue cheese, feta, or??? in the center of each cup and letting it sink down before placing in oven yields a nice tasty surprise when eaten.

You can also sweeten this recipe up by adding sugar to recipe and add a chocolate surprise like a truffle or chunk in the center like the cheese before baking -- or cinnamon popovers are great, too. Have fun with these!!!

Enjoy.

Joe Koob

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Happy St. Patty's Day to Yah!

This is just a bit of a twist to a dish a few of us enjoy but once a year.

You know that little packet of herbs/spices that comes wuith your corned beef brisket? Truth is, you don't need to use it. Sure its 'traditional,' at least in this country for the past umpteen years, but you can experiment a bit.

Here's a few suggestions to change-up this meal a bit:

Try different herbs and spices:I've used the following, but you can try anything.

Indian Spices: put in what you like -- ground coriander, cumin, tumeric, cinnamon (this gave it a nice flavor! Just a hint), cardamon, etc.

French: Just made some with Bouquet Garni which if you add the cabbage and potatoes to the brisket a half hour or so before the end, helps additionally flavor them.

Haven't tried it yet but Cajun spices; Thai spices; etc, might be fun as well.

HINT: don't add salt -- there's plenty in that corned beef.

Another hint: want a tender, not much effort in the kitchen, corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage? Try that slow cooker you probably haven't dredged out in several years:

Cover the brisket with water; add spices of your choice; start on high for a couple of hours; then down to low for rest of day; or if your cooker is like mine and cooks to hot on low -- after a few more hours turn it to warm until ready to add potatoes. Add the spuds about an hour before serving,and crank heat back up to low (or high depending on your cooker); then add the cabbage a half hour before. [NOTE: vary time depending on how you like your cabbage -- I tend to like 'southern' cabbage, which is overly cooked and soft. The one vegetable that I think does well cooking it past respectability.]

Spoon out vegies and slice brisket -- ENJOY!