Spicy Cabbage Stir Fry with Sausage
Greetings, food adventurers! Today we visit the Borderlands (Wheel of Time) for a spicy cabbage stir fry around a warm hearth. As the weather shifts between the harvest season and winter, we are seeing more cabbages brought in from the fields. This stir fry is a perfect meal to shift between the salads of summer and the soups of winter, just before our garden chives go into dormancy.
We head for Fal Moran, the capital city of Shienar, a bit south of the famous fortress of Fal Dara. Fal Moran is a fortress city too – this is the Borderlands after all, and the citizens need to be ready to hold off trolloc attacks coming out of the Blight. We arrive during a late afternoon rainstorm, and we have mud up to our knees when we arrive despite riding on a cart. We are welcomed at the gates and ushered to warm ourselves in high-ceilinged private quarters with heavy wooden furniture and soft warm fabrics. There is time for a hot bath and a change of clothes before our meal.
The fortress lanterns are lit – no dark corners are allowed here – and we can smell the wonderful food from the kitchen as soon as we open the doors to the hallway. We walk slowly through the halls to admire the intricate tapestries depicting previous champions of the Light. The dining hall is almost cavernous, and already filled with the sounds of laughter and camaraderie as we all prepare to share a delicious meal.
Using red / purple cabbage in a quick-cooking stir-fry keeps the color vibrant even when the colors outside are fading to winter dormancy. The spiciness comes from the sausage, so if you prefer to tone down the heat, use mild sausage instead of hot.
Spicy Cabbage and Sausage Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1" piece fresh ginger peeled, finely grated
- 4 garlic cloves peeled, finely grated
- 1 pound hot Italian sausage casings removed
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 6 ounces button mushrooms thinly sliced
- 6 cups very thinly sliced red cabbage divided
- 2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- ⅓ cup chopped chives (plus some extra for garnish)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tsp white sesame seeds
- Cooked rice (Basmati or Jasmine recommended) for serving
- Hoisin sauce and/or Sriracha for serving
Instructions
- Start cooking the rice first, so it is ready when the stir-fry is. (You may want to give the rice a head start of 20 minutes or so, depending on your choice of rice).
- Using your hands or a wooden spoon, work ginger and garlic into sausage in a medium bowl.
- Heat 2 Tbsp. oil in a large wok or skillet, over medium-high.
- Cook sausage mixture, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned, crisp, and cooked through, 6–8 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage mixture to a clean bowl, keeping the fat in the skillet.
- Increase heat to high and cook mushrooms in the fat in the skillet, tossing often, until browned and starting to release their juices, about 4 minutes (if skillet looks dry at any point, add a bit more oil).
- Add half of cabbage and cook, tossing often, until cabbage is wilted and tender, about 4 minutes.
- Add vinegar and soy sauce and cook, tossing, until liquid is mostly reduced and skillet is dry in spots, about 2 minutes.
- Remove skillet from heat and mix chives, sausage, and remaining cabbage into stir-fry. Drizzle with sesame oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Serve stir-fry over freshly cooked rice, and drizzle with sauce of your choice.
