Here is the amazing napa cabbage we brought home from the farm last week:
Look at it! That's a cabbage to feed your whole family. Napa cabbage has not got really anything to do with the Napa valley. It's also known as Chinese cabbage, which can be somewhat confusing, because bok choy is also also known as Chinese cabbage. Usually, when you see a napa cabbage in the grocery store, it's a much paler, celery color, but it's still good (just not as good as this one).
To keep things interesting, I used both the napa and the bok choy we got from the farm in the chicken salad:
It's adapted from a recipe in Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, as per the stuff I had in my fridge.
The important part is the dressing, which is damn simple to make, and absolutely fresh and fantastic, and as follows:
3 TB fresh lime juice
3 TB fish sauce
2 TB rice or cider vinegar
1 tsp sugar
2 - 3 bird or serrano chiles, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 shallots, thinly sliced and separated into rings
Mix up the liquids and the sugar, then add the rest and let stand for 30 minutes or as long as it takes you to make the other stuff.
For my salad, I used poached chicken, the napa and bok choy, cilantro, mint, scallions and some chopped up peanuts. I mixed it all up and served it over noodles, and had enough left over for sandwiches the next day. It's really perfect hot weather food.
For the completists out there, the original recipe calls for 2 lbs chicken (poached and shredded), 1 cup bean sprouts (blanched for 30 seconds), 2 cups shredded napa or Savoy cabbage, and 2/3 cup Vietnamese coriander (rau ram), or substitute 2/3 cup basil or 1/2 cup mint, chopped or coarsely torn.
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