All aboard in no time – Crunchy Napa Cabbage Boats

It’s Spring! That means Spring cleaning! So I’ve been spending many a weekend (including the four days of Easter long weekend :-P) painting the house, throwing out a lot of old junk, getting some new furniture, and rearrranging things.

When you are trapped at home, looking too crappy, dusty, paint-splattered, and are generally too tired to go out, a rotisserie chicken always comes in handy. And with some leafy vegetables in the fridge, I was pretty much set. (And bread too, who can forget about bread?) 

These are little cabbage boats I put together for a quick lunch during painting. Basically I had in my fridge half a head of napa cabbage, half a carrot, some green onions, and left over rotisserie chicken (because I anticipated I would need that chicken). Cabbage rolls would have involved actual cooking, and I was too famished for that. I could have just ripped the cabbage up and thrown together a simple bowl of chicken salad, but hey, this is just as simple and a lot more fun. The Napa was crunchy and the chicken and hot sauce tastey. You’d definitely need to use your hands to eat this, but the boats held together nicely and it was not as messy as I anticipated.

Crunch Napa Cabbage Boats

Materials: (makes about 6 boats)
– Half a head of Taiwanese Napa cabbage (I find Taiwanese Napa the best for this – the leaves are crunchy and sweet and thick enough to make little boats.)
– Half a carrot, julienned
– 2 green onions, chopped
– Left over chicken, shredded (you can also substitute with canned fish, cold cuts, char siu, tofu, whatever.)
– Srirarcha and/or soy sauce, to taste.

Protocol:
1. Wash cabbage and reserve 6 large pieces that can serve as “boats”. Cut the rest up into strips.
2. Mix cabbage with carrots, onions, and chicken, and 1/2T Sriracha sauce, some soy sauce (more or less depending on desired spiciness). If you want, you could also first cook the cabbage until it is soft – this will hold the filling together better but will make it less crunchy.
3. Stuff boats with the cabbage mixture and serve.