Cavolo Nero and mushrooms in sesame

Cavolo Nero is a cabbage, but oh what a cabbage it is. Nero refers not only to the black verdancy of the leaves, but also points to the place it holds in the Royal Court of Cabbage. No mere, sulphurous, dense ball of pale cabbage commonry, Cavolo Nero's leaves are long; and the thin, crispy flesh is densly crinkled. If you cannot get any local, organic Cavolo Nero in season, then you can use Kale instead. However your life will be a little sadder for the substitution.

This...is a stir fry. Considering the fact that stir fries are meant to form a solid foundation to the average VegHead's menu we don't actually cook that many of them. But hey...you go with the flow of what's in season and what's in the larder, and Cavolo Nero is a stir fry kinda guy...

What was in the fridge..

• One firmly packed cup of chopped Cavolo Nero. Strip the stalk off each leaf as far as the point where it disappears anyway, slice into smallish pieces, wash and thoroughly drain before using.
• One glove of garlic, crushed
• A few slices of onion
• One cup of chopped mushrooms. shitake would have been my first choice, alas the larder was shitakeless. Firm, small fresh champignons therefore gave it their all.
• Half a packet of firm beancurd; cut into small cubes
• Chopped fresh coriander
• Tamari to taste
• Ground pepper to taste
• Peanut oil for stir frying
• Dark sesame oil
• Crushed roasted almonds
• Brown rice noodles
  

What to do..

Stir fry in this order:

• onion, garlic and pepper
• tamari, beancurd and mushrooms
• cavolo nero

Meanwhile....prepare the brown rice noodles as per packet intructions. In my case; soak in boiled water for 5 minutes then rinse in cold water and drain.

• add the cooked noodles to the stir fry. Toss with gaiety to ensure the noodles don't form one fat lump all by themselves. Its a bit like a party where there are two social groups - your work friends and your "other" friends - unless you make them mingle they'll all have a good time but they won't socialise with each other.
• Drizzle with a little dark sesame oil
• Garnish with a generous toss of the coriander, and also the almonds
• Best served on a prewarmed plate. For some reason noodles go cold on a plate almost quicker than anything else.

Served two..