Chinese preserved cabbage?

[Sharuf]

I found a cute little brown-glazed crock at my local Asian grocery. It contained "preserved cabbage".

I was expecting something like a Chinese take on sauerkraut or kim chee. Something that would be good on top of rice. Instead I found salt and more salt with some shredded cabbbage embalmed in it. It was inedible. Maybe it would be good for killing slugs, but I can't think of anything else to do with it.

OK, Asian cooks, what do you do with this?

I'm going to use that nice little pot for flowers or on my desk to hold small objects.

[AlkieGourmand]

This is a quality cooking ingredient. As everyone else has noted, it should be soaked and/or rinsed to remove the salt. It adds a profound flavor to noodle and rice dishes.

[ipsedixit]

Along with the other suggestions already mentioned, I like to julienne the cabbage (after a quick rinse) and garnish it with some simple noodles in chicken broth (along with other fixins like a fried egg, some bok choy, etc.)

[ToxicJungle]

You need to soak and rinse for few times to cut down the salt in the cabbage, my mom likes to marinate the cabbage in some sugar for 1/2 hr then mixed it in ground pork with seasoning and steam. Or cook it in soup to make noodle soup or Chiuchow congee.
You don't need to use a lot, 1-2 teaspoons for 1 1/2 pound of pork.

[The Professor]

It's _really_great braised with pork belly, in sauce similar to that made for Chairman Mao style braised pork belly .
You do need to rinse it well first to get rid of all that salt.

[paulj]

What proportions do you use in this braise?

[paulj]

Here's a thread about this Tianjin preserved vegetable

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/615562
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/291443
It is meant to be soaked, then chopped, and used as a flavoring agent in dishes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_...

[jadec]

Rinse it and then use in soup. It's often cooked with pork for some reason. Look for recipes with Tianjin cabbage.