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5 Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is crusty brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. If the pudding begins to look dark before it’s finished, cover with foil. Serve warm.

Kitchen Note: Stick with white bread to avoid making the dish too heavy, and be sure to cut the bread cubes and vegetables to about the same size.

Vegetarian Egg Rolls

Serves 6–10

Maybe it is time to get over your fear of frying. Deep-frying is surprisingly easy, and egg rolls are a fabulous way to enjoy cabbage and carrots. Although they’re not a traditional main dish, with all the effort required, why not make these egg rolls a meal?

1 medium head green cabbage, shredded or very thinly sliced (about 10 cups)

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil

1 tablespoon peanut or sunflower oil

6 ounces shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced (remove and discard the stems)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 carrot, peeled and shredded

1 cup bean sprouts

4 scallions, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced

Canola or other vegetable oil, for deep-frying

1 egg white

1 (1-pound) package egg roll wrappers (about 20)

Hot mustard and Thai sweet chili sauce or Chinese plum sauce, to serve

1 Combine the cabbage and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside until the cabbage is limp and wilted, at least 30 minutes. Rinse under cold running water and drain well. The cabbage should taste a little salty. If it is very salty, rinse again.

2 Heat a small wok or skillet over high heat. Add the sesame oil and peanut oil and heat until shimmering. Add the mushrooms and soy sauce and stir-fry until the mushrooms are tender, 4 to 5 minutes.

3 Combine the cabbage, mushrooms, carrot, bean sprouts, scallions, garlic, and ginger in a large bowl. Mix well.

4 Begin heating 2 to 3 inches of the canola oil in a wok, tall saucepan, or deep-fat fryer over medium heat. Put the egg white in a bowl. Dust a work surface and a baking sheet with cornstarch.

5 To fill the egg rolls, place an egg roll wrapper on the work surface with one corner pointing toward you. Mound 2 heaping tablespoons (about ¼ cup) of filling in the center of the wrapper. Bring the corner of the wrapper closest to you up over the filling and tuck under the filling, making a log shape. Bring in the two side corners. Apply egg white with your fingers or a pastry brush to the last corner of the wrapper and finish rolling up the egg roll, sealing it closed. Transfer the roll, seam-side down, to the prepared baking sheet. Continue filling and rolling until all the filling is used. If an egg roll wrapper rips, roll it in a second wrapper.

6 When all the egg rolls are made, use a deep-frying thermometer to test whether the oil has reached 365°F. Or drop a cube of bread into the oil; if the oil bubbles around the bread and the cube browns uniformly in 60 seconds, the oil is at the right temperature. Slide three egg rolls into the hot oil and fry until golden all over, about 3 minutes. Remove with tongs and let drain in a colander or on a wire rack, turning frequently. Meanwhile, continue frying in batches of three until all the egg rolls are fried.

7 Serve hot, passing hot mustard and sweet chili sauce on the side.

Kitchen Note: I usually have a second package of egg roll wrappers on hand in case of rips. On the other hand, if you end up with extra filling, you can always stir-fry it and serve it over rice. The oil can be recycled by passing it through a coffee filter into a glass jar.

The Great Rutabaga Curl

The Ithaca Winter Farmers’ Market used to be sparsely attended. Maybe it was the cold weather; the building protected shoppers from the rain and snow and sleet, but the cold was unrelenting. Back then, eating locally produced foods was not the guiding principle of many shoppers, and so the market languished. One Saturday morning in the late 1990s, in a moment of frost-induced hilarity, vendors began lobbing