Sauteed Cabbage -- yes, it's delicious

So, it all started the other week when I was in San Francisco, staying with my friend and “tele-commuting” from this cake café in Berkeley. It got to be lunch time and I was hungry. The only thing not covered in chocolate or filled with cream was a polish pastry filled with… cabbage. Now I’m not sure about anyone else, but for me cabbage brings up memories of smelly soups and old babushkas forcing gushy sour mash down my throat. But, I was hungry, and so gave in and got the pastry. And it was… delicious. This sweet savory flakey pastry thing that crunched and was juicy and absolutely amazing.

Since that was my only good experience with cabbage, I wrote it off as a fluke. That is until I was on the flight back to New York, reading the Real Simple magazine I’d bought in a moment of weakness in an airport newsstand. In the back of the magazine there was a great recipe for none other than... for sautéed cabbage. The sweet butter mess brought back memories of that juicy pastry I’d had a few days ago, and maybe it was the five hour flight with nothing to eat but salted cashews and potato chips, but I swear I started to salivate. It was then I decided: I was looking fate in the eye, and my fate happened to taste like cabbage.

So, after confronting every fear I ever had (that it would taste awful, that I’d smell bad after cooking it, that simply the act of making the cabbage would age me 30 years and I’d start walking with a cane and wearing scarves on my head) I bought a head of cabbage. I also bought a yellow cooking onion and some green apples, and if I’d been less broke (or thinking ahead properly) I probably also would have bought some walnuts and maybe raisins. I sautéed it up, loosely using the recipe from the magazine and anything else that looked appealing, and it was… delicious. My theory is that there are a few keys to making cabbage that doesn’t taste like old socks – cook it with things that get sweet (like onions and apples), caramelize everything, and use butter. Recipe below – I’m planning on adding some veggie sausage to it and eating it for lunch tomorrow, but you could use real sausage, those elusive walnuts or eat it plain. I bet you could also wrap it in dough and make some mean pierogi, or maybe even wrap it in flakey pastry dough and make that amazing cabbage pastry that started the whole thing. Anyways, all I know is this – thank you San Francisco, for helping me channel the polish grandmother I never knew I had.

Need:

• ½ head cabbage
• I small yellow onion
• 2 green apples
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp Garam Masala
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 2 tbs Butter
• Salt
• ¼ cup vegetable broth (optional)
• 1/3 cup crushed Walnuts (optional)
• ¼ cup raisins (optional)

Cookware:

• Sauce pan and lid
• Big sharp knife
• Paring knife
• Cutting board
• Measuring cup and spoons

Directions:

1. Chop the onion into slices and sauté in butter and olive oil.
2. Peel and chop the apples while the onion is sautéing

sauteeing the onion... and chopping the apples...

3. Add the apples, mustard seed, garam masala, a pinch of salt, and cook for about 2 minutes on medium heat. (also add walnuts here if using)











Adding the onions... mustad seed!










... what it looks like all together

4. Chop the cabbage into strips.










one head of cabbage is... well.. a shitload of cabbage. Use half.

5. Add cabbage and 2-3 tbs vegetable broth (add raisins here if using).
6. Cover until the cabbage begins to soften.
7. Uncover and sauté until lightly caramelized, about 20 minutes.












my final product... and no, it's not part of the recipe -- the Bulleit Bourbon is my solution for jet lag. It did pair nicely, however.

8. Add sausage or veggie sausage here, if using
9. Eat, and save some for later – this makes a lot.

*Note – you can use less butter or no butter if you want – it just won’t be as delicious. You can also use more butter – a lot more butter – and only olive oil if you want an even more delicious (and unhealthy, but really, what tastes good that isn’t bad for you even a little bit, and besides butter has calcium and protein) meal…

**Other Note – I have no suggestions as to what you could do with the other half a head of cabbage. You can double the recipe, make coleslaw or maybe soup? Or possibly a salad. If I think of anything, I’ll let you know..