Roasted Savoy Cabbage

I opted to pick my not full sized savoy cabbages before this recent snowfall and have several heads hanging out on the porch, along with the (now picked) beets and carrots and some kale. This week I did some more reading about fabric covering and hoop houses after watching a neighbor at my garden plot who very skillfully/simply employs such coverings. I am going to do that next year!! Very helpful to extend both front and back end gardening time. But, for this year we'll see how the remaining greens fare with the low night temps and snow sans cover. 

This recipe was simple - very similar to how I've cooked brussel sprouts before - and SO good. I tried this method with mini savoy heads that I thinned some weeks ago, that I halved or quartered, which was very brussel sprout like. In the high heat the outer leaves get brown and crispy and the inner leaves are soft and tender. Yum. 

Serves 1-4 depending on how much you want to eat and the size of your cabbage!

• 1 head Savoy cabbage
• 2 T olive oil (or other fat of choice, melted)
• salt and pepper
• lemon squeeze at end (opt)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. (I actually did mine a little hotter b/c I was cooking some fish at 450, so either works.) 

My quarters, or eighths maybe, falling apart

Quarter your cabbage and take out the core. Cut in half again. The pieces will start to fall apart. You can either just toss them up, or sort of keep them together. Pour olive oil/fat over the pieces to coat. I kept mine partially together and poured the oil over the side to penetrate the layers. (You could also have melted coconut oil or ghee and just stir everything together to coat everything.) Salt generously and sprinkle with pepper. 

Bake on a cookie sheet or baking tray for 15-20 minutes, checking once or twice to turn/toss pieces. I put my tray on the lowest oven rack to get direct bottom heat, which resulted in good browning. 

Once browned to your liking, remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. You could also top with parmesan cheese here?! I found it so delicious it was a little hard to stop. :) 

I ate mine with some tomatoes and the last basil, and fish that turned out really weird.

Chou Farci (Cabbage Cake)

The Smitten Kitchen had a lovely post about stuffed cabbage recently - and it inspired me to do a bit more research into some of them. I now have a long list of stuffed cabbage items to make - including Sarma, an eastern European roll that is made using fermented cabbage leaves. Sauerkraut as a whole cabbage?! I have never heard of this, but have hopes to try fermenting some cabbage heads this summer.

What I did settle on immediately (though all the local cabbage is finally depleted at the co-op, so it is California stuff from here until July) is Chou Farci, a French cabbage roll that is actually more like a cabbage cake. Or maybe sausage pie. It is beautiful, and uses savoy cabbage, which I have never had the pleasure of meeting in any intimate terms until now.

The ingredients are simple, so you want a solid, good tasting sausage of any variety. I used my homemade Bangers, but you could use anything that you like - just remove the meat from the casing. The Seward seems to be making some pretty amazing sausages lately, so that might be worth a try. I modified the original recipe to be in American measuring terms, but didn't change it other than to add just a bit more meat. This was SO stunning to serve on a plate - I wished I had company to eat it with!

Chou Farci (serves 4)

 Blanched savoy leaves

1 large savoy cabbage
1 1/4 lb. sausage (you could easily do more or less here)
1/2 t fennel seed
2 T butter or ghee
2 T olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Set a LARGE pot of salted water on high heat to boil and preheat the oven to 350.
2. Remove 7 outer leaves from the cabbage - these should be the largest, most handsome ones of the bunch. Discard any outer leaves that are damaged or wilted. Once the water is boiling, submerge all 7 leaves in it for a 2 minute blanch. Pull leaves out with a slotted spoon or tongs, and lay on a surface flat to dry.
3. Cut the remaining cabbage head/core into quarters. Put them in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Squeeze out excess water, then remove the tough core part from each quarter. Chop what is left, or just pull the leaves apart. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil, fennel, and salt and pepper.
4. Using 1 T of butter or ghee, cover the surface of a rounded oven-proof pot about 8" wide and 3" tall (or something slightly larger in diameter and shorter - you just want the largest cabbage leaf to fit in the bottom with overlap up the sides). Lay the largest, prettiest cabbage leaf in the bottom so that the edges curve up the sides. Then lay the remaining 6 leaves, stem side down, overlapping one another around the dish. (I forgot to take a photo of this step, but there is a nice one in the original recipe.)
5. Place 1/3 of the cabbage filling at the bottom of the pan on top of the cabbage leaves. Top with half the sausage. Repeat so that you end with the cabbage filling on top, and then fold the leaves over so that they create a "tidy parcel." Dot with last Tablespoon of butter/ghee. Bake in the 350 degree oven for one hour.

Before going in the oven

After the oven!

6. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes to set. Over the sink (due to hot juices), invert the Chou Farci onto a plate and behold the beauty of the savoy cabbage leaf! Serve with cauliflower potatoes for the ultimate comfort meal.