Caraway Cabbage

I see that I have not given a recipe for the cabbage that we had last night.  Here goes.  Dry vermouth is a great kitchen standby for anything that needs white wine.  I actually used a 2003 good reisling spatlese which we were having before supper, which was very good.  If the wine is sharp, you may like to add 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar.  If you have butter roasted a chicken recently and kept the fat, use that, it is wonderful! 

For two:
A small cabbage, I prefer Savoy but anything will do
Butter
Salt, pepper, nutmeg and caraway seeds
White wine or dry vermouth

Put 1/2 oz of butter in a large pan with 1/2 a glass of wine, seasoning (careful of the salt, this is all going  to reduce to a coating) and 1/2 a teaspoon of caraway seeds.  Cumin seeds work too, but I think the result is a little coarser.  Boil fast for a minute or so to let the fat and liquid emulsify.

Shred the cabbage.  5 minutes before you want to eat (this will put up with hanging around once cooked for a very few minutes but not for long), get the fat/liquid mix back to a fast boil, drop in the cabbage and keep turning it over to that it all gets coated.  By the time that the liquid has evaporated, it should have become a brighter green and be ready.  Taste to see if it need more seasoning or more butter - we like lots!

This came I think, from a recipe in Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book.  If you don't have a copy, get Santa on the case!  The cabbage was quickly boiled, all the water squeezed out, finished with cream and served with a bowl of cinnamon sugar on the side for each person to sprinkle on to taste. 

 

I think that the recipe above could be finished with cream, but I'd want a very little flour in there to stabilise it.  A few pages on, there is a recipe for cabbage leaves stuffed with a curd cheese flavoured with caraway and paprika.  That's one for the "to try" list!