This one may well be the easiest, most creative and tastiest cabbage dish you’ll ever try! I just love the concept, too… It’s also a great way to get a maximum of healthy cabbage goodness into each and every member of your hungry family…
On top of everything else, it looks yummy on your plate! The obvious cabbage-ness of the dish is nicely camouflaged by a thick, gooey, yummy layer of ‘gratin’ even kids will want to dig into without further delay…
Seen it all before
You’ve seen – and probably performed – every step of this dish before. Searing and simmering a slab of cabbage in a buttery pan. Caramelizing a nice big load of slivered sweet onions. Bubbling up a glorious pot of creamy cheese sauce…
Just stack the components in the right order, bake as instructed, and enjoy!
Tips…
DO use a tender, small, regular green cabbage. Savoy or Napa cabbage will break down into mush if you try to bake it as called for in this recipe. A nice small cabbage will automatically render the portion size you want.
DO cut the cabbage into wedges, in spite of the fact that the final dish is supposed to come out as flattish ‘cabbage ‘steaks’. If you observe the recommended cooking times for each step, the cabbage will relax into a beautiful, fork-tender mass of abut equal thickness across.
DO use more bread crumbs than called for, for the final topping, as takes your fancy. I prefer a defin-ite, crunchy layer of buttery crumbs carrying the herby flavour note.
DO NOT skimp on the fresh-ground black pepper. Never was there a more appropriate flavour partner for green cabbage than a little fresh pepper. Just don’t OVER-do it!
DO NOT skimp on, much less leave out, the white wine, or the heavy cream. AND…
I strongly recommend you ADD a generous but not-too-heavy sprinkle of fresh-grated nutmeg to the sauce, taste and adjust to your taste.
My take
This dish is never as good the second day. The cabbage can become mushy upon re-heating. And the pungency of the pepper, along with the nuances of the cheese sauce, will suffer. The sumptuous glory of the first-day butteriness may congeal into a curdled ‘ick’, if the butter oil and milk solids separate.
This is a fairly heavy, cheesy, mildly savoury, generously umami all-in-one side to accompany just about any protein. Not the healthiest vegetable dish, by any means… But a real treat now and then!
Serve with warm crusty bread and lots of butter. And remember what Scott and Joey always said (in those vintage Cheddar commercials) about the magic cheese can work upon cruciferous veggies…
~ Maggie J.