cabbage

Savory Pies- Sweet Sausage Cabbage Pie with Dill & Feta

08 Nov 2011
Cabbage pie with sausge, feta and dill

So here we are at Day Five in my week long Savory Pie Marathon and my pastry's getting pooped. My pie is on the fly. And my tart won't start! In other words I am running out of ways to talk about pie.

There are "pie hole" jokes yet to mine... I suppose. But I am not feeling clever this morning. I can't seem to muster the bluster to master even a few belly laughs. Though that was a pretty fun sentence.

You see, my belly is full and I am feeling all warm and comfortable because I have been eating a super savory Sweet Sausage Cabbage Pie with Dill & Feta. I know you can imagine these flavors together– the sweet fennel with the sharp cheese. And nothing says comfort like cabbage baked in the oven. Especially when that cabbage is wrapped in a flaky crust.

This is the most casual of pies you can imagine. The pastry comes together effortlessly. It rolls our beautifully. No crimping or fussy lattice-work involved. Because, like I said, I am feeling a bit pie passive. So I simply lined a gratin dish for the most unconstrained presentation possible. Not all pies are round you know.

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Sweet Sausage Cabbage Pie with Dill & Feta

cabbage pie
By jgreghenry Published October 26, 2011
Prep time: 120
Yield:1 (Servings)

Ingredients:

  • 2.5 c all purpose flour, plus more for rolling surface
  • 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
  • 0.75 t kosher salt, divided plus more to taste
  • 0.25 c ice water
  • 1 lb sweet sausages
  • 1 cabbage, shredded slaw style
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 large onion, halved and sliced into slivers
  • 2 clv garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 pn freshly cracked black pepper
  • 4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
  • 0.25 c dill, chopped
  • 0.25 c flat leaf parsley, leaves only, chopped
  • 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Directions

Make the crust: Pulse 2 1/2 cups flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a food processor until combined. Add butter, and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream until dough just comes together (no longer than 30 seconds). Divide dough in half, shape each into a disc, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days), or freeze for up to 1 month.

Remove the sausages from their casings. Discard casings and crumble the meat. Add the crumbled meat to a large skillet set over medium heat. Cook completely, stirring often. Drain off excess fat and set aside.

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Meanwhile fill a large bowl with ice water. Add the cabbage to the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute. Transfer to the ice water, allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then drain, and spin dry.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, stir together and stir in the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the reserved cooked meat, stir to combine, then stir in the blanched cabbage. Cook, stirring often, until the mixture is very tender and the cabbage is beginning to color, about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cool somewhat. Stir in the feta, dill and parsley, and set aside.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll one of the chilled dough discs out to about a 12-inch round (depending on pan). Save the other disc for another use. Line a 10 to 12 by 2 inch deep oblong baking dish with the rolled out dough, allowing it to evenly drape over both long sides. Fill with the cabbage mixture. Fold the draped edges in over the filling. It need not meet in the center. Brush with egg wash, drizzling any extra over the cabbage mixture.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes in the pre-heated oven, until the crust is crisp and dark golden brown. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Selfish Cabbage Soup with Chestnuts & Pancetta

23 Feb 2011
cabbage soup with chestnuts and pancetta

Boiled cabbage. There I said it.

That’s because I have more selfishness for you. This time it’s selfish cabbage soup with chestnuts and pancetta. I said I was going to only cook things that appealed to me at the most basic level for a while and I meant it. Cabbage appeals to me. It's not a glamorous vegetable. Many otherwise intelligent people shun cabbage. Especially boiled cabbage. But to me it's one of those elemental foods I've been trying to get back to all week. Besides, I've included chestnuts and pancetta to soften the shock of boiled cabbage.

You see, I believe cabbage can help me reboot! I've been feeling like my blog is getting away from me. So I've spent the last few posts trying to focus on the foods I love. Because lately I've put too much of my attention on exterior forces: numbers, popularity, publicists, trends. Then there’s FoodBuzz, I found myself bending to the new realities there too.

Don’t get me wrong. Numbers are important to a blog, and I'm kind of a numbers wonk. Publicists also play an important role in the success of a blog. And FoodBuzz. I bet nobody loves FoodBuzz more than me. I credit FoodBuzz (along with TasteSpotting and FoodGawker) with being the glue that brings food bloggers together and transforms us into a community. In fact its this very glue that I love most about blogging. So I'm not dissing any of these outside influencers.

But just because those entities do so much good for our community doesn’t mean they're always right when it comes to what's best for us as individuals. What we do with this community is entirely up to us. What’s a community if not a collection of individuals with shared interests and the means to share them? What’s a blog if not a reflection of its individual author?

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Chesnut, Pancetta & Cabbage Soup

Cabbage Soup with chestnuts and pancetta
By jgreghenry Published February 23, 2011
Prep time: 90
Yield:1 ()

Ingredients:

  • 20 raw chestnuts
  • 6 c water
  • 1 T salt
  • 1 cavolo nero or savoy cabbage, tough outer leaves removed
  • 2 T extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • 7 oz pancetta, sliced thin and cut crosswise into ribbons
  • 1 large onion, cut in 1/4" dice
  • 3 clv garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 t rosemary leaves
  • 1 c red wine
  • 0 salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Find the flat side of each chestnut and cut a large X with a sharp paring knife all the way through the skin. Be very careful, it's easy to slip on the surface of the chestnut. I wear a silicon glove. Place chestnuts on a shallow baking pan and place in the oven to roast for about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on size of nuts. Shake pan several times to rotate chestnuts so they will cook evenly. Peel roasted chestnuts as soon as they are cool enough to handle. Once they cool completely, they are difficult to peel. Roughly chop the peeled nuts. Set aside. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a large stock pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt. Add the chopped cabbage and cook about 15 minutes. Turn the heat off and cover the pot to keep warm. Warm the olive oil in a very large skillet set over medium heat. Add the pancetta, and cook stirring often, until it just begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often about 3 more minutes, until the onion softens. Add the rosemary and garlic, cooking another 2 or 3 minutes. Using tongs move about half of the cabbage to the skillet with the onion mixture. Add the wine to the skillet and cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid is evaporated. Turn off the heat and set aside. Using an immersion blender puree the remaining cabbage and its cooking liquid in the stock pot. Add the reserved onion mixture, stirring to incorporate. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Using the immersion blender, blend the soup just a little bit to get a variable texture. It can be as rough or smooth as you prefer. Add half the reserved chestnuts and bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Serve the soup hot with an garnish of remaining chestnuts and a drizzle of olive oil.

Notes:

serves 6 This soup is particular beautiful if you can find a deeply purple cavolo nero cabbage. Which is not the same thing as a red cabbage. Use green savoy if a cavalo nero is not available. Source: Adapted from The Food of Italy

Bewitching Cabbage and Carrot Turnovers

23 Apr 2010
cabbage turnovers

Has this ever happened to you?

You come across a blog. A cooking blog. You see a recipe that appeals to you on some unexplainable level. Naturally you leave a nice comment and then you move on. You look at all kinds a great recipes that day, but for some reason later that same day you find yourself thinking about that one particular recipe. You try to shake it out of your head. You're not even hungry, yet you find yourself going back to that blog for a second look.

But the trouble with going back for a second look is now that recipe becomes lodged in your brain. You can't shake it off. Everything you see reminds you of that one particular recipe. Stiill, you try to stay focused on the tasks at hand and move on with your day.

Somehow you make yourself believe that you have moved on. Sure that recipe is flitting around the corners of your mind, but you think you have got the situation under control. Then out of nowhere, while sitting around one night watching American Idol weeks later– BOOM, there's that recipe front and center in your brain blocking your view of the television.

What do you do to get a litttle peace and quiet? Well, I'll tell ya the only thing you can do is get to the kitchen and put the whole incident to rest.

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