Photo by Lauren Baldwin
CABBAGE BASICS
Buying: At their peak in the colder months, red and green cabbage should feel smooth and dense with a clean white stem, tightly packed leaves and few blemishes. (Fresh savoy and Napa cabbage are fluffier.)
Cooking: Versatile, healthy and cheap, cabbage can be served raw in salads and slaws or cooked to oblivion in braises and stews. A splash of vinegar helps red cabbage keep its purple color.
COOLER HEADS
Cabbage is easy to overlook, but to do so would mean missing cancer-fighting phytochemicals and vitamins C, K and B6. Since its domestication, cabbage has been modestly curing ailments from scurvy to hangovers without earning the “kale moment” it so richly deserves.
AROUND RVA
Peter Chang: Cabbage replaces the traditional mustard greens in the brothy flounder fish with sour cabbage soup, fragrant with ginger and Szechuan peppercorns.
Dinamo: After a slow roast, being slathered in olive oil and scented with bay leaves, this baked cabbage ascends to its fullest silken potential.
Wild Earth Fermentation: Available online, at grocers and farmers markets, Wild Earth’s naturally fermented fennel juniper sauerkraut is sharp with flavors of caraway.
“Cabbage is a versatile staple in Irish cuisine that we use in many ways.” —Gretchen Perkins, general manager at Rare Olde Times
COOK LIKE A LOCAL
Irish Colcannon
By the culinary team at Rare Olde Times
A staple of Irish cooking — and on the menu at Rare Olde Times — cabbage shows up alongside corned beef, nestled in a corned beef cottage pie, on the pub’s Irish nachos and in steaming bowls of colcannon, the Irish dish of mashed potatoes and greens. Rich with butter and cream, colcannon is a welcome sight on a cold day.
Serves 8
Cabbage prep (can be done in advance)
1 large head of cabbage
Cut in 8 wedges with core intact, then boil in heavily salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and cool, cut out the core and chop into small pieces. Keep cool while assembling remaining ingredients.
For the mashed potatoes
4 large russet potatoes, peeled, 2-inch dice
1⁄2 cup butter
1 cup milk
Salt, for taste
Boil potatoes in 4 quarts of salted water until tender but not mushy, about 25 minutes. Drain, return to the pot while still hot, and add butter. Mash to desired consistency, add milk and salt, and mix well. Keep warm while assembling remaining ingredients.
Assembling the colcannon
4 strips of bacon
Cooked cabbage
Mashed potatoes
2 tablespoons fresh chives, minced
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cook bacon in a large skillet and reserve the drippings. Crumble the bacon and set it aside. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet with bacon drippings over high heat, Add the chopped cabbage and cook until very tender and starting to brown. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well. Remove from heat. Mix in the bacon and chives, season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.
