Nov 14

Nov 14 In season: savoy cabbage

Rezept, Selber machen, Food, Veggie, InSeason

Photos: Chiara Cigliutti
Recipe: Julia Luck
Text: Regine Smith-Thyme

“Child, if you buy savoy cabbage, make sure that the outer leaves are nice and crisp and the cabbage properly rattles when shaken”. Strange, every time I want to cook something with savoy cabbage, I remember my grandma’s words again.

Of course, I always pay attention to the crispness when buying cabbage. After all, I really like the frizzy leaves and the strong-spicy taste. But I ignore that with the rattling. I am actually too shy to start shaking it in public

Once I wanted to try out in a supermarket, if the honeydew melon of my choice was smelling ripe (you have to do exactly the same, right?) and a salesman snapped at me and yelled that holding the fruit so close to your face was forbidden. Nice picture. Instead of standing up to him, I blushed, and left the melon there. The whole thing is eternal years ago, but still sitting deep.

But this is not the topic now. Exactly. So savoy cabbage.

It doesn’t smell of honey when cooking, but rather different and quite strong, just typical cabbage. If you do not like the fragrance, just put some caraway seeds in the boiling water. It’ll mitigate the smell. I always do that. Or use a pressure cooker. I don’t do that because I don’t have one.

You can do pretty much anything with savoy cabbage: cook, stew, fill or prepare raw as a salad. I also like it (steamed) as a lukewarm salad. It is healthy in any case (a lot of vitamin C) and very low in calories (100 g = 25 kcal). And to avoid flatulence (= must fart) afterwards, you should definitely spice up your cabbage dish with a little bit of cumin.

Wirsing: Wirsingtarte

Preparation:

Clean savoy cabbage, quarter, wash in cold water, drain and cut into broad strips. Blanch in salted boiling water for 1 min., then drain, rinse off with cold water and drain again.

Peel the onions and cut lengthways into 1/8. Wash apples, quarter, core and cut into slices. Pluck the parsley leaves from the stems and chop.

Preheat oven to 180 ° C (circulating air 160 ° C). Place the dough in a tart tin (Ø 28 cm, if possible with lift-off bottom), forming an edge. Pierce the dough several times with a fork, spread oatmeal and half of the grated cheese on top. Mix the savoy cabbage, onions and apples and spread evenly over the dough.

Whisk the creme fraiche with eggs, season with salt, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Stir in half of the parsley and spread evenly over the tart. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake on the bottom rail for about 45 minutes until golden brown. Let cool briefly before cutting. Serve sprinkled with the remaining parsley.

Ingredients (for 8 servings):