Sarah Salutes Savoy!

This post contains one of the best casseroles I have ever made - bar none!

When I was growing up, I did not like cabbage.  No offence Mom, but boiled green cabbage holds little flair for most palettes.  The solution of sopping it in butter and salt and pepper sucked the nutrition right out of it.   Actually i was a bit too old before I realized there were actually different kinds of cabbage.  I made a recipe using purple cabbage braised with a touch of butter and mustard and it was a wonderful accompaniment.  I figured out something - I actually like cabbage, it can actually taste good. I didn't even discover Savoy cabbage until a recipe I read called for it about 2 years ago.

Savoy cabbage is my (now) favoured cabbage due to it's lighter leafier texture and it's not too strong cabbagey flavour.  I like using it in slaw as well as braised as well as incorporated into casseroles.  The thing is, cabbages are BIG so you need to get creative in using it since one cabbage can potentially make enough slaw to feed 30 people.

Ready to serve - curried slaw!



SATURDAY night we were feeling 'summery' and chicken was on sale.  I would never in the several years we've been together buy 'bone in' chicken because Adam told me he didn't like it years ago (with an icky face and all).  We had a discussion a couple of days ago, and I basically figured from this that he did like chicken with bones in it as long as it was cooked appropriately.  Perfect.  Legs and thighs were on sale and we had a BBQ!

What I learned:  Chicken burns easily, at least the fattier ones do.  The drumsticks however, were perfect, but this is not about the chicken, this is about the CABBAGE!  The curried savoy coleslaw I  made can be found below:



CURRIED COLESLAW (serves 6-8)
You can use regular green cabbage too or a cabbage mix, I made half this recipe



Chicken, corn, potato and slaw, can't wait
until the corn comes on the cob :)

Whisk together:
1/2C plain yogurt

1/2C miracle whip light (i use light mostly because I like the flavour and texture better than

original)
Juice of half a lime
couple dashes hot sauce
scant teaspoon of curry powder
salt and pepper



To this add:
6C shredded cabbage
1 medium carrot peeled and grated
Handful of raisins or dried cranberries

Stir well, and let sit for at least an hour in the fridge before serving to let flavours to mellow - don't serve too quickly.  If it's not creamy enough for you, use a bit more yogurt.

SUNDAY night something more substantial was on the plate (literally! ha)  Awhile back I had made a

delicious rotini and chard casserole with cheese.  I thought I could lend some of these tricks to a  cabbage casserole with cheese.  There's not much like this out there in internet land and I sort of rigged it up and man - there was simply nothing wrong with this. I would make it again EXACTLY the way I made it this time, I don't say that too often so this is a real success.  A bit of work but well worth it.   It's inspired by 2 recipes:  Bacon Braised cabbage from Jamie Oliver's food revolution and Stovetop Mac and Cheese from Ted Allen's cookbook (I believe it's called the food you want to eat).  Alot of the recipe is done in tandem, it seems like more work than it is, but timing is of the essence!

Looks great, tastes even greater



MAC AND CHEESE w/ BACON BRAISED CABBAGE  (Good for 4 hungry adults)



Preheat your oven to 375

For the Cabbage part:
4C savoy cabbage packed and shredded
1 small onion diced super fine
2 cloves of garlic diced fine
6 slices of smoked bacon
olive oil
1C chicken broth (alternately 1c boiling water and half a boullion cube)

For the Pasta part:
Large pot of boiling salted water
250G/a generous 8oz of elbow macaroni



Goes great with steamed veg (pictured)
or a garden salad

For the cheese sauce part:

8oz of cheddar cheese grated (you can use other cheese or a mix, gruyere perhaps? add in some mozzarella? gouda?)
2oz of parmesan cheese grated (reserve 1T)
3C milk (2% is best)
3T flour
3T unsalted butter
dash nutmeg
bay leaf
2t dijon mustard
fresh chopped parsley (about 2T)

For the topping:
a scant cup of fresh bread crumbs made from crusty bread (baguette, italian bread etc)
1T unsalted butter, melted
Fresh parsley (about 2T)
1T grated parmesan (from the reserved parm listed above)



Method:
- Cut up your cabbage, onion, garlic, parsley put into separate dishes
- Make your breadcrumb topping:  Whiz (in a small food processor) your bread.  Add to it 1T of melted
butter, the parsley and the 1T reserved parmesan.  Mix well with your fingers to really incorporate it.
- Get a large casserole dish, spray with cooking spray.
- In a large pot par cook your bacon on medium/low heat until it's about half way done, remove from pan and chop up into small peices.  Remove grease from pot, add a couple teaspoons of olive oil, your chopped bacon, garlic and onions, cook on medium/low heat until the onions are transluscent and everything smells wicked.  Add your cabbage and give it a good stir.  Add your broth, stir the mix, put your lid on, turn the heat to medium.  (this will be cooking for a good 15 minutes)
- Meanwhile melt your 3T of unsalted butter in a medium saucepan on super medium heat (more than medium, not medium high).  When melted add your flour, whisk for a minute until it starts to bubble.  Add your milk all at once and be patient.  Wait for milk to bubble, whisking regularly.  Add your nutmeg and bay leaf to the milk.  If it bubbles up, remove from heat until it calms down and turn down the heat a bit.  You want to whisk regularly on this heat for about 10-15 minutes until mixture is thickened. 
- Check on your cabbage, remove lid after about 10 minutes to reduce off the broth, give it a stir
- Make sure somewhere in there you start up your pasta pot and bring the water to a boil
- Once that is boiling, add the macaroni and cook until al-dente, so a couple minutes less than usual.

- When the milk mix is thickened (like runny pudding consistency), kill the heat, add your dijon mustard and parsley and remove your bay leaf.  Add all of the cheese and stir until the cheese is melted.

- Kill the heat on the cabbage, drain your macaroni and add to the cabbage mix, stir.
- Add the majority of your sauce (2/3 approx) to the cabbage and pasta mix and give a good stir and put in your casserole dish.

- Pour over the rest of the cheese sauce evenly on the casserole, if it seems a little bit soupy, no

worries, that's needed for baking!
- Put your bread crumb topping evenly over the casserole
- Bake in a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until golden, crisp and bubbly.
- Let sit for about 5-10 before serving.