Saturday's cabbage

The savoy cabbage is one of those vegetables that I have convinced myself is very healthy and good value. But when it comes to actually eating it seems to be remarkably un-inspiring. So I resigned myself to the fact that we would be eating some sort of soupy / brothy thing or a stir-fry this evening with a cabbage that was looking increasingly sorry for itself.

The day flew by but when looking back it’s not entirely clear that very much actually happened. I almost signed up to a store card but backed out when they said I couldn’t set up a direct debit to pay the full amount each month. They offered me the option of an old fashioned statement which I would have to organise to pay or a direct debit for a set amount and then arrange to pay the rest or accumulate interest. Either seemed liable to be a disaster.

Returned from said store and I made use of some lovely March sunshine creating the “Mediterranean” bit of the garden. By which I mean planting some herbs around the olive tree (actually spotted an olive!) and repotting the bay tree. Hopefully this will all survive next week’s predicted snow and soon I should be cooking with home grown flavourings.

After a quick lunch consisting of a bowl of my favourite crinkle cut salt and vinegar crisps I managed to get a good swim in today. The main hazard facing me was hoards of teenagers windmilling their arms on the poolside. It was some sort of regatta (if that’s the word for a swimming competition) and this apparently amounts to warming up.

I was certainly ready for dinner. But rather than choosing the straightforward option (the stir-fry had been on my mind most of the afternoon) I thought I would see if there was something more exciting to create. Two of my books had recipes for stuffed cabbage leaves so I figured that I could give that a go. Neither of them sounded brilliant but didn’t seem too complicated so I decided to go freestyle….

The obvious thing to stuff the cabbage leaves with would be rice. But I am useless at cooking rice and my husband, Matt, who usually does this task was out on a DIY-based mission. So I opted for pearl barley. This tends to work out best if rinsed before cooking and since I had just used the colander to rinse the cabbage leaves prior to blanching (it defeats me why this is called blanching, but there we are, and blanche I did) I chucked a cup or so into said colander (in an effort to reduce washing up). My misjudgement of the relative size of pearl barley and the holes in the colander resulted in pearl barley spattering all around the sink area so I had to revert to a sieve anyway. I decided that the whole thing could do with a bit of protein so chucked in a cup or so of puy lentils with the pearl barley and set them to simmer.

It struck me that the whole thing would need some sort of sauce. So I cooked up an onion, a couple of sticks of celery and a couple of carrots and then at a loss of what else to do threw in a can of chopped tomatoes. And on a whim I added some red wine vinegar and a teaspoon of brown sugar. And then decided that it would be better blended. By now Matt had come home and as well as cooking rice he tends to do most kitchen tasks that involve the use of a power tool and thus we had a nice tomato sauce and a spattered worktop.

I had evidently made a huge overestimation of how much stuffing each cabbage leaf would take but, determined not to waste my pearl barley and lentils, piled on the filling. And then tried to roll. Resulting in a lot of pearl barley and lentils joining the tomato sauce on the worktop, and a bit on the floor too. The leaves just wouldn’t be rolled. I had images of tying them up with string. But had no suitable string. So the only solution I could come up with was to “pin” them shut with cocktail sticks.

After arranging in an ovenproof dish I poured the tomato sauce (which miraculously was just the right quantity) over the stuffed cabbage leaves. Still not convinced on the outcome of this dish I grated over little bit of cheese (my culinary cure-all) before putting the whole lot to bake in the oven at 180°C for about half an hour.

And after careful removal of the cocktail sticks we tucked in. Matt declared it   a  “triumph”. It was yummy but if I was doing it again I wouldn’t bother with the cabbage leaves. I’d just make the pearl barley / lentil mix and serve with tomato sauce.

Which I guess means we’re back to soup or stir-fry for the savoy cabbage.