Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Homemade Life and Creamed Cabbage

Sometimes I forget myself and eat first before I take the photo. That's the case here. My family loved this dish...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

It's no surprise to any regular readers here that I love food books. Cookbooks, of course, but also books by people who love food the way I do.

I just posted about my current obsessions with On Rue Tatin here. I got that one for Christmas. I read MTAoFC (That's Mastering the Art of French Cooking by none other than Julia. Child, that is.), Volumes 1 AND 2...I read The Julie/Julia Project (the blog and the book...). The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber, which I blogged about here.

For my birthday (November 22; mark your calendars), I asked for and received (from Mom) A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, a.k.a Orangette (see also my current obsession with orangette here).

A Homemade Life is really a lovely book. It's not just a blog to book book. Wizenberg really rewrote it for its book self. (I had the pleasure of speaking with her editor, Sydny Miner, and she talked about the lovely writing and the fact that Wizenberg really understood what it took when Miner asked her to give the book a beginning, a middle and an end.)

There is a recipe at the end of each chapter, and, of course, I'd like to try each. I recently tried the creamed cabbage. Don't wrinkle your nose up, here! Cut a head of cabbage into 8 wedges. Saute wedges on each side (in butter, of course) until they have a lovely golden brown color. Splash in some cream, cover and simmer, turning once, until cream has almost evaporated.

Oh. My. Goodness. If you want to see a teenager eat CABBAGE, make this. And she asked for it the next night, too. There is this rich, sweet flavor with  none of the bitterness some people get from cabbage, and a silky texture that was just ...divine. Can I call cabbage divine?

No, perhaps it wasn't the healthiest of veggies. But it was so little cream that it really probably wasn't that bad, either.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loved the book. I haven't tried that recipe, but I recently cooked some savoy cabbage with just some soy sauce and sesame oil and it was wonderful. Cabbage gets a bad rap.

Anonymous said...

Creamed cabbage! Sounds delicious - must try it, since I love cabbage, but can't seem to get the tribe to eat it...thanks Barb!

Anonymous said...

This looks like a great book -- I'm one of those weird people who love cabbage! I think it's the most under-rated veggie.

Pamela said...

I absolutely loved the book A Homemade Life. There was just something about it that made it such comfortable read. Does that make sense? Anyway, I borrowed from the library and made a list of the recipes I wanted to try. I know that the cabbage wasn't on it, but now I guess I should be more open minded and give it a shot. Sounds incredible!