Braised Cabbage
Braised Cabbage with shallots, whole garlic cloves and thyme
Equipment
- 1 skillet, cast iron, 12 inch (w/lid) Large. Six cabbage wedges need to fit comfortably.
- 1 measuring cup, 16 ounce capacity, tempered glass
- 1 oven
- 1 stove
- tongs
- patience
Ingredients
- 1 cube bouillon, chicken, Knorr stock is better, but calories are ambiguous.
- 1 head cabbage, green
- 8 fluid ounces water filtered is better
- 8 ounces shallots, fresh slice in half
- 2 ounces garlic, fresh peeled, but otherwise unmolested
- 8 sprigs thyme, fresh stems and all
- as needed fat, spray-on pan lube
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- Wash the cabbage, discarding unpleasant looking and loose leaves.
- Cut the ugly bit of the stem off, but do not core.
- Cut the cabbage into six equal (As close as you can get. Cabbages tend to resist.) wedges, doing your best to make certain there is a bit of the core holding each wedge together. If you bugger it up, you'll live. It'll just make flipping the pieces over more of a challenge. But he, you've got this. Challenge is your middle name!
- Cut the roots off and peel your shallots. I tend to go a bit deeper than the outside skin as grocery store shallots tend to sit and get moldy on the outer layers. What?Cut the shallots in half, lengthwise (top to root).
- Peel your garlic. You don't have to remove the ugly bit where it was attached to the pod unless you find it off putting. I won't judge you. I buy peeled garlic because I use enough to merit the purchase. Do not cut up or smush the garlic in any way. The braised garlic is quite creamy and lovely on the tongue.
- Fire up your cast iron skillet over high heat. When it starts to smoke (from the oil you used when seasoning it last) spray some pan lube on it.
- Add the chicken bouillon cube to the 8 ounces of water in the measuring cup and nuke that bad boy for 2 minutes. Wait about a minute before you stir to make certain the cube has dissolved.I know the cube is intended for 16 ounces of water! I don't care. A quick note: I prefer to use white or brown stock in most of my recipes, but sadly, I've never been able to come up with an accurate calorie count from homemade stock, so...
- When the pan lube starts to smoke, which should be fairly quickly, lay down your cabbage wedges, cut side down and ignore them for about two minutes. Longer if you dare for better caramelization, but there's a very fine line between caramelized and burnt, flavor wise.
- Spray the upward facing wedges of cabbage with more pan lube then flip them, brown side up. If you didn't manage to keep the core intact on one or more of your wedges, you're understanding the importance now. Try to keep the wedges together as best you can and let those go for two minutes.
- Add thyme, garlic cloves and shallots.
- Pour in the chicken flavored liquid over the garlic wedges and cover.
- Place in the 350° F oven for 1 hour, 15 minutes.
- Plate up each wedge. Garnish with cooked garlic and shallots. Spoon a bit of pot liquor on each for extra flavor.
Video
Notes
This dish originated as melted cabbage but obviously, for "low calorie" purposes, I had to remove most of my favorite parts of the original.
The saving grace of this is that it's 80 calories per serving and is fairly satisfying. The braised shallots really bring out the sweetness of the caramelized cabbage wedges and the whole garlic cloves add a buttery sensation on the palate that is quite lovely.
You don't have to do this in cast iron if you don't have it or have a lid, but the nice thing is the heat conduction and the "soul of the pan" - the notion that there is a tiny bit of everything you've ever cooked in it before, subtly adding depth to the dish.
It's a great side dish for diet pork schnitzel, (pork loves cabbage) and is also quite nice as a main on days when I blow my calorie wad earlier in the day.
Happy cooking!
ADC
Nutrition
Serving: 1wedgeCalories: 80kcal
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