Roasted Cabbage with Brown Butter
The origin of this recipe came from a few places. First from a tall stock pot in which I was making a bone broth and remembered my friend and food writer Liz Rueven’s (kosher Like Me) story about her grandmother who never let any of her soup vegetables go to waste. As she cooked this chicken soup, she called how her grandmother made latkes from the vegetables.
I developed a recipe for the latkes but inside the stock pot was also a full head of cabbage. I remembered my friend chef Asaf Razon telling me about how much he loved cooking and playing singular vegetables such as cabbages and that he cooked a cabbage for 10 hours until it was as tender as softened butter.
So I thought, hmmm. Here I have a cabbage that’s been cooking in my chicken stock for 5 hours. Let’s roast it in the oven with brown butter and see what happens next.
I recalled all of the delicious charred cabbage dishes I’d had in Israel at restaurants like Dok, and while I don’t know their exact technique, I thought this process of imbuing the cabbage with the rich deep flavor of chicken and all the other aromatics in the soup pot, along with the brown butter would give this rather simple brassica a new flavor and texture.
I let the cabbage cool overnight so the outside dried out a bit and the coldness held together the cabbage. The drying out allows for optimal roasting so the vegetable doesn’t steam.
I then roasted it on a rack, basting every 10 minutes in the brown butter just as I would a roast of filet mignon.
I flipped it over, seasoned with more salt and pepper and then brushed with more butter while cranking the oven to broil. I watched until it turned totally golden and then served it straight from oven with some la tur cheese on the side.
Besides everything in life being better with La Tur, I can only say that the funky 3 milk cheese complimented the deeply golden soft cabbage like a mo fo. If you ever thought cabbage was boring and blah, this recipe will change your mind. It’s brown, brown, brown and not particularly beautiful but don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
This is the new brussels sprout. A totally new way to make an easy cabbage recipe with very few ingredients, in a a way that makes this rather humble vegetable sing.
If you’re a vegetarian, feel free to try the recipe by making your own vegetable broth!
Serving Size: serves 2-6
Ingredients
1 head cabbage, halved lengthwise, core intact (that has been simmered in the bone broth for 5 hours, then removed and cooled down) *
1 stick unsalted butter
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Garnish such as La Tur cheese (optional but matches beautifully with the roasted cabbage)
Instructions
Place the cooked cabbage cut side down on a rack over a sheet tray.
Place the butter in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until the butter solids turn a golden brown and the butter smells of hazelnuts. Transfer to a bowl.
Brush the outside of the cabbage with butter and sprinkle with salt. Bake for at least 1 hour, basting every 10 minutes until deep golden brown. Turn the cabbage, cut side up, brush with butter and turn the oven to broil. Broil until golden brown and finish with maldon salt. Serve with oozy La Tur Cheese.
Cook's Notes
* If you are not making the master chicken bone broth recipe, you may simmer the cabbage in chicken or vegetable stock for 4-5 hours or until tender. I’d chill the cabbage down and then air dry in the fridge over night before proceeding with the recipe.
**I would recommend saving this recipe for a time when you are making a master chicken and vegetable broth or chicken soup, so you may benefit from all the wonderful things that may be yielded from the master recipe such as the soup vegetable latkes and the broth itself. If you’d like to make a chicken soup rather than a chicken broth along with this cabbage and soup latke recipe, follow Liz Rueven’s recipe and just include the cabbage and potatoes.