It crept up on me, like infatuation in a romantic comedy: I love cabbage, and I love it cooked. I first realised I was in love when I was schlorfing down a bowl of Japanese curry for lunch. It came with a fist-sized wad of cabbage, just regular white cabbage, and they'd done little more than boil it, and I loved it. It was sweet and tender and picked up just enough of the curry flavour. Since then I've boiled up the odd wedge of cabbage to go with a lazy Golden Curry dinner, but it wasn't until I had a crack at
Deborah Madison's amazing cabbage galette.
Galette, you say? A galette is just a freeform tart. You roll out a circle of the pastry of your choice, put it on a baking sheet, pile up your filling then fold over the excess. I've used La Madison's
yeasted tart dough before, and it's still one of my favourites. It's definitely no flaky, buttery pastry, but it is tender and springy and just heavenly to work with. You just quickly knead together the dough, let it rise, get together the filling, roll it out and you are done. No cutting in butter, no chilling, no stiff, difficult-to-work-with pastry.
I made a few changes to Deborah's tart. First, she asked you to serve the tart with horseradish; because I am contradictory, I stirred it right into the filling, and it added a wonderful sweet pickley-ness. Second, I skipped the chopped boiled egg because, well, I forgot to boil one, and I didn't miss it. I did use a food processor fitted with a slicing disc to cut the cabbage, and I'm glad I did as I do not have Kenji Lopez-Alt-level cabbage slicing skills. Obviously, if you hand slice your cabbage it will be a touch more fiddly, but still, you'll have dinner in less than an hour and your house will smell of herbs and bread and everything good.
Cabbage galette
Serves 4
Sachet of active dry yeast, or 2tsp
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm milk or water
An egg, at room temperature
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups flour
3 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cabbage, sliced (I've used red in the past, and I also like pretty savoy, but regular 'ole green cabbage is also good)
An onion, chipped
100g shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 bunch chives, chopped
1/2 bunch dill, chopped
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp red wine or cider vinegar
1 tbsp horseradish
Sprinkle the yeast and sugar into the milk and whisk to combine. Let stand for 10 minutes until foamy, then stir in the oil and salt. Stir in the flour 1/2 cup at a time, then turn the dough out onto a floured counter and and knead for four or five turns until smooth and elastic. Return to the bowl, cover and let stand.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Heat a slug of oil over medium heat in a large pan and add the onion, mushrooms and herbs. Cook for around 10 minutes, until tender. Stir in the cabbage and 1/2 a cup of water, cover, and cook over low heat until cabbage is tender, around 15-20 minutes. Add a little bit more liquid if necessary. When cooked uncover, raise heat and reduce any remaining liquid. Stir in the vinegar, sour cream and horseradish. Taste to see if it's vinegary enough.
Roll out the dough into a rough circle, then place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Pile the filling into the middle of the dough, leaving a wide margin, then fold over the remaining dough. You could brush it with a bit of melted butter, if you're feeling virtuous, but I didn't. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and the house smells like everything good in the world. Cut into quarters while hot.