MINI-VACATION AT DAVID'S

Too much fun having a kitchen, without much ado - I'll just skip to the food.

BRAISED CABBAGE

I've made Molly Steven's braised cabbage before, but did forget how meltingly sweet and delicious it is.  Snaebjorn and Malcolm get credit for introducing me to dutch ovens and simple cooking that tastes incredible.  I miss you guys and dinner club.  While I'm remembering, the meals I miss:  dinner club number one at Jakob's was Danish farmers food which is a huge pot of slow cooked cabbage and some sort of wild game sausage, tagine at Jakob's, Snaebjorn's lamb stew, second Thanksgiving at Malcolm's, smoked lamb hannekut and the creamy bechamel type sauce that goes with it and mushy peas at Jorun's and Al's.  Onto braised cabbage.

I followed a recipe online and it was perfect, so here it is.  Lightly oil a glass baking dish.  Peel of icky leaves of a medium sized cabbage and cut into eight pieces.  Arrange eight pieces in a single layer, sprinkle with 2 smallish carrots cut into 1/4 inch slices, and 1 large yellow onion sliced.  Drizzle with 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of stock or water.  Season generously with pepper, a couple big pinches of coarse salt (I used Pacific sea salt), and one big pinch of red pepper flakes.  Tightly cover with foil and bake for just under 2 hours at 325F.  Remove, flip over wedges, turn up heat to 400F and bake for 15 more minutes.  

Savor the magic of slow cooking.

ONE POT CHICKEN STEW

When GP herself gets involved in a Goop post, they can be great. I loved her list of one pot dishes for super busy b*%?!es.  You can taste the love in the cooking.  The end result is brown and stewy, so I'd serve in pretty white china with some beautiful glasses of red wine and linen napkins.  Maybe also have a bouquet of wild flowers and wild grasses on the table.  The base reminded me of Elodie's grandmother's Sunday chicken soup.

Soak overnight or rinse 1 generous cup of brown rice (I used organic whole grain germinated brown GABA rice).  Slice 1 medium carrot and 1 celery stalk, chop 1 small yellow and 2 garlic cloves.  Rinse, dry, very generously salt and pepper 1/2 chicken (I used 4 healthy sized drumsticks).  Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook carrots, celery, and until soft at medium heat.  Raise heat to medium high and brown the chicken on both sides.  Try to get a good brown without burning the vegetables.  Add garlic and 2 bay leafs and just when you can smell the garlic add 5 cups of water and the rice.  The goop recipe also calls for a chicken stock cube at this point.  I didn't have any and so added more salt and celery salt.  I might try a bullion cube next time.  Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring periodically.  My saucepan was to shallow to cover the chicken in stew, so I kept turning them to make sure the chicken cooked.  When the chicken is falling off the bone, set aside and once cooled remove the meat and add it back to the stew.  The stew is ready when the rice is cooked and the consistency is thick and the flavor rich.  I ended up adding about 3/4 cup more water because my stew was getting a little too thick and tasty.

NOURISHING CHICKEN SOUP OR STOCK

Perfecting a clear chicken broth, which could also pass as a stock or soup, is one of my goals in life.  (Along with being able to host a 12 person dinner party with no fuss and beautiful food.)  I usually use some variation of Ina Garton's recipe.  This time I am just making a simple stock because it is going into another dish tomorrow.

In a large pot, place 1/2 chicken worth of chicken pieces (I only had two drumsticks), 2 small yellow onions quartered and unpeeled, 3 carrots sliced lengthwise and unpeeled, 1/2 head of garlic unpeeled and sliced crosswise, 3 ribs of celery with leaves cut into thirds, 2 bay leaves - cover with cold water, add salt and about 10 peppercorns.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 4-5 hours, skimming off the scum along the way.  When the cooking is finished, strain and just keep the liquid.

If you are making the soup for a person to eat, take out the chicken when it is finished cooking, remove the meat and add back the bones.  Cook some carrots in the strained broth before serving.

If I had them, I should also add ~10 fresh sprigs of parsley and thyme.  Other things to add for additional flavor profiles if the soup is meant to bring a person back to life (this time I'm just making a stock for another soup):  parsnips, white part of leeks, fresh dill, more carrots if you want it to be very sweet.

Tomorrow ... Ribollita.