Cabbage and Potato Gratin

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

In the spirit of the Cabbage and Kale challenge, and because I had half a head of cabbage left from before my recent vacation, I threw this together last night. I’ve tried green veggie gratin type recipes before, and I’m not terribly fond of them with just plain veggies - but I thought that potatoes would add enough body - plus my potatoes are beginning to sprout. The potatoes and cabbage were local, but I don’t think anything else was, although the eggs might have been.

Ingredients:
* 1/2 a head of cabbage, finely sliced (preferably purple for a nice contrast)
* 5 small potatoes, thinly sliced (about same volume as the cabbage)
* 1 c shredded Parmesan cheese, shredded
* approx. 1 t butter
——
* 1 c cream, milk, or half and half
* 1/4 c flour
* 1/2 c shredded Gruyere cheese
* 1 t salt
* 1 t ground cardamom
* 1 t caraway seeds
* 2 eggs

1. Butter the inside of a two quart casserole dish, and sprinkle with Parmesan to coat (approx 1/2 of amount in the recipe)
2. Steam or boil the cabbage until just soft (I steamed it for 5 minutes). Drain, and pat dry with a towel.
3. Combine the ingredients below the line in a separate bowl and whisk thoroughly
4. Place a layer of cabbage in the casserole, top with a layer of potatoes (make sure there are holes between the potatoes) and pour approx 1/3 of the egg mixture over
5. Continue layering of cabbage, potatoes and egg mixture until everything is used up (should be approx 3 times)
6. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese
7. Bake at 375F for 40 - 50 minutes

It was very good. The potatoes were a good idea, but some of them didn’t get cooked as much as I would like - I think next time I’d steam them along with the cabbage. And you def need to steam the cabbage - with the steaming it’s still pleasently crunchy in the finished dish.