Crispy Maple Mustard Cabbage
Saturday, March 20th.
Saturday evening I made my very second side dish from The First Mess (the first being the absolutely HEAVENLY roasted carrots- see previous post).
The maple mustard cabbage is what she describes as, "most welcome in the depths of winter when I'm starting to run out of vegetable inspiration." Though a little past the depths of winter at this point, I decided to put to good use the giant green cabbage I'd gotten at the farmers market that same day!
The preparation was easy, and I was practically grinning from ear to ear the whole time I was so joyful—my first use of farmers market produce!
I admit, I had no idea how to cut the cabbage into wedges and she didn't give instruction on this. I find videos to be most most helpful in learning cutting techniques so I searched one up.
How you do it: cut the head in half through the base, place cut side down and cut into wedges through the core (base), and trim so of the tough core.
Now, Laura said to cut the cabbage into one inch wedges, and I didn't exactly follow this direction. One inch seemed way to thick! I probably ended up cutting wedges of around 3/4 inch thickness.
I had to slightly cram all the wedges to fit on one baking sheet. The final step brushing the wedges with the maple mustard mixture — made of just three ingredients: olive oil, grainy mustard, and maple syrup. I didn't have any grainy mustard, so I used good ol dijon instead.
Like I said, my cabbage was large—not small, what the recipe called for. I was worried there wouldn't be enough sauce coating the wedges, so I winded up making another half-batch of the sauce to spread on the other side after flipping the wedges half-way through cooking.
I put them in the oven to roast, and had to take them out again when I realized I hadn't seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. Just terrible!
Well, they went back in again for what was remaining of the 20 minutes and I went upstairs to do other things.
When I went down to flip and brush the other side of the wedges when they timer went off, opening the oven, the wedges were already starting to brown and they had diminished in size drastically. They appeared done! But they were supposed to cook for another 20 minutes on the other side!
I think my mistake was not cutting the wedges thick enough 😌, so much for my great intellect there. I learned something important from this however: if I don't want to wait 40 minutes for cabbage to cook then I can cut it thinner! I think, very helpful indeed actually!
Turns out I didn't need the extra sauce, though I put it on anyways, delicately.
Because they were already basically done, I only put them in to cook for 5 minutes on the other side.
While they might not have turned out looking nearly as nice as in her photo, they smelled delicious and I was full of excitement to taste them!
My review: absolutely delectable! so very flavorful and fun to eat!
The cabbage pulled off into thin, crispy, juicy strings, and it was delightful dangling them into my mouth with my head tilted back... haha, what vivid imagery right there!
But seriously, so good! And a great vegetable accompaniment to my dad's fish.
Laura Wright has not let me down in this chapter so far...
and she given me a greater appreciation of the miraculous cabbage!
How do you like to eat cabbage?
The Veg Out Gal
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