Cabbage Au Gratin

Have you ever had one of those weeks, or days, where everything seems to be too good to be true? Or things have just been going so well lately, that you know something is bound to just screw it all up? Yeah, well we've had one of those weeks. Andy's been having Jeep trouble, and so we've been having to survive on one car, and let me tell you... it's not pleasant. Especially when our schedules differ so drastically. And it's not like we can afford having an extra bill of fixing a car, right? But it hasn't killed us, so I suppose it's making us stronger. But I really wish his Jeep would get fixed faster, hehe.

Anyway, I made it through the 1st week of the semester without any problems, so I suppose that's good. Definitely going to have my head buried in a bunch of books this semester though. I think I've already done more reading in this 1st week than I have an entire semester. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but I blame my current headache on this reading.

So I figured today would be a good day for a comfort recipe. You can practically "au gratin" any vegetable, and most of us associate this with potatoes. While potatoes are all well and fine, I had an abundance of red cabbage from our CSA's a while back, and decided to apply this au gratin method to them. I was not disappointed.


Ingredients:

1 cup red cabbage, shredded
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small onion, sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Bring a medium sized pot of salted water to a boil. Add cabbage and boil to about 2-3 minutes. Drain and quickly submerge into a bowl of cold water in order to stop the cabbage from continuing to cook. (I added ice cubes to some tap water to make sure it was really cold) Drain the cabbage again and set aside.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a large skillet, melt the butter under medium high heat. Add onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until beginning to soften. Stir in the garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Stir until fragrant and cook for an addition 3-5 minutes.

Add in cabbage and toss well. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add in wine, and cook until almost entirely reduced. Lower heat to a simmer and slowly add cream and parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Place in a medium sized ramekin and top with additional parmesan cheese, if you wish. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until cheese is browned.


This definitely turned out way better than I had ever imagined. The flavor is so rich from cream, butter, and cheese that there's no way that this could go wrong. And with cabbage? This definitely will turn any anti-cabbage person into an instant cabbage lover. Enjoy and happy weekend!