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Put together a great meal tonight in well under an hour. New York steaks, pan-seared (for the sauce), then grilled, served with my standard madiera/cream sauce, mashed potatoes, and one of my two favorite cabbage dishes, both of which come from Mark Bittman (who wrote, among other things, the very useful _How to Cook Everything_). It's trivial to make, costs next to nothing, isn't the worst thing in the world for you (although I'm not claiming it's incredibly healthy), and still manages to be delicious. I need more recipes like this. Here it is, to the best of my recollection:

Cabbage Braised in Wine with Nutmeg

Ingredients:

1 head of Savoy cabbage
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup white wine
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg 
salt/pepper

Preparation:

Don't even think about trying regular cabbage with this 
recipe.  Once you eat Savoy cabbage, you won't ever want
regular cabbage in any case.  Other types of cabbage,
such as Napa cabbage, may be acceptable substitutes in
this recipe, but I haven't tried them.

Chop the cabbage.  Melt the butter in a wide, lidded pan
on medium heat.  Saute the cabbage for four or five minutes.  
Salt and pepper to taste.  Add the wine and stir briefly.  
Add the nutmeg and brown sugar and stir it in.  Cover the 
pan and let the cabbage cook for 15 minutes.

Serves 2-3.  (Bittman claims that it serves 4.  Maybe
Savoy cabbages grow bigger where he's from.  Or maybe they
don't like this dish as much as I do.  All I know is that
I served 3 with it and I was eyeing other people's plates.) 

I felt like having something special, so I topped this all off with a bottle of 1998 Lewis Syrah (think about the steak, not the cabbage), an ebullient wine that has a lot of sentimental value for me.

June 1, 2002 in old_site, recipes, vegetables | Permalink

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