Cabbage conundrum

One of the vegetables we got in our organic box this week was point cabbage. Point cabbage is a form of white cabbage, which is hard to believe since it's green, pointed instead of round, and with very loose leaves. I almost never use cabbage other than for cole slaw, so I had no idea what to do with it. One idea was to make traditional Swedish stuffed cabbage which is filled with rice and ground pork, which I have never made myself and haven't eaten for years, but remember liking it as a child. (I had quite odd tastes, disliking pancakes and hot dogs but happily munching down stuffed cabbage, pickled herring and gorgonzola cheese.) After much googling and cookbook page-turning, I decided to go for something lighter and quicker. I found a recipe for vegetarian stuffed cabbage with goat cheese (chevre) but the pearl-barley and carrots didn't appeal to me, so instead, I went for a combination of tomatoes, Swiss chard and chevre.

I had no idea how this would turn out, but if I may say so myself, it was a success. The cabbage was very mild and had nothing in common with those awful cabbage dishes (cabbage stew, anyone?) that I was served in school. While not rough, it still had a nice crispiness. Plus it smelled good; not at all like an old gym locker which cooked cabbage sometimes does. (Ending a food post with talk about old gym lookers is probably not the best of ideas, but there you go.)

Stuffed point cabbage with chevre, Swiss chard and tomatoes

Makes about 10 cabbage rolls

1 head of point cabbage
1 tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
150 grams Swiss chard
1 can of whole tomatoes (400 grams)
100 grams goat cheese (chevre)
Salt and black pepper
Olive oil

Start with the stuffing. Mix the butter and the chopped garlic and let it melt in a heated pan. Devour the wonderful smell. Add the Swiss chard and let it get all soft and gooey in the garlic-butter (don't you just love my very sophisticated kitchen terminology?). From all of the Swiss chard you see in the picture below, you should end up with a something much sadder looking at the bottom of your pan.


Swiss chard pre-heating and gooeyness.

Drain most of the liquid from the tomatoes and add them to the pan. Mush the tomatoes up a bit and let the chard-tomato mixture get hot. Remove from the heat and crumble over the chevre. Stir, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and set aside while dealing with the cabbage.

Get out a pot big enough to fit your entire cabbage head. Bring water to a boil and blanche the whole cabbage (do not remove the leaves) for a few minutes. Let the cabbage cool in ice water. Remove the leaves from the cabbage head and dry them well. You probably want to avoid using the rough inner leaves. Distribute the filling equally on to the leaves; you want about one tablespoon of filling per leaf. See picture below.


The blob there on the cabbage leaf might look like something from a bad SF-movie, but I assure you that it tastes very nice.

Fold the leaves into neat little packages. Place them in an oven-proof dish, poor a little olive oil on top and cook at 200 degrees C for about 10 minutes.