February 2008. The garden is all frost and cabbages. Here and there the occasional fat seed head, some purple sprouts on bending stalks, and piles of sticks that I have pulled off the trees that overhang the vegetable patch. The earth is crisp underfoot. Soup days. The winter cabbages, especially Savoy and Protovoy, are blistered with webs and hollows that seem made to hold a sauce of some sort. At its simplest, this could be melted butter or hot bacon fat, but a cream sauce seems an especially attractive idea on a cold day, adding suavity to a coarse flavor and at a stroke tempering the leaves’ stridency. The juniper in the spiced cream that follows makes this a perfect accompaniment to ham or roast pork, though I have been known to eat it with brown rice as a main dish in itself.
Recipe information
Yield
enough for 4 as a side dish
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Separate the leaves of the cabbage and shred them into finger-thick strips. I find the easiest way to do this is to pile the leaves on top of one another, then roll them up and shred them with a large knife.
Step 2
Bring a pan of water to a boil, salt it lightly, and add the cabbage. Let it boil for barely a couple of minutes. You want the leaves to be tender enough to eat but still bright green and perky.
Step 3
Meanwhile, crush the peppercorns and juniper berries lightly with a pestle and mortar, or with a heavy object on a chopping board. Drain the cabbage, return the empty pan to the heat, and melt the butter in it. Toast the crushed spices in the butter for a minute or two until fragrant, then pour in the cream. Let bubble for a minute or so, until it starts to thicken slightly, then season with a very little salt and add the drained greens. Toss them in the spiced cream until lightly coated. Serve immediately, while the sauce is still piping hot and creamy.
