charred salt and vinegar cabbage

1 month ago 28

Do you have a big, neglected cabbage in your fridge awaiting the right inspiration? I had a feeling you did. The way I figure it, the sidewalks are currently covered in pink and white petal confetti, the ramps are here, and the asparagus is close, thus I’m crossing my fingers that this can be our last hurrah with heavy winter vegetables until at least November. We’re going to make it a good one.

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The origin of this recipe is, as you might have guessed, the godlike invention known as salt-and-vinegar potato chips. When developing this recipe, I first used this method to imbue thick potato slices with vinegar and salt. Later, on a whim, I added chunks of cabbage, just to see if they, too, appreciated a vinegar roast/braise, and what happened next was that we neglected all of the potatoes to eat the cabbage.

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I, too, was flabbergasted. The potatoes were good! But the cabbage was better, way better. It stole the show. So I made it again with just cabbage, and, look, I am not going to try to convince you that you’re going to like chunks of charred-edged cabbage with some chiplike flakes braised in vinegar with soft cloves of garlic and pats of butter, if you are skeptical about these things. I know it’s not for everyone. But if it’s for you, and I bet you know already whether it is, you are in for one of my favorite ways to roast cabbage. It’s going to seem too charred, too vinegary, too vegetal when you first pull it from the oven, but the pan will not make it to the table intact.

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Charred Salt and Vinegar Cabbage

Note: Delightfully (to me and perhaps to you, too), this works best with green cabbage, that inexpensive, sturdy workhorse you can find everywhere and often in the back of my fridge, neglected. This recipe was originally published in my third cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers, a sort of odd man out recipe I didn’t expect anyone but me to love, and was delighted to be proven wrong.

2 pounds (905 grams, or roughly 1 medium) green cabbage, halved, cored, then cut into 1-to-2-inch chunks
2 tablespoons (25 grams) olive oil
1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter
4 garlic cloves, lightly smashed
1/3 cup (80 grams) vegetable broth
1/3 cup (80 grams) white vinegar
Sea salt, to finish

Heat your oven to 475°F (245°C).

On a rimmed 9-by-13-inch baking sheet, toss the cabbage with the olive oil, salt, and pepper to coat evenly, but leaving any chunks intact-that is, there’s no need to separate the leafy layers. Dot the butter over the top — it will melt in the oven. Roast for 15 minutes, until the cabbage is black in spots.

Use a spatula to turn the cabbage over and scatter the garlic cloves in the pan.

Return to the oven and roast for another 15 minutes, until the cabbage looks worrisomely charred (but it will be perfect, I promise). Pour the broth and vinegar carefully into the pan, and return it to the oven a final time, to roast for yet another 15 minutes, or until the garlic cloves are tender and the liquids have been reduced to a thin (or nonexistent) puddle. Finish with a sprinkling of sea salt, and good luck not eating the crunchy bits right from the pan.