Inspired by Cookshop: cabbage stuffed with duck confit

Cookshop is one of my favorite restaurants, EVER. The food is always beyond my expectations, and what is wonderful about the place, is that I always feel that I can make the dishes. The chef, Rob, is a sweetheart. He always stops to talk, and goes beyond that, even sharing his ingredients with me. He has "beta tested" recipes on me, and unfailingly, he's great. It's wonderful.

A week ago, we had a special at the restaurant: cabbage stuffed with rabbit rilettes. I thought I had gone to heaven, it was so good. And I immediately began thinking of variations and here's mine: savoy cabbage, stuffed with duck confit. This takes some time, but it's worth it, and it's really good. Let's take it, step by step.

Annalena does not make her own duck confit. She buys it from Ariane Daguin, one of the classiest ladies in the world. You will need three legs of duck confit, and sadly, you will not use the skin. Just tear it off of the legs, and use it to make cracklings, or something else. Then, shred the meat from the bones. Don't be a surgeon about it. The meat is already cooked, so you don't have to worry about doing that. Just shred it. Also, chop up about 2 cloves of garlic, and a few sprigs of thyme. Put about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan (the duck is pretty rich), and add the duck meat, the garlic, and the thyme. Just warm it up. You want to soften the meat, and that won't take long.

When this has happened, put it all in a food processor and pulse it. Just chop it. Taste it, and add salt if you think you need to. You can put this aside, or make it a day ahead, however you like.

For the cabbage: a head of savoy cabbage, or any cabbage, is surrounded by 3-4 leaves that are big and tough. Tear them away, but don't throw them out. Get the first 9-12 leaves off of the head. You can just peel them away. It's easy. Save the core to make some salad.

Get a BIG pot of salted water to the boil, and add the cabbage leaves. Cook them for about five minutes, pull them out, and let them cool. Patience is really a good thing here.

When they're cool, cut the tough white base out of the leaves, so that you can roll them up. Now, the fun begins.

Get a glass or ceramic, 9x9 inch pan, and put some tomato sauce on the bottom. Take the leaves, one by one, and put a few tablespoons of the shredded confit (which are really "rilettes") into them and roll them. I do tuck the sides in to get a tight roll, but you don't have to. Put them in the pan as you go along, and just keep on going until you use up the confit. If, by some chance, you use up the leaves before you use up the confit, just sprinkle the confit over the rolls. Now cover them with sauce.

Ok, remember those tough leaves? Well.. they serve the role of aluminum foil. Just cover the pan with them, put the pan on a baking sheet, and then put this into a preheated oven, at 350, for 45 minutes.

And you are done. You can eat this right out of the oven, or let it cool and reheat it, however you like.

This will serve 3 people generously, or if you have a first course, two leaves are sufficient. As an appetizer, one is fine.

Go for it. And thank you, Cookshop.