Taming the beast: cabbage soup

I was surprised to find that I had mentioned cabbage as often as I have in this never ending blog. When I looked closer, however, I saw that I mentioned it, for the most part, in conjunction with something else. There are almost no recipes or discussion in these entries, of cabbage as a main ingredient. I have shown you how to make my favorite cabbage cooked in wine (a dish that is on the table a LOT in the winter), how to put it in soups, and how to use it as a salad ingredient. But today, we're going to look at cabbage as "THE" ingreidient in the soup.

Don't go away. I know what you're thinking. No, it's not borscht, and no, it's not awful. Believe me, I know of awful cabbage soups. When Annalena was younger, her grandmother used to be friends with a woman that had a very odd name ; Cecilia Czyz. Cecilia (or "CEIL!!!!" as I heard her referred to, usually), was not a nice woman. If you think of those crazy ladies who have 90 cats in their homes, you imagine someone who looked like "Mrs Czyz" as I was required to call her.

"CC" used to make a cabbage soup. She would bring it for her son, Christopher, as his lunch. He loved it. The smell, and the look of it, used to make my not delicate young stomach (remember: I was eating sheep head and eel), just turn. And indeed, as I have written, many of you have that kind of reaction to the smell of cabbage, and with good reason. That smell does seem to carry over to the vegetable itself, and that's not good.

Well, in the soup I am about to give you, you will not have to worry. In fact, I will challenge you, to challenge your friends. Make this soup, don't tell them what it is, and then ask them to guess what the salient vegetable is. I bet they won't be able to.

Ok, here we go. First, the ingredients. You are going to need about six cups of shredded cabbage, and the plain green stuff is okay here. Six cups of shredded cabbage is about half of a 3-4 pound head. Now, when I say "shred" here, I mean cut the cabbage in half, and then turn it over on its cut side, and then slice thin slices off of that, using your knife in a straight, downward motion. Surgical precision is not required here. Put it aside, and peel and cube about 3 cups of potatoes, and then slice up the same amount of leeks. It's about a pound of potatoes, and 3 or so large leeks. Use the white part of the leeks, and the light green part.

Now, remember, this is soup. So if you don't have enough potatoes, or you don't have enough leeks, don't worry.

You also need 3 cloves of garlic. Just smash them to get the skin off. If yo uhappen to have a small piece of parmesan rind, you're going to use that too, but if you don't, no problem. Also, get a bay leaf or two, and finally, four cups of chicken stock, and 2 cups of water.

Put a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil (some would say use duck fat. If you have it, go for it) in a big soup pot, and when the solid fat melts, add the cabbage with a teaspoon of salt. Leave it alone, for about 2-3 minutes ,then turn it ,and do the same thing a couple more times. If the cabbage takes on a bit of a brown tint, that's fine. In fact, I encourage it. When it's nice and soft, add another tablespoon of butter, and then the leeks , garlic and potatoes. Cook this all for about 3 minutes, until the leeks just start to soften. Now, add the stock, the water, the cheese rind if you have it, and the bay leaf. Bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer, cover the pot, and let it cok away for about 30 minutes.

After that half hour, the potatoes will be soft. You can pull out the cheese rind, and the bay leaves (in fact, you SHOULD pull them out). Let the mix cool and then puree it in batches in your blender.

Watch what happens. The cabbage disappears into a thick, luscious looking, ecru puree. It's almost as if you have made cabbage vichissoyse, and in fact, that's close to what you have here.

Now, you can have some fun, if you like. And I recommend it. Get a cup of creme fraiche, or sour cream if you can't find creme fraiche, and stir it into the soup. Taste it, and correct the salt if it needs it.

I SWEAR, when I looked at this, I thought I had made mushroom soup, it had that color about it. And it's good.

This is going to make a TON of soup: close to 2 quarts. When you taste it, you may want to eat it all yourself, but remember: sharing is good. Annalena is sharing hers tomorrow. I wonder who it's gonna be? Hmmmm.