Not Greek to me: potato, cabbage and cheese pie

Ragazzi, cruciferous vegetables reign!  Yes, this is their time,  no question about it.  Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts, mustard, etc.  To those of you who might wonder:  why do they call them cruciferous vegetables?  it has to do with their flowers.  If you look closely, there is a formation of a cross in their center (get it?  Cruci...).  Someone once told Annalena that they get their name because no matter how long you cook them, they're crunchy.  Well.. that's not true, as we'll find out here.

It seems to have been an especially good year for these vegetables at Annalena's CSA:  she thinks that they have given her a cabbage every week for the last six weeks.  Now, Annalena is versatile in the kitchen, but there's only so much she can do with cabbages.  So, she was delighted when the woman who runs the CSA sent some cabbage recipes.

This one, a Greek dish, is "patatopita me lakano kai moustarda"    And we can take this apart.  "Pata" seems to be a universal for potato.  "Pita" is a universal for bread, or pie (think pizza).  Let's leave "me" and "kai" alone for a minute, as well as "lakano."  "Moustarda" sounds familiar, doesn't it?  Yup, mustard.  It's a new word.  So, from this we know that "lakano" means cabbage.  "me" and "kai" clearly are connectives, and we have "potato pie with cabbage and mustard."

A bit of a misleading title, sneaky Greeks... the major vegetable in this dish is cabbage, with a lot of onion.  And cheese.  The "glue" of the dish.    There's a fair amount of slicing here, but it's all good, it's all easy, and the result transcends the parts.  So, let's get going.

First, you need a pound of potatoes.  Try to use Yukon gold, and try to use bigger ones.  Maybe 3 or 4 to a pound.  Peel them, slice them into quarter inch slices, and then toss them with a tablespoon of oil and some salt.  Put them in a single layer on a baking dish, and then put them in a 450 degree, preheated oven.  Leave them for five minutes and then come back to flip them.

In that five minutes,  you need to start slicing onions.  You will need six cups, which is about six small or medium onions.  Use a measuring cup.  Peel them, make a horizontal cut, and then cut vertically to get half moons.  When you've got six cups, move to your cabbage.  You need about four cups of this, but here, you can just start with a two pound cabbage.  Make a vertical cut, and then cut out that big core.  Then cut the halves into quarters, and using vertical slicing, shred the cabbage, as if you were making coleslaw.

Your final big task:  about half a pound of a melting cheese.   Gruyere rules here, but fontina will work.  If you use fontina, Annalena suggests freezing it for about 5-10 minutes, because you're going to grate it.  You'll have more than you thought you'd get, but that's ok.

Remember those potatoes? By now, you've flipped them once. Let them cook another five minutes, and then flip them again, for another five minutes.

When the potatoes are done, put them to the side, and lower the oven to 350.  Now, let's cook our other vegetables.  Put two more tablespoons of olive oil in a big pan, and add the onions.  When they begin to sizzle, start stirring.  At first, not much will happen, but then the volume will reduce markedly, and you'll get a bit of color.  At that point, take them off the heat, and stir in four chopped cloves of garlic, and about a teaspoon of cumin, be it ground or whole seed.    Now add a big tablespoon of dijon mustard.    Put all of this in a bowl, and...

Use the same pan to cook your cabbage.  Another tablespoon of olive oil, and then a tablespoon of chopped thyme.  If you only have dried spices, or if you don't have thyme, don't sweat it. Oregano is good here, so is marjoram.    Cook until the cabbage reduces .  You'll see that very easily. Wilting is a good way to describe this.

Taste a strand of your onions and your cabbage and then add salt and pepper, keeping in mind that you'll be combining them.

Get a spring form pan if you have one (8-9 inches) or a deep cake pan if you don't.  Grease it, all over, and then we start layering.  Put a third of the potatoes on the bottom.  They won't cover , but that's okay.  Now add half the onions,  and then half the cabbage, and then half the cheese.  Repeat this a second time, and you'll have some potatoes left over.  They go on the top.

You put the whole thing in the oven.  If you're using a spring form, Annalena suggests you put it on a baking sheet, because some of the liquid is going to leak out.   You bake this for half an hour.    It will smell WONDERFUL.  

Take it out of the oven, and run a knife around the perimeter right away. Then, when it's almost cooled completely, do it again.  If you've used a springform, release it.  If you haven't, then get a plate big enough to cover your pan, bravely take it all into gloved hands, and flip it to get the cake out.  Chances are, there won't be a problem.  If some potatoes stick, you'll know where they were, and you can just put em right there.

You could eat this as a main dish, or you could serve it next to something on the light side, because this is substantial.  And you can feel virtuous.  We won't talk about the cheese.