Porcini Braised Cabbage (v 2.0 better technique & better sauce)

00:00 Intro
01:13 Cabbage Ingredient Prep
04:19 Searing the Cabbage
05:24 Making the Sauce
08:03 Baking the Cabbage
08:48 How to Cook Buckwheat
11:55 Coordinating Cabbage and Buckwheat

Here is a video on how to work with dry porcini:
   • Worms in Porcini and Other Dry Mushro...  

Serves 4

40 g (a couple of handfuls) dry porcini
4 cups boiling water
1 small savoy cabbage (about 6 inches in diameter)
1/41/3 cup oil for high heat cooking
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup sour cream
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp pomegranate molasses or tomato paste
Bay leaf
57 Thyme sprigs

In a heat proof bowl (I use a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup), combine porcini and boiling water and let steep for 1 to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the middle. Cut the cabbage into 68 wedges. Set a pan with the biggest surface area that you have (ideally a 12 inch deep skillet with straight sides) over high heat. Add 3 Tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the cabbage wedges and brown them on both sides very thoroughly adding oil as necessary. If some leaves fall off before the cabbage goes into the pan, reserve them and chop into small pieces to cook with the onions later.

Remove the cabbage from the pan and set aside. Reduce the heat to mediumlow. Add olive oil, onions, chopped up remaining cabbage leaves (if any), a generous pinch of salt and cook stirring occasionally until completely tender and golden brown. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, a couple of minutes. Add the wine and the porcini liquid strained through a sieve lined with a damp paper towel. Bring to a gentle simmer.

Inspect the porcini. If they aren’t too dirty, wash each piece carefully, chop them up and add to the sauce. If in doubt, discard them.

In a small bowl, mix the sour cream with flour and pomegranate molasses until completely lump free. Add a cup of porcini sauce from the pan into the sour cream, whisking constantly. Stir this sour cream mixture into the porcini sauce in the pan. Bring to a simmer whisking constantly. Add salt to taste. Add a bayleaf. Season each piece of cabbage generously with salt on all sides and place in the pan with the sauce. Scatter the thyme sprigs between the cabbage wedges. Bring to a simmer. Cover the pan and place in the oven for 45 min. Uncover, turn up the heat to 450F, turn on the convection fan if you have it, and bake until the cabbage is completely tender and slightly crispy on top, about 15 min.

Cool 15 min and serve over buckwheat or an accompaniment of your choice.

Note: If all the cabbage wedges don’t fit into one pan during the searing step, use 2 pans for the browning step and then proceed with the sauce in your bigger pan. Once the cabbage is brown, it will become a lot softer and easier to squoosh into one pan for the oven step.

Here is the type of buckwheat I use:
https://amzn.to/3CP0pNI

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