Mrs Cohens Cabbage
When I first moved to London In 1969, At the age of 18, I met a wonderful lady in her late 80s Who was originally from Persia, ( now Iran) and part of the Jewish community that had escaped, whereas most of her family had gone to America and Israel she had met and married a British Ashkenazi man, they had never had children but Mrs Cohen who was widowed, used to enjoy inviting young single people to her Friday night dinners.
Discovering that I enjoyed cooking I was often commandeered to be her sous chef!
After years of catering to husbands Ashkenazi palette, she was delighted to have the opportunity to indulge and share an array of Safardi dishes. One of which was her incredible cabbage. Her measurements we're not exact, and her recipes regrettably never written down, but acting as her helper I committed this one to memory.
Last Friday I had to go to the doctors, it was pouring with rain and I was early so the surgery wasn't open yet, I popped over the road to the vegetable stall, and spied a tiny perfect Savoy cabbage, I went home and recreated as near as I could Mrs Cohens cabbage. I hope Mrs Cohen I did you proud.
Ingredients. Serves 4
1 Savoy cabbage choose the size according to the number of people.
2 leaks finely chopped.
one onion, peeled and diced.
3 cloves of garlic chopped.
1 carrot peeled and grated.
1 tomato chopped.
A small handful of raisins which could be substituted with chopped dates, sultanas, currents, or whatever you have to hand.
The juice of half a lemon,
half a teaspoon of salt
half a teaspoon of ground white pepper
1/4 a teaspoon of nutmeg
half a teaspoon cinnamon
a tablespoon of vegetable oil
half a teaspoon of fresh ginger grated.
half a teaspoon of chilli flakes, or cayenne pepper
half a teaspoon of cumin
half a teaspoon of coriander
a handful of flat leaf parsley chopped (optional)
half teaspoon of sumac
1 bay leaf
A pinch of sugar.
Half a cup of water
Method.
Finally chop the cabbage place it in a bowl of cold water and add approximately a teaspoon of salt to the water, leave it at least 15 minutes then thoroughly rinse the cabbage, in a colander, shaking off all the excess water. Set it over a bowl to drain properly.
In a pan or sauté dish that has a lid, heat the vegetable oil, add the onion, leek and garlic, and cook them on a medium heat until they're soft and transparent, add in the cabbage, tomato, ginger, and grated carrot, mix it well and so today until the cabbage just begins to get a slight brown colour, then add in all your spices, mixing them as you go the bay leaf, lemon juice and water. Stir everything lightly so that all the spices, ginger, garlic, are mixed in with the cabbage,
add the dried fruit of choice, don't be tempted to leave this out because it adds a dimension to the dish, season with the salt and pepper sprinkling a pinch of sugar place the lid on the part and lower the heat and cook for a further 12 to 15 minutes.
Serve hot, it goes well with either meat chicken or fish, and I discovered last week totally by accident, because I had some leftover in the fridge does it tastes good cold as a side dish to cold cuts!
Mrs Cohen’s cabbage was a really popular dish with her guests, she introduced me to the wonders of safardi seasoning, especially sumac, which is a spice that was native to Iran, back in the late 1960s it was almost impossible to find in the UK, as it has a very subtle lemony flavour, if you're going to substitute it with lemon do it very delicately or else you could overpower the recipe with acidity, I think Mrs Cohen would be delighted to know that sumac now is readily available in supermarkets and shops all over the UK.