Comfort Food Season Opens

A while back, preparing a class I'm planning to teach, I quizzed some friends to list their favorite comfort foods. I was not surprised to find a few common threads woven through the tapestry of eats that make us as individuals feel like we're home from school, lying on the couch in feetie jammies watching Gilligan's Island reruns while Mom brings us a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Macaroni and cheese, of course - being the King Primo Deus Daddy of all comfort foods, made every single list.

One slipped by me though. A personal fave that makes a regular appearance in our house once the weather turns cold. Kate came home the other night and asked if we had any plans for dinner. (This is code-speak for 'what are you making for dinner?' as she knows I tend to start thinking about dinner around the time I wake up each morning.) I ran a few options by her and she mentioned how the autumn chill in the air made her think it might be a 'cabbage bake night.'

Perfect! And HOW had I forgotten about Cabbage Bake after months of grilling and CSA veggies and whatnot?? Well...Cabbage Bake is...not romantic, in name or appearance. It is a humble, homestyle casserole that is a thing of beauty in just HOW plain it is. Remember the compliment Harrison Ford received from an elder in Witness?

"You look plain, John Book."

Cabbage Bake isn't here for flaunting to your dinner guests. It is here to warm your house and your insides and throw a big ass wintery hug on you when the weather gets cold. Easy? Yes. Cheap? You betcha! (oof, Palin flashback) Tasty? Mm-hm! In fact, four out of five of the cabbage-phobic we tested have opened their arms wide to the Bake.

I don't know the actual source of the recipe. I can only trace it back as far as Trisha Shaw passing it on to her lovely sister Kathryn who taught it to me; so I can only give credit to the much beloved Horgan Clan, truly my First Family of Culinary Consciousness.

Here you go. Try it before you judge.

Cabbage Bake

1 medium head cabbage, quartered, cored and sliced thinly
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can of Campbell's Tomato Soup (that's right!)
1/2 that can of water and about a 1/4 C. of red wine
1 C. white rice
1 lb. very lean ground beef (or Morningstar Veggie Crumbles for my veggie friends)
1 can stewed tomatoes
to taste: salt, pepper, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce
Parmesan cheese

Slice the cabbage and put it in the bottom of an olive oiled Dutch oven.

Saute the onion in about a tablespoon of olive oil until soft and add the ground beef and brown. (If you're going veg, add the crumbles at the end.) Add in the rice and continue to saute for a minute or two, then add the rest of the ingredients - minus the parm. Taste it and make sure it's seasoned enough for the sauce AND the rice and cabbage you'll be cooking - so...highly. Pour the sauce over the cabbage and spread out, then top the whole thing with some Parmesan cheese. Cover the Dutch oven and bake in a 350 oven for an hour to an hour and a half.

The cabbage bakes down and a lot of the liquid it releases goes to cooking that rice, leaving you with a wonderfully flavorful one-dish meal. Kind of like stuffed cabbage minus all the work of stuffing. It's great as a leftover; in fact, I've been known to consume such for breakfast the next day. Sue me.

Give it a try some chilly autumn weekend night and let me know what you think.