Top Chef Stuffed Cabbage

Sarah from Top Chef recently won one episode with her sausage stuffed cabbage. It looked really good to me, so I decided to make it.

Sarah (from this blog, not Top Chef) typically dislikes stuffed cabbage, which is usually filled with a tomato beef sauce. This recipe has no tomatoes but lots of vegetables. In addition to the big cabbage leaves, the meat mixture also contains more cabbage and onions and is stuffed into kale. Sarah really liked it, and even Jonathan enjoyed it.

The recipe we made is modified in a number of ways from the Top Chef recipe published here. It uses less butter and less olive oil. And, instead of two small heads of cabbage (green and Napa), we used the one large head we got from City Fresh. It might be very good with Napa, though. I wouldn’t suggest following the original recipe to the letter. Bravo tends to be pretty sloppy with these, including not mentioning when the onions are sauteed, putting “spinach” in the name of a recipe that contains no spinach and never mentioning what to do with one of the sticks of butter.

Pork Sausage Stuffed Cabbage and Kale with Browned Butter

1 head green cabbage
1 bunch kale, preferably Tuscan, large leaves
8 ounces pork shoulder or ground pork
2 ounces smoked bacon
1 cup grated Parmesan
12 saltine crackers
1 egg
2 TB olive oil
1 stick butter, divided
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 sprig rosemary
1/2 medium onion, minced
8 year old balsamic, drizzle

1. Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Season with kosher salt.

2. Sauté onions in 2 TB butter.
3. Strip the large leaves from half of the green cabbage, then shred the remaining cabbage and add to onions.
4. Remove stems from kale leaves and cook in boiling water for 5 minutes, then cool in ice water. Repeat step for whole cabbage leaves, cook for 3 minutes.
5. With a meat grinder attachment for the kitchen aid, grind pork butt and bacon together. Season with salt (about 1 teaspoon) and pepper. If using ground pork, finely chop the bacon and add to ground pork.
6. Remove cooked shredded cabbage and onion from the sauté pan, reserve.
7. Add ground meat mixture to the pan and cook. Remove and add to shredded cabbage and onions..
8. In a food processor or coffee grinder, pulse the saltine crackers until smooth.
9. Place the cabbage/meat mixture in a bowl and mix in crackers. Add 1 egg and 1/2 cup grated parmesan. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Lay out blanched kale on a cutting board. Evenly distribute the filling mixture.
11. Roll kale up into cigar shape.
12. Lay out whole cabbage leaves.
13. Roll kale rolls into the cabbage. Lay rolls in a casserole dish and top with a few pats of butter. Bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
14. Heat 2 TB olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat. Add shallots and fry on low until golden brown. Remove from oil
15. Heat remaining butter (about 5 TB) over medium heat until brown, remove.
16. Remove cabbage from oven, top with parmesan, shallots, rosemary sprig. Finish with brown butter and drizzle balsamic.