The initial charring of the cabbage is key: Be brave. If you think you’ve made a terrible mistake and burned dinner, you’re doing something right.
Recipe information
Yield
2 Servings
Ingredients
2
1
1
4
10
2
Special Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Grind kombu in a spice mill or with a mortar and pestle to a fine powder. (You should have about ¾ tsp.) Heat oil in a medium heavy skillet (such as carbon steel or cast iron) over medium-high and add half of cabbage, cut side down (reserve remaining half for another use). Cook cabbage, undisturbed, until underside is almost blackened (the edge of the sides will start to brown as well), 10–15 minutes.
Step 2
Reduce heat to medium-low, add butter to skillet, and shake pan to help butter get in, around, and under cabbage. As soon as butter is melted and foaming, tilt skillet toward you and spoon browning butter over cabbage, being sure to bathe the area around the core (thick and dense, this part will take the longest to cook), 30 seconds. Stop basting and let cabbage cook, undisturbed, 3 minutes, then baste again, 30 seconds more. Repeat cooking and basting process twice more (butter will continue to get darker as it cooks, and that's okay; add a knob or two more to bring it back from the brink), adding kelp to brown butter just before final basting. At this point, cabbage should be tender (a cake tester or skewer inserted into the core should meet with no resistance) and the outer leaves have pulled away from one another. If cabbage is not done, repeat cooking and basting process once more.
Step 3
Transfer cabbage to a cutting board and cut into two quarters. Pull leaves open slightly and tuck basil here and there between a few leaves. Drizzle with vinegar and season with salt. Let cabbage sit a minute or two for basil to soften before serving.
Nutrition Per Serving
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Reviews (35)
Back to TopI made this with a few adjustments based on the comments, and it was outstanding. I quartered a cabbage, put all four quarters in the pan and blackened both cut sides, it took about 8 minutes per side. Then dropped in a whole stick of butter, yikes steam steam steam!!! Basted the quarters awhile then turned them over to the other cut side and basted some more. The cabbage did soften perfectly this way. Finished with some seaweed/sesame rice topping, I love sesame with cabbage, and wow yum yum. It looks burnt like it was ruined, but is sort of attractive, and tastes absolutely heavenly.
Anonymous
South of the south
1/4/2020
This is not the best recipe, but with a few tweaks it turned out great. I followed the recipe, basting in a few rounds, and thought the cabbage would be done, but using a cake tester I could feel that the cabbage was still raw inside. I put a lid on the pan to help steam the cabbage from the top which helped, but eventually I ended up taking it out of the pan, cutting it in half and putting the halves back in the pan with the newly cut sides down. Doing this along with basting and putting the lid on in between helped it cook through. I was worried it was going to taste burnt since I was cooking the butter for so long, but it turned out delicious. I loved the addition of vinegar and salt at the end and skipped the basil since I didn’t have any. I would make this again with the same modifications.
soapnana
Chicago
1/20/2019