Autumn recipes: baked cabbage in sauce and sauerkraut soup
The Saturday supplement of the Latvian newspaper Diena has published two autumn cabbage recipes: baked cabbage in a cheese and cream sauce, and sauerkraut soup with fried sausages.
The recipe section of the Saturday supplement of the Latvian daily Diena has published two autumn dishes built around cabbage: baked cabbage in a cream and cheese sauce, and sauerkraut soup with fried sausages. Both are meant for home cooking.
Baked cabbage in sauce
The recipe's author writes that a small ordinary cabbage can be used, but a not-too-dense pointed (conical) cabbage is more suitable. She bought hers at a market and notes that it can also be seen in supermarkets.
The dish needs one pointed cabbage of about 400 g, oil and about 20 g of butter for frying, a little lemon juice, 100 ml of sweet cream, half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and 40 g of hard cheese. For seasoning the author used oregano, garlic powder and pepper. Herbs are added for serving.
The cabbage is cut lengthwise into four wedges and fried in oil and butter on both cut sides, a couple of minutes each. The wedges are carefully moved to a greased baking dish, and the butter left in the pan and lemon juice are poured over them. The cream is mixed with seasoning, mustard and salt, half of the finely grated cheese is stirred in, and the sauce goes over the cabbage. It bakes in a 200-degree oven for 10 minutes, then the remaining cheese is sprinkled on and it bakes another 7–10 minutes.
Sauerkraut soup with sausages
The author describes this soup as warm and hearty, suited to cold days. Meat or ribs can replace the sausages.
The soup calls for 2–3 small potatoes, a small red bell pepper, a teaspoon of paprika, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of tomato paste, 1–2 bay leaves, salt and black pepper.
Smoked sausages are fried in a pot and removed, and onion is cooked in the same fat, followed by grated carrot. Sauerkraut, potatoes and pepper are added with the spices, tomato paste and bay leaf, briefly fried, covered with hot stock or water and simmered under a lid on low heat for about 20 minutes. At the end the sausages go back in.
