Bettina’s Swiss Savoy cabbage mince pie

It may sound like something The Twits would eat; but when Bettina made this cabbagey concoction on the 30 December last year it became one of the best meals of ’08. Dieter, Lucy, Nathan and I gathered round the Grant Street kitchen table in trepidation, but it turns out meaty mince cloaked in cabbage is a true delight. It’s also seasonal, and packed with lovely vitamins and iron. Bonus.

Still not convinced? I can only assure you that Bettina is an honest soul who would never poison you on purpose. You only have to look at her pure Swiss complexion, and unnecessarily large collection of printed scarves to know that this lady means no wrong. Plus she runs the rather wonderful Original Fires band nights (coming soon to an indie venue near you), which I promised I would plug, here: http://www.myspace.com/originalfiresuk, but which really have no relevance to dinner parties at all.

And so to the cooking… Bettina tells me the original recipe serves two, but it’s much more exciting to serve the version for six below.


Journey to Switzerland (or your local Spar) for:

1 Savoy cabbage
2 slices of dry bread
1 big onion
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
600g mince meat
3 eggs
3 tablespoons of parsley (ideally fresh and chopped, but dried is fine, too)
1 1/2 teaspoons of dried majoram
a pinch of ground caraway
1 1/2 teaspoons of spicy mustard
salt
pepper

1. Blanch the Savoy cabbage leaves for 6 minutes
2. Soak the bread in water
3. Chop the onion small and sauté it in the butter until glazed. Mix the squeezed out bread with the mince, eggs, onion, parsley, majoram, caraway and mustard. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Grease a muffin tray (either make small individual muffins or put the whole mix into a bigger tray - baking time will have to be increased accordingly) and coat with cabbage leaves. Fill in the mince and cover with cabbage leaves. Put in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180°C.
5. Serve with potatoes and root vegetables. Hurrah for hearty grub!