Cabbage Soup with Pumpkin Cornbread

Here's a simple but satisfying autumn meal built once again around a reserved batch of soup.  Recall the double batch of cabbage soup we made in October?  With a simple thaw and gentle reheating, here it is again on the menu.   This time it's paired with a Thanksgiving-worthy pumpkin cornbread and a delectably tangy apple salad-- arguably its tastiest partners yet.

This meal is easy on the budget and easy on the time-clock.  With three chefs in the kitchen, we were able to serve in about an hour.  The key is to get the cornbread in the oven as quickly as possible and then attack the salad with all your cookpower.

If you're feeling extra ambitious or have come into a windfall of autumn squash, roast a few fresh sugar pumpkins or butternut squash ahead of your meal and use the puree in place of canned pumpkin in the cornbread recipe.  If not, canned or frozen pumpkin puree will do just fine.  The end result is sweet enough to qualify for dessert, but we ended the meal with gingerbread cookies anyway. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Cranberry Cornbread

Makes (2) 8x13 pans or one full-size hotel pan, about 40 slices

• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 3 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3 TBS baking powder
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 3 TBS pumpkin pie spice
• 1-1/2 cups raw sugar
• 8 oz dried cranberries (we like the orange flavored cranberries from Trader Joe's)

• 6 eggs, beaten
• 3 cups pumpkin puree
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup canola oil + 2 TBS canola oil for greasing pan

Preheat commercial convection oven to 400 degrees. 

Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sea salt, pumpkin pie spice, sugar and cranberries  in an XL mixing bowl.  

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs.  Add the pumpkin puree, buttermilk and 1/2 cup canola oil.   Transfer the egg mixture to the bowl with flour mixture and gently stir to combine, being careful not to overmix. 

With a basting brush, lightly grease (2) 8x13 baking pans (or a single shallow hotel pan) with the remaining canola oil.  Preheat the greased pans in the oven for about 5 minutes before adding the cornbread mixture.  This will ensure a good crust.

Carefully remove the preheated pans from the oven.  Immediately pour batter into the hot pans.  Cover tightly with foil and bake for approximately 20 minutes minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until crusty brown and cooked through.  Allow bread to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.  

Romaine Salad with Apples and Blue Cheese

Serves 36

For the salad:

• 9 hearts of romaine (about X lbs)
• 8 medium apples
• 8 oz dried cranberries (we like orange flavored cranberries from Trader Joe's)
• 1 lb blue cheese, finely crumbled
• 1 lb turkey bacon, baked until crisp and crumbled into bits

For the honey-mustard dressing:

• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 6 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup dijon (or more to taste)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• freshly ground pepper to taste

Prepare dressing by combining all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisking until combined. Set aside until ready to use. 

Slice hearts of romaine into thin (1/4") ribbons against the direction of the leaves.  Wash and dry as needed.

Slice the apples into thin segments.  Immediately after cutting, toss the apples into a mixing bowl along with the salad dressing to prevent the apples from discoloring.  Add the cranberries to the bowl and allow to rest until just before serving. 

 In a full size hotel pan or extra large serving bowl, combine lettuce and half the crumbled blue cheese.  Just before serving, toss the lettuce with the apple-dressing mixture and mix well to combine.  Season the salad with freshly ground pepper and serve with the remaining blue cheese crumbles and bacon bits on the side as garnish.  

Savory Sweet Potato Pie with Slaw

It's with great pain that we publish this menu and admit that this one was simply not a fan favorite.  


Despite what seemed like its great potential, this savory sweet potato pie just struck our dinner guests as undesirable.  Perhaps the traditional rendition of the sweet sweet potato pie is just too iconic to reinvent as savory.  We were too crushed to thoroughly inquire. 


Beyond that, the colorful, flavorful, toothsome autumnal slaw ultimately proved too... toothsome for most of our guests.  Too crunchy?  Too red?  To many nearly-raw vegetables in the same big bowl?  Who can say?  If you're a root vegetable or cruciferous vegetable fan, you will probably love it it.  It's wildly colorful and deeply flavored, but it scared most of our diners away.


Without deeply wallowing in regret, we will simply close with the advice to locate this menu somewhere on the margins of your repertoire, perhaps reserving it for the rare day when you need a dish or two for your local farm-to-table potluck or must prepare dinner for your eccentric second cousin visiting from California. 


We warned you.

Savory Sweet Potato and Sausage Pie

Makes 36 slices

Potato Puree

• 6 large sweet potatoes, pricked with a fork
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 18 large egg yolks, scrambled

Sausage Filling 

• 3lbs chicken andouille sausage, cut into thin rounds
• 6 TBS olive oil
• 1 lb onions, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup minced garlic
• 1 TBS dried sage

• 6 frozen whole wheat pie crusts

Make the potato puree the night before.

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake for 45-55 minutes until very soft.  Let the sweet potatoes cool slightly and peel them.  Working in batches, combine the potatoes, whole milk and cream in a food processor and process until they reach a smooth consistency. (If not using a food processor, put the potatoes through a potato ricer and then combine them with the milk and cream.)  Add the scrambled egg yolks to the potato puree and mix until well blended.  Store the mixture in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator until you're ready to make the pies.

At meal time, preheat oven to 350°.  Preheat the flattop grill to med-high heat.

Prick the bottom of the pie crusts several times with a fork.  Line the dough with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake crusts for about 30 minutes until just set and lightly browned.  If you're using a commercial convection oven, this time will be reduced by about half.  Be sure to set fan speed to low to avoid a burnt crust.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil on the flattop grill.  Add the andouille sausage and cook until lightly browned, about 7-10 minutes. Add the onion and dried sage and cook until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until fragrant.  Transfer sausage mixture to an XL mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Add the potato puree to the andouille mixture and stir well to combine.  Divide the filling between the six par-baked pie crusts.  Return pies to the oven and bake for an additional 45 minutes until the custard filling is set.  Let pies cool for 20 minutes, slice and serve. 

Roasted Rainbow Slaw

Serves 36 generously

• 1 med-large head green cabbage (4-5lbs)
• 1-1/2 lbs kale (purple, green or a combination)
• 1 lb red onion
• 1 lb red beets
• 2 lbs orange carrots, peeled (or 2 lbs baby carrots)

For the dressing:

• 2 cups mayonaise
• 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 3/4 cup dijon
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425.

Quarter cabbage and cut away any exposed core.  Slice against the  direction of the leaves to get very thin strips. Tear kale leaves away from stems.  Tear any large leaves in half.  Arrange cabbage and kale in single layers on several sheet pans.  

Slice onions into paper thin half-rounds.  Arrange onions in a single layer on a sheet pan.

Roast cabbage, kale and onion in hot oven until leaves are crisp-tender and onions have softened and lightly browned.  This will take 5-7 minutes for the cabbage, 12-15 minutes for the kale and 20-25 minutes for the onions.  Remove pans from the oven as each vegetable is cooked and allow to cool.

In the meantime, using a food processor, shred the carrots and beets.  If not using a food processor, use a box grater.  

In a small bowl, combine all five ingredient for the dressing and mix well.  

Transfer all vegetables to an XL serving bowl or a full size hotel pan.  Toss the vegetables with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.   Allow slaw to rest for 15 minutes before serving.  Serve immediately or chill until ready to serve.