mostly here (Chicago), a little there (NY/France)

I have just gotten another cookbook at the suggestion of my friend Sammie, one she has been talking about for months. The book is Pork & Sons by Stephané Reynaud, a French chef who comes from a family of butchers who have made their home in the Ardèche. I think she first came across it in a rented house last summer. This most recent mention clicked and I placed an order for the book, I use pork in our house more than most other meats, it seemed worth the exploration.

Flipping through a new cookbook is still fun for me, in a way that combing the internet is not. The finite possibilities, the fact that it’s someone’s world representing, in a way, the past few years of their life at least. Some great cookbooks are the sum of the author’s entire experience in the kitchen. Which is beautiful and can be alienating as much as it stokes curiosity. For instance, Stephané’s experience is in France and he tends to reference a lot of sausages unavailable at any butcher counter in the city. You look at them, think someday, and turn the page to something you can make and in this instance, it was a cabbage soup.

It’s actually a cabbage soup with pork belly, his soupe aux choux. I don’t usually cook with pork belly, for me it’s a casualty of the early 2000s New American restaurant obsession with the cut. Which isn’t fair and made this recipe all the more compelling.

Earlier, I was reading from a book quoting John Cage, “It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else. Here we are now.” He was not talking about Chicago winter and liking to be somewhere else holds a number of other options (emotionally, your social position, career, whatever) but maybe it was all of those things that drove me to make this cabbage soup. To need to make the soup. Cooking can be transportive but it can also make you feel like you are really where you are. I’m not sure where the ingredients I used came from, but I think you could source most of them locally. Potatoes, cabbage, onions, and celery root all store for a long time. Could get you through a winter, even though we don’t have to think about that at the grocer I think it is why they loan themselves to my “feeling”, which then becomes a craving.

I shared with Sammie my excitement and she immediately shared in it. We both set out to get the ingredients, to cook in different cities and share our process. Like recipe penpals. I had a headstart and already was fiddling with the guidelines, salting and spicing my pork a day early. The day we were set to cook was an aimless one for me, full for her. I started around 1 even though it was for dinner. With the head start, I chose to add to the cooking time in order to get the pork tender and bring extra harmony to the four ingredients in my pot. What’s nice is you don’t have to, I tried the pork after the recommended hour and it’s enjoyable in its chewier state and the soup itself eats a bit lighter, less intense as the belly keeps more of its characteristics to itself.

To serve I baked a little loaf of soda bread and made a salad of celery root. And already had opened the macerated Gewurztraminer from Jean Ginglinger so served that alongside. It was the perfect pairing because picking this wine out of the box I wanted it like I wanted this soup. I sent pictures to Sammie, she had a whole wheat boule and a radicchio salad with celery root. We have similar red enamel pots. It feels like we’re in class, completing an assignment, exploring the meaning of the soup. How to bring it to Chicago or New York. I do recommend this soup but mostly I recommend a cooking penpal, and you could start here.

Cabbage Soup inspired by, but different from Stephané Reynaud

You don't really have to season the pork ahead of time. This feeds like six people or, is enough to give some away in a to go container, share with one person at your house, and then for lunch for the next 3 days. I recommend this with some bread and a root vegetable salad.

Olive oil

1 cabbage (white/green), cored and shredded

¼ cup white wine

3 large potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 onions, coarsely chopped

Small to medium slab of pork belly (honestly depends how meaty you want your soup to be)

Fresh grated nutmeg

White pepper

Clove (optional)

Salt

1. The day before put salt, white pepper, and nutmeg over your slab of pork belly. Stud with cloves if you’d like. Loosely cover and leave in the fridge until you are ready to cook.

2. Take out your pork belly, remove cloves if using and cut into thick slices.

3. Heat 5 tbsps of olive oil in a big pot, large enough to fit the cabbage, onions, and potatoes. Add cabbage and cook until softened (not browned).

4. Add white wine, potatoes, onions, white pepper, salt and nutmeg. Cover with water.

5. Add pork slices and bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until you are satisfied with the flavor and texture. At least one hour.

6. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside.

7. Transfer soup to a blender and blend until smooth.

8. When ready to serve make sure the soup is the temperature you like, the pork belly can appear on the side or in the soup up to you.

Fresh stuff in the shop for tomorrow and cat calendars are IN STOCK! For the third year running Cub's put together 12 months of cats and natural wine. Something I always look forward to. See you later this week.