"Who's dress is that?"
"It's mine and I spent my last penny on it! I'm going to be married in it."
"Are you crazy?"
"Yes, completely, and I bought a hat, a lovely hat!"
This was probably the happiest moment for Vivien Leigh's character, Myra Lester, in the 1940 movie "Waterloo Bridge". After this scene between Myra and her roommate, things don't quite work out. The downward spiral begins and continues all the way to the unhappy ending. She is wonderful in this movie, it was made just after "Gone With the Wind". As someone commented, she acted with her eyes. Set mostly in London during World War 1, she plays a ballerina who turns to prostitution after she thinks her fiance has been killed in the war.
The hats and clothes really reflect the characters. I was fascinated by the change from a respectable young woman's appropriate attire to the gaudy feather adorned hats worn by the Ladies of the Night. When she bought the dress and hat to be married in it was the complete package, the complete look for the occasion.
Not that Vivien Leigh ever looked like a stuffed cabbage, but they are both a complete package. A beautifully prepared stuffed cabbage can be very dramatic in its own way, inside to outside, top to bottom. Like the perfect dress and hat.
Stuffed Cabbage
Serves 6-8 people
1 large head or two small heads of savoy cabbage
1 lb. ground beef, pork or lamb or a mixture of beef and pork
1 cup rice (I like Lotus Foods jade bamboo rice) soaked in water for 30 minutes, then drained
1 small fennel bulb, diced
4 carrots, grated
4 stalks celery, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 tsp.salt
2-3 cups beef or chicken stock
olive oil
1/2 cup red or white wine
To prepare the cabbage for stuffing, cut out the core, stick a big fork in the bottom of the head where the core was, and using the fork as a handle, plunge the head into a pot of boiling salted water. The outer leaves will start to peel off in the boiling water. Blanche the leaves for 3-5 minutes, then remove to an ice bath to cool. When all the bigger leaves are off, save the inside of the cabbage to add to the stuffing.
Heat enough olive oil in a dutch oven to coat the bottom of the pot. Add the fennel, carrots, and celery and a pinch of salt and sauté for a few minutes until softened, add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Remove 1/2 of the mixture and cool before adding to the stuffing mix. Leave the other 1/2 in the pot.
For the stuffing mix, chop the cooled inner part of the cabbage and mix together with the meat, fennel mixture, soaked rice, caraway seeds, and salt. To assemble the cabbage, take the three biggest leaves, or 5 if you are using two small heads, and lay on a board overlapping in a triangle with the top of the leaves in the middle. Spread a layer of the stuffing on the leaves, leaving 1 1/2 inches of leaves free of stuffing at the edge. Make another layer using the next size leaves, more stuffing and continue until everything is used.
This next step really needs 4 hands. Cut 6-8 lengths of kitchen string, long enough to fit around the cabbage head. Gather the stuffed head together re-forming a cabbage shape. Slip the strings under the head and tie into a ball. Re heat the rest of the fennel mixture in the dutch oven, add the wine and cook for a couple of minutes. Place the cabbage head core side down in the pot, add stock so it comes 1/2 way up the head of cabbage. Cover and simmer for 2 hours, basting every 1/2 hour. Remove the head to a serving platter to rest while you reduce the remaining sauce to a nice thick gravy. Serve cut into big wedges drizzled with the gravy.
For a vegetarian or vegan version, substitute sauteed vegetables and mushrooms for meat and use vegetable stock.
Serve the cabbage wedges in a bowl with some of the sauce poured over.
A surprisingly good-looking, great tasting, complete dish. As striking as Vivien Leigh in "Waterloo Bridge". I highly recommend both.
To see the latest collection of Zazu & Violets' hats, please visit our on-line Etsy shop.
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