creamy-braised cabbage, veal meatballs, scented with truffles

our lovely neighbour Liz came over for dinner tonight. Liz comes over about once a week; I love when liz comes over–she is a good little eater, and clearly enjoys what i offer; and i, in turn, love to think: what might Liz love that she’s never had before.

If something is particularly Australian, I’ll think of that as Liz lived in australia for a number of years. I had been looking for something truffley for awhile, as Liz said she had never tasted truffles. As things happen, I found a jar of fabulous truffle salsa which came, in fact, from Tetsuyas, in Australia. Thus our menu was anchored around the truffley mixture.

Since it is feeling decidedly autumnal tonight, and since i have literally at least 5 cabbages in my kitchen, I decided on braised cabbage in cream with a hit of truffle added at the end. Husband brought home a package of ground veal while i was braising the cabbage. I know, meatballs again: but these are veal, last nights were chicken, and anyhow, i could eat meatballs every night of the week with leftovers in a sandwich. So i began to mix, and roll, brown and braise.

First I blanched the cut up cabbage; then i mixed the veal with onion, garlic, nutmeg, 1 shredded carrot (I have a big bag of carrots in my fridge; if they were zucchini, i would have used that instead. I like to add some shredded vegetable to most of my meatballs, for their lightening effect), and about 1/4 chicken bouillon cube. I rolled them up into tiny meatballs, the size of large marbles, then lightly gilded them in a heavy frying pan in a tablespoon or two of butter.

Meatballs pushed over to one side, I added the drained cabbage, and cooked that in the butter, too. Next came about a cup of chicken broth, a simmer of say, 10 minutes, then a cup of heavy cream. Simmer simmer simmer, gently, until the sauce is creamy and the meatballs are cooked through.

When ready to serve, stir in 2-3 tablespoons of tetsuyas truffle salsa–or any truffle condimento such as tartuflanghe’s–taste for seasoning, add a drop or two of lemon juice, and serve. If you love truffles, cream, and veal meatballs as much as i do, fainting from pleasure might be an option.