When cabbage comes out of the oven, still with a little bite, its sweet flavour intensified against crisp, charred edges, you should prepare yourself for a treat.
Ingredients
For the Butter
- ½ cup minus 1 tbsp (100 g) salted butter, softened
- 20 juniper berries
- 1 generous tsp freshly chopped rosemary
- 1¾ oz (50 g) dried cherries, roughly chopped
- 1 hispi (pointed) cabbage, trimmed
- 3–4 tbsp olive oil
- 9-oz (250 g) pouch pre-cooked freekeh
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- freshly chopped parsley, to garnish
How to Make It
- Put the butter into a bowl. Crush the juniper berries using a pestle and mortar. Add the juniper, rosemary and dried cherries to the bowl, and work everything together with a fork, until everything is evenly mixed.
- Lay a piece of clingfilm/plastic wrap on a clean work surface. Form the butter into a small sausage shape, and roll up in the clingfilm/plastic wrap. Give the package a little roll backwards and forwards to create an even shape and swizzle the ends to seal. Transfer to the fridge to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 190˚C (375˚F) Gas 5. Cut the cabbage in half from root to tip, and then cut each half into three or four wedges. Arrange them on a sheet pan and drizzle with half of the oil. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, scatter over the freekeh and drizzle over the remaining olive oil. Return to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes or so, until the freekeh is hot and crisp and the edges of the cabbage are lightly charred. Remove from the oven, scatter over the lemon zest and juice, season with salt and black pepper and garnish with freshly chopped parsley. Serve while hot, with thin slices of the juniper and cherry butter melting into the leaves.
