Russian Season

Cabbage with egg, sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs, is one of my childhood foods. Mom used to make it quite often, as it’s very quick to prepare and makes an interesting alternative to fresh salad. These days I have started making cabbage with egg again for Ivanka - and for us too. Ivanka eats in micro portions (where does all this energy come from?!), so now as she’s 10 months old and can eat a lot of things, it hardly makes sense to cook for her separately (you can always add more salt later). Cabbage is not something I’d like to have more often than once a week, but in summer, when it’s firm and green, there’s no reason to ignore it.

Cabbage With Egg
1 small head cabbage
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or more)
3 tbsp butter
2 eggs
Salt
Fresh dill, fresh chives

Serves 4

Start by melting 2 tablespoons butter in a small skillet and toasting the breadcrumbs with butter until golden and crunchy. Season breadcrumbs with salt as you toast them.
Halve the cabbage and cut each half lengthwise once or twice. Chop the cabbage into thin strips (the thinner the better, I believe).
Transfer cabbage to a large saucepan and add hot water to cover the cabbage. Bring water to a boil, add salt, and cook cabbage on a medium heat for 3 minutes. Strain water from the cabbage, return it into saucepan, and switch heat to low. Crack two eggs into the saucepan and stir well with a wooden spoon. Continue stirring over a low heat until the cabbage gets uniformly coated with egg (about 2-3 minutes). Stir in a spoonful of butter. Optionally, stir in some diced dill right before the cabbage is done.
Serve warm, sprinkled with breadcrumbs and chives.