Cabbage, Cassoulet, and a Little Citrus
February’s Chef’s Kisses
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Hello friends! I hope you had a lovely, cozy February! One quick update: moving forward, the Chef’s Kisses newsletter (aka my favorite food-adjacent moments from the month) will be for subscribers only (free and paid). I’ll be putting this one behind the paywall after a couple of days. To have access to future Chef’s Kisses newsletters, please do sign up as a free subscriber to receive them in your inbox.
This newsletter is coming to you from my cozy setup: on the couch under my giant Brooklinen blanket wearing what my husband calls my “fuzzy suit” (a fleece sweatsuit from the 2019 JW Anderson x Uniqlo collab) and my fuzzy socks. For more cozy end-of-winter vibes there’s lots more below:
Bite-Sized
Citrus for breakfast brought a bit of brightness to these chilly mornings. Try my honey-ed kumquat recipe from my J.Crew collab.
Maximizing coziness with cabbage: a giant slice in quiche, choux farci, cabbage salads, and more.
This big blizzard called for a giant pot of cassoulet.
My favorite bites from Soosanghan BBQ and Soup Dumpling Plus – can’t wait to go back to both.
And some sweet cozy dishes from the month: Chocolate Mousse Cake + soufflés: Vanilla and Chocolate, Molten Hot Chocolate, and Coffee and Tea
A Little Citrus
Despite leaning into so much coziness below, there were some bright, citrusy moments to battle winter blues, thank you to J.Crew for inspiring and sponsoring this little bit of late winter sunshine.
I tried to start my mornings off with brightness by investing in a bulk package of Sumo citrus. I had it for breakfast along with my morning coffee and homemade almond milk. 10/10 would recommend.
Jules Tie Shirt paired with the Painter Pant and Sophie Ballet Flat for a very cute and very comfortable look.
If you’re looking for a more substantial citrus breakfast/lunch, here’s a honey-ed kumquat marmalade recipe thanks to J.Crew. It tastes like super-bright late-winter sunshine: it has a zing that is so bright it makes you want to squint, with sweetness and notes of early spring floral-ness to soften. The marmalade can be made in under an hour, meaning you can make it for breakfast that day, plus leftovers for future sunshine-y breakfasts. Théo and I have had it on a baguette with butter and a croissant, both picked up from my favorite NYC baguette/croissant baker (Théo said it was the ideal spread for a croissant because of the bitter-sweet duality balancing out the rich-buttery flake). I also think it would be delicious on a bostock, brushing the brioche with extra gooey, honeyed liquid before adding the frangipane and candied kumquats on top.
I had some for lunch as well, making a bright salad with chopped candied kumquats and leftover fresh ones. For a dressing, I added the marmalade juice, champagne vinegar, and Sumo Citrus Flavored Olive Oil from Brightland. I also sliced some beets, and some kale that had been dry-roasted in a pan with chili flakes and sesame. This was so good I made it twice this week.
Speaking of the Sumo Olive Oil, I ate it in many preparations at the Gem Home launch dinner. Tara Thomas had the fantastic idea to put it in an olive oil cake served with a bay leaf or tea mousse yum.
Cabbage
You’ve probably heard, but 2026 has been dubbed the year of the cabbage. Jokes aside, cabbage is indeed very delicious, and I love how easy it is to incorporate into meals. It holds up well when seared and roasted, sliced and sautéed, or stuck in a stew. Perfect for winter cooking.
While cabbage was routinely added to dinners in this manner, I’m highlighting dishes that really showcase cabbage as the star it is.
Cabbage + Crust:
When thinking of ways to serve up cabbage, I started with flavor profiles it pairs well with: strong, melty cheese, bacon, and leeks. Sounds like quiche lorraine to me. So, I stuck a giant slice of cabbage in a quiche, and it was even better than I expected.
I started by roasting a whole big hunk of cabbage in the oven with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, covering it with foil so it would steam. Then I prepared the ingredients for the quiche: lining the pan with inverted puff pastry, sautéing some bacon slices, cooking the leeks down in the rendered fat, making the egg custard, and slicing up some Comté.
The only difference from my standard quiche recipe is how I baked it for a pretty presentation. I poured half the egg custard and all the fillings besides the cabbage into the prepared puff for a first bake. Then I added the cabbage and the remaining egg custard for a second bake. The final product was so good that I think I prefer it over a standard quiche lorraine.
As for the other version, I basically made a cabbage pithivier with layers of leeks, bacon, and mustard, all surrounded by a layer of thinly sliced Comté. I prepped a baby cabbage by pricking it all over with a knife. I roasted it in foil until tender, then encased it in puff pastry and baked it. Next time, I think I would do this as a half cabbage to make the other ingredients more proportionate. Otherwise, so delicious.
Cabbage + Sausage:
Another fantastic combo. If you read last month’s Chef’s Kisses, or if you follow me on the AmiGo app (code PARISGO), you would already know about my love for choux farci, aka cabbage stuffed with a variety of pork products (smoked and raw) and then cooked for a long time in beef stock. The cabbage becomes sufficiently softened and caramelized, and the smoky-porkiness perfumes the layers. This is the recipe I followed for ingredients; it’s delicious (I won’t get into the mad-scientist method I used to make my choux farci look like the above photos). I subbed smoked kielbasa (easier to find) for the morteau sausage, and a mild garlic-y sausage for the toulouse sausage.
I also thought it would be fun to take that same filling and shape it like a sausage (inspired by sausage-shaped sausage rolls). Again, I will not go into the madness of shaping these, but they cook quickly via steam, meaning the cabbage stays a little brighter, more distinct, and far less cooked than the dish above.
Cabbage Salads:
After all that choux farci, I needed something lighter. Enter: cabbage salads. I wrote about my love for them back in August’s Chef’s Kisses. To reiterate, I think cabbage makes an excellent replacement for other greens. It’s crunchy, sturdy, almost cheesy in flavor, and more nutritious than iceberg and romaine. I used three different kinds of cabbage in three different kinds of salad.
Green cabbage wedge: lightly roasted green cabbage, blue cheese, chive ranch dressing, bacon bits, tomatoes, and sliced red onions.
Napa cabbage Caesar: I made the dressing with Nara’s roasted garlic oil, and Théo loved it so much he licked the bowl. Highly recommend.
Shaved Savoy cabbage Lyonnaise salad: this one was so great, I made it three more times this month.
And finally, my blizzard day activity. I made kimchi with a 4.5lb napa cabbage. I used a combination of this recipe and this recipe. I had it for dinner two nights ago (a little early but couldn’t help myself), delicious.
Cozy Cassoulet for a Big Blizzard
When it became clear there was going to be a blizzard, I began to prep for how I would spend the day: cooking foods that lean into that cozy snowstorm feeling.
I planned to make pancakes in the morning (more on that recipe next week) and picked up ingredients to make kimchi (see above). I also made a very gelatinous chicken stock from feet and hocks so that I could make a big pot of cassoulet.
Théo has spent many winters trying to convince me of how great cassoulet is, and finally, after trying an excellent one in Paris last month, I can now call myself a cassoulet convert. The tender, brothy beans with the different textures and flavors of the pork products encased in a thin layer of shattering-broth-crust are simply soul-warmingly rich.
I wanted to get as close as possible to the version I had in Paris, so this cassoulet only has pork (besides poultry stock). I started by rendering/searing some guanciale as the snow began to fall (pancetta or the traditional salt pork would be closer to the classic), followed by mild pork sausages, and then 2” fatty pork shoulder pieces dusted in flour. I left those in the pan (but removed half the oil) and added in a diced onion and some garlic at the end. Then I scooped in a bunch of homemade stock (and lots of water to dilute), a sprinkling of celery salt, and regular salt. I added a giant bouquet-garni of sliced carrot, bay leaf, parsley, cloves, and peppercorns, and I transferred it to the oven (no lid) set at 300f for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes were up, the bouquet-garni was removed, and the beans went in. It cooked for another 2 hours. After that, I removed half of the pork and beans (setting them aside to cool), and nestled half of the seared sausage and guanciale into the pot, along with half a garlic head (face down) finishing with a few turns of a lemon skin and some thinly sliced kielbasa (leftover from the choux farci), before cranking up the heat to 450f and setting on the top rack in my oven to cook until the top was crispy and golden (about another 45 minutes.)
What about the half of the cassoulet that was partially cooked? That’s been frozen to be cooked off and enjoyed another night. I’ll be adding some sliced cabbage to that version :)
If you need a recipe, I suggest this one. I used the ratios of beans/cooking liquid/meat, but changed up the ingredients and cooking times as outlined above.
Best Bites
I borrowed my parents’ car this month, and the first drive was up to Leonia to dine at Soosanghan BBQ. Specializing in dry-aged pork, we truly feasted: marinated pork short ribs, aged pork belly, pork jowl, their very generous banchan offerings, pollock roe ssamjang, and kimchi-jjigae. We had such a delicious meal (thank you, Young Kim, for highlighting this NJ gem). P.S. If you don’t eat pork, we also love Moo and Oink Korean BBQ located just a few blocks away.
Another night we drove to Soup Dumpling Plus in Fort Lee. Since returning from Beijing this month (more on that later), I have been craving Shengjian Bao (pan-fried pork buns). This is a fantastic spot for just that. So delicious we ordered a second round. Also not to be missed: soup dumplings and beef scallion pancakes.
I didn’t go out to see much art this month, so I felt very lucky to experience all that I did from the comfort of my couch. Bad Bunny’s halftime show sent chills down my spine. If it had the same effect on you, you too might love Alfredo Jaar’s “A Logo for America” (1987). Both works are a reminder that America is not just the United States of America, but the entirety of the Americas. And both emphasize solidarity with our neighbors as a rejection of Trump’s policies.
Finally, on the subject of art soothing the soul, Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day” is my song recommendation for the month. Listening to this song while on a run, as the snow turns to water, the buds on trees begin to form, and the birdsongs slowly return, gives me a brief respite, like for a moment, everything in the world is okay.
I made cassoulet every Super Bowl for years. The paper recipe had notes scribbled on the sides and drops of broth scattered on it. I still have it somewhere…I used beef spare ribs, duck confit, lamb neck bones, and pork sausage. It was literally a four day process and worth every minute spent on it. I’m excited to try your cabbage recipes, growing up with an Eastern European grandmother, we had cabbage a lot in many different ways. Love the stuff. ❤️