French Potato Pies With Braised Red Cabbage - Mazagran à la flamande - Gluten-free

My filling for this mazagran is one we eat regularly as a vegetable dish particularly at this time of year. It is rich and satisfying and redolent of sunny Autumn days and misty mornings.

à la flamande  

Traditionally a garnish made from braised green cabbage and eaten with pork and sausages, which is how we devour it, we also love Flemish style cabbage made with the red variety.

 As with the tomato fondue I made for my à la provençale mazagran, you can never have enough of this dish so if you have some left over it can be heated up perfectly for another day. The trick with making braised cabbage is that it should be cooked slowly in a heavy-bottomed pan and with a minimum of liquid, so it needs attention from time to time to check it isn't burning on the bottom of the pan. If this happens, do not despair because by that time, usually the rest of the cabbage will be cooked. Do not on any account stir the cabbage, just remove the good from the bad carefully with a slotted spoon. If you have burnt bits at the bottom of the pan but the rest of the cabbage isn't fully cooked, then just remove all that is edible and add it to another pan with a little more butter. 

The other tip is to shred the cabbage finely to allow the juice to flow from it and aid in the cooking. You can achieve this quite well with a grater but if you are pushed for time a food processor is helpful.

 

TEMPERATURES 

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F 

Ingredients for the 'Pastry'

(makes 16)

4 large potatoes

A knob of butter

Salt and freshly ground pepper

White rice flour for dusting

 

Ingredients for the Filling

A ¼ to a ½ of a fresh red cabbage (depending on size

½ a cooking apple

½ a teaspoon of raw cane or coconut sugar1 teaspoon of raw apple cider vinegar or you can make your own as we do by visiting Organikmechanic's Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/Two-Ways-to-Make-Organic-Apple-Cider-Vinegar-in-a-/ 

A walnut-sized piece of butter.

 

Method for the 'Pastry'

Boil the potatoes whole and in their skins until firm but cooked well enough so that  a fork will pierce them easily. 

Peel and then mash with a hand masher, thus avoiding any chance of the potato becoming 'gluey'. 

Add salt, pepper and the butter. 

Set aside to cool. 

 

Method for the Filling

Grate the cabbage, after first removing the thickest part of the white rib.

Chop the apple into small pieces.Alternatively you can put both into a food processor.

Add the above along with the sugar, vinegar and butter to a heavy-bottomed pan.

Place on the lid and sauté until soft.

Leave to cool.

 

 

Assembly

Dust your pastry board and rolling pin with rice flour. 

Work with a handful of pastry at a time, it's easier that way. 

Roll it out and add more rice flour if the potato begins to stick to either the board or pin. 

Using a cutter of your choice, I liked the flower shape for this, cut out the 'pastry' shapes. When you have cut the first one and with the cutter still in place move it slightly from left to right. If it slides easily and the potato moves with it then the rice flour is doing its work. I was so happy to find this solution, as I tried first with potato flour and it was nowhere near as successful!

Place the shapes onto a buttered baking tray. 

 

Cut the lids, so you will be ready to assemble the mazagram immediately you have positioned the filling. 

Prick the lids with a fork to allow for any excess moisture to escape.

Place one teaspoonful of the mixture on each heart leaving a border to allow for a good seal when positioning the potato lid. Make sure to press around the edges of the heart gently but firmly.

Cook for 10 to 15 minutes on the top shelf of the oven, but check after 5 minutes to make sure they're not cooking too quickly. If they are, then move the tray down to the next level.

Serve warm. Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this recipe then please feel free to comment and share it with your friends and on social media.

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from an old farmhouse in Normandie,

All the very best,
Sue

©  Sue Cross 2020

 

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