Vegan glamour on the menu
Glinting with gold leaf, cabbage has gone bling. Abbie Reid reports.
It’s no easy feat to turn a plate of cabbage ($31) into something people would want to order, let alone finish eating. But at The Monday Room in Christchurch (known as TMR), recently promoted head chef Eeva Torvinen has done just that, showing that clean, simple ingredients can shine when shown off in a brand new light.
On a menu of meaty European dishes such as beef Wellington, 12-hour braised lamb shoulder and chicken liver parfait, the vegan red cabbage rolls in the ‘‘large plates’’ section stand out as a curiosity. They also make a regular appearance in a ‘‘Trust the Chef’’ option, where diners receive a rolling feast of plates chosen by the kitchen team.
Glinting with gold leaf, the red cabbage rolls are a glamorous far cry from the standard mushroom risotto often lumped on vegetarian diners. Torvinen dreamed up the vibrant, purple-red vegan dish as a homage to her homeland, Finland, where cabbage is quite the popular ingredient. It echoes a traditional Finnish dish called Kaalika¨ a¨ ryleet, where large cabbage leaves are rolled around meat, street-food style.
Pickling, brining, curing and fermenting are also distinctly Nordic, as well as being very much in vogue in little old Aotearoa, and Torvinen incorporates these techniques elsewhere on her menu, to elevate humble ingredients. (An entree of vegetable dumplings involves fermented kimchi, and the acidity of cultured buttermilk cuts through a rich plate of groper.)
Her perfectly formed red cabbage rolls contain a lightly spiced nugget of ground chickpeas wrapped in softened cabbage leaves, served atop fresh, zingy pickled red cabbage, a hummus made with black sesame seeds, and shards of hot pink polenta – you can dye polenta at home with beetroot juice to achieve their show-stopping magenta hue. Gold leaf on each roll gives these humble ingredients ‘‘dignity’’, Torvinen says.
Each bite is a marriage of spices, sweetness, vinegary flavours and texture. ‘‘It’s a little bit strange, but that’s what I like to do – it’s not what the customer is expecting,’’ she says.
Having campaigned hard to include the unusual dish on the menu so prominently, she is pleased to be hearing rave reviews across the board.
A tip: Home cooks keen to reprise Torvinen’s black sesame hummus can just substitute black sesame seeds for tahini in a regular hummus recipe.