My Mom's "Kohlsoße" (cabbage sauce with sausages over mashed potatoes)

This is one of my Mom's dishes that I didn't really appreciate as a child, but started to really enjoy later on. It's a good hearty but also light dish.

I prefer the dryed sausages ("Bauernbratwurst") that are quite hard. My Mom prefers the soft Cabanossi sausage. It does not matter which one you use, just add the harder sausages at the beginning and the soft sausages rather to the end. You can also use both, as we did here :)

Another highlight here is My Mom's mashed potatoes - always super smooth and creamy.

Ingredients:

Cabbage Sauce:

• 150g margarine
• 1-1.5 cups flour
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 nappa cabbage ("Chinakohl")
• 2 l water (or half water/ half vegetable broth)
• 2 dryed sausages ("Bauernbratwurst")
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
• vegeta to taste
• cayenne pepper to taste
• 1 cabanossi sausage - sliced
• 3-4 Tbsp dark sauce thickener ("Mondamin Soßenbinder", cornstarch possible)

Mashed Potatoes:

• 6 medium large potatoes
• 2 liter water
• 2 tsp salt
• 1-2 Tbsp butter (or margarine) 
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk (warm)
• possibly more salt

Preparation

Prepare the Base ("Mehlschwitze")

Let the margarine melt on low heat, add the flour, stir occasionally. Let it simmer till it thickens and you see bubbles. This process is called "schwitzen" (sweating) in German. Then add the minced garlic. Now, keep stirring and let the roux cook till it turns lightly brown. Don't burn the garlic or the sauce as it can turn bitter.

Let the Cabbage cook

When the roux is ready, add the sliced cabbage and fill up with water. Instead of water, you can also use vegetable broth or a mix of water and broth, but then add less vegeta and salt later on. Add the "Bauernbratwürste". These are hard smoked saussages that I especially like and will add some flavor. Alternatively, the Cabanossi sausage that we will add later would also be enough. Season with some salt and pepper and a bit of careway seeds. Let the cabbage simmer for 20-30 minutes till it's soft.

Mashed Potatoes

Prepare a normal mashed potatoes, but make the mash not too soft as you will pure the cabbage sauce on top of it. Salt is only adding to the salt water, but if you still need more salt at your mashed potatoes, add it to the warm milk or at the end and stir with a spoon.

Peel the potatoes and boil them in salted water for about 20 minutes till they are soft. Drain. First, mash the potatoes with a hand masher. Then, when the potatoes are already pretty smooth, use an electric mixer and keep mixing further. Now, add the butter and mix. Add bit by bit the warm milk and keep mixing. Stop adding milk, when the mash is smooth and has the consitency you prefer.

Finishing/ Seasoning

When the cabbage is soft, add some vegeta and cayenne pepper to the sauce, to taste. Thicken the sauce a bit with a dark sauce thickener (e.g., Mondamin) or similar (e.g. flour and water works fine as well). Let it simmer for a few minutes. It takes a bit to thicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add the sliced Cabanossi and bring to a quick boil and it's done. The Cabanossi is a sausage that was already cooked, so it only needs to be heated up.

Serve the cabbage sauce over the mashed potatoes.

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