Cabbage is not a vegetable that everyone automatically loves. I’m fortunate in the sense that I used to hang out at my mother’s chopping board as a kid and was fed a variety of raw vegetables and consequently, raw white cabbage, is one of my favourite vegetables in the world, ever.
Red cabbage is a powerhouse of nutrients including vitamin C, vitamins K, B1, B2 plus folic acid and is a good source of minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium and manganese. Additionally, as with all the ‘red vegetables’ such as beetroot it is high in anti-cancerous phyto-chemicals and health enhancing anti-oxidants.
We didn’t eat much of the red variety as a family and it was only a few years ago that I discovered how nice it could be when I was tempted by a red cabbage dish that an Ex-boyfriend’s mum cooked one Christmas. Admittedly I wasn’t sure, but after one mouthful I was converted. Unfortunately I didn’t have the wherewithal to get the recipe then and there, and it has since been lost in the annals of time.
Luckily my sister’s Mother-in-law hails from Germany, a country which in my opinion, is a specialist in Christmassy food. Every year in recent times we have been gifted some of her braised red cabbage cooked to her special recipe. Unfortunately this year as MIL has chosen to visit her own family in the mother-land it has fallen to us mere mortals from England to try and re-create it. MIL refuses to give us her recipe, as its a family secret, so I’ve dug deep into my own Germanic heritage and scoured the recipe books in a desperate attempt to find something that might replicate this dish.
Strangely enough, its not something that is a staple in many books, but I was able to find one in Leanne Kitchen’s “Growers Market” which I have altered a tad to my requirements which are: larger quanities, a lack of red wine vinegar and more alcohol.
Braised Red Cabbage:
This dish can be easily be prepared the day before and reheated in the oven when you are warming the plates or above the steaming vegetables.
Ingredients:
1 dessert spoon of clarified butter (ghee)
1 red cabbage, shredded
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 dessert apples, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 bottle of red wine
2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar
a small glass of masala wine
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and slowly cook the onions until opaque. Add the cabbage and apples, red wine, vinegar and masala. Season with a little salt and pepper.
Cover, bring to a simmer and turn heat to very low. Cook for approx two hours or until the cabbage is soft. Stir the mixture from time to time to ensure that cooking is even and so the bottom doesn’t catch.
If you want it any sweeter then add a tablespoon of honey or brown sugar half way through. And of course, if you want to make it more alcoholic, then feel free to add more booze, it is Christmas after all!
images by avlxyz
