Red Cabbage

A few years ago on one of my  visits to The Netherlands to stay with my Dutch friend, we had a super meal which included a delicious dish of red cabbage that had been cooked with apples.

I thought then that I did not remember my mother ever cooking red cabbage. When I came home I found recipes in both my Polish and English cookery books and tried out many of these.

The following recipe has been refined and altered and this one  with lots of apples and spices is the one  I now use all the time.

As it takes a long time to cook in a low oven or in a slow cooker, I tend to make a lot at once. It freezes and reheats well, so once made I divide it into small portions to freeze.

I think it goes well with roast pork loin and I usually make some before Christmas and serve it with roast pork loin during the holiday period.

Tip 1

Have a lemon ready after handling the chopped red cabbage as you will find your hands become stained blue/purple. Lemon juice will clear the stains away.  Another reason to make this dish in advance.

Tip 2 – Also Excellent as a Salad

I have discovered that this dish is also delicious when it is cold!   I now also serve this with cold meats and Polish style sausage.

Ingredients

• 1 head of red cabbage
• 3 or 4 large cooking apples
• 1 onion – chopped fine
• 1 or 2 garlic cloves – chopped fine (optional)
• 6 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
• 1 level teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• ¼ level teaspoon of ground cloves
• Salt & ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons of cider or wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of water

Method

• Pre heat the oven to GM 2 or get your slow cooker ready..
• You need a large oven-proof dish with a lid to make this.  I either use a very large oval enamel dish or I have now started to use a slow cooker.
• I mix the ingredients in a large bowl first  and then put them in the cooking dish.
• Mix together the sugar, spices, salt and pepper, vinegar and water.

• Remove the core from the cabbage head and cut the cabbage into fine shreds and add these to the spice mixture.

• Peel, core  and then coarse grate the apples and then add these to the cabbage mixture. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon.

• Put the mixture into the cooking dish (or slow cooker) and put in the oven (or switch on the slow cooker).

• It should take about  3-4 hours  – it may take longer in the slow cooker.