Red Revolution

Today's blog article is all about the use of Red Cabbages in cooking and moreover how to use them in a creative way that doesn't just involve boiling the flavour out of them and then serving them with a white sauce to disguise their lack of flavour.

The first approach I used to make this usually dull vegetable interesting was by frying half of it, after it had been finely diced, in a Le Cresceut Dish with enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the dish until the cabbage began to soften and turn partially brown. The trick when frying cabbage is to stir it constantly otherwise it tends to stick to the pan and burn very quickly.

After the cabbage softened I added the flesh from two Cox's Apples. So as to give extra flavour to the dish I did not peel the apples before I cut the flesh, cubed it and added it to the red cabbage. At the same time I added two tablespoons of brown sugar, three sprigs of thyme from the garden and half a pint of cider. In this instance I used Bulmer's Cider which worked very well.

After simmering the contents of the dish until the cider had been absorbed into the cabbage and apple it was ready to serve to the guests of a meal I was hosting to herald the end of the working week and for me the start of a well-earned week off from the day job. The rich taste of the cider-soaked cabbage helped compliment the giant sage Yorkshire Pudding, steamed sprouts, lentils in gravy and roast potatoes that also formed part of an enjoyable meal and a fun evening.

Two days later it was the second Sunday in October and I needed something to compliment the corned beef hash I had prepared, see previous blog entry entitled 'Hashtag', and as it was a Sunday and I wasn't at work I prepared the Red Cabbage left over from the previous Friday by slow cooking it in the oven.

Kiss' 1985 hair metal platinum smash "Asylum" was on the playlist. The album has been described by the allmusic guide as being "chock full of nondescript fluff" a criticism that sounds similar to that handed out to the band Spinal Tap in their eponymous film when a reviewer described  their album 'Shark Sandwich' as being more like 'sh%t sandwich'. Accurate as that may have been for the Spinal Tap album to dismiss Asylum in similar terms would be a little harsh as although the band is clearly on autopilot for some of the record guitarist Bruce Kulick plays hard throughout and drummer Eric Carr clatters round the kit more than enough to ensure that the better songs like 'King of the Mountain' are memorable.

I first finely shredded the half of red cabbage remaining from Friday, cored two Cox's apples and then cut the flesh into cubes as well as dicing a large clove of garlic and a red onion. I then melted an ounce of butter in my Le Cresceut dish and cooked the cabbage in it for five minutes. I then added the apples, onion, garlic, two bay leafs, three sprigs of thyme, a teaspoon of grated nutmeg and half a pint of cider.

After taking the dish off the hob I cooked it in the oven at a temperature of 140 degrees, 150 for non-fan ovens, for three hours. Once the dish had cooked I discarded the bay leaves and served it with the corn beef hash I had previously prepared.

When compared to the Red Cabbage dish I had made the previous Friday this cabbage had more of what I would call a 'lived in feel' as slow cooked meals often tend to. What I mean by this is it had a more richer and mature taste compared to the more instant but also pleasant taste of the other red cabbage prepared a few days earlier.

The slow cooked take on red cabbage; rich and mature.