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Red Cabbage Recipe
Ingredients for
4 people:
- 4 pounds (2 kg)
bottled or canned red cabbage
- 7 ounces (200 ml )
ordinary red wine
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml)
goose fat. If you cannot get goose fat, use half a
tablespoon butter and half a tablespoon oil, but goose
fat is better. In France and Germany one can buy it in
all the larger food stores.
- 2 apples
- 4 bay leaves
- 6 cloves
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Preparation Time: 20 Minutes |
Cooking Time: 6 hours |
Recipe:
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Put
all the ingredients, except for the apples, into a pot.
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Peel
and core the apples. Cut the flesh of the apple into small
pieces (half an inch square) and add to the pot.
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Put the pot on low heat (light simmer), so that the water in the
pot evaporates. Leave the pot on low heat, stirring occasionally
(perhaps every half hour) until almost all the liquid is
evaporated.
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When
the liquid is almost completely evaporated, turn the heat off
and allow to cool. If you've started this in the morning, you
can allow to cool during the afternoon. If you've started in the
evening, you can allow to cool over night.
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After
the pot contents have completely cooled, put the pot back on low
heat and continue evaporation until there is no liquid at the
bottom of the pot. During this time, the red cabbage will have
turned from a pale pink to a dark purple.
Notes:
This
is the best recipe I've found for red cabbage, and it is far
tastier than the other versions I've had (both in home-cooked
meals and good restaurants). However, few people do it this
traditional way due to the time it takes. The amount of work
isn't much, but one does have to be around to stir occasionally
to ensure that the cabbage at the bottom of the pan doesn't
burn.
The
secret of this recipe is the slow evaporation of all the excess
liquid. During this period, the various ingredients slowly
combine into a delicious feast.
One
of the advantages of this recipe is that it keeps very well. You
can prepare everything a day in advance. If you've made too much
for one meal, you can also warm it up and it will still taste
great the next day.
Before serving, you may wish to remove the bay leaves so that
you guests won't have to pick them out.
About this
recipe:
The recipes on this site are intended to be easy, and for the most part
they are. However, there are a few recipes which are less easy but are
still included as they are exceptionally good. This is one such recipe.
Therefore, be warned, this recipe is time consuming to make and
the ingredients may be difficult to find.
The recipe is from the Alsace region of France, which is famous throughout
France for their sauerkraut (picked white cabbage), and is also known
for a number of other Germanic type dishes (of which this is one). The
reason for Alsace having many Germanic dishes is that for much of its
history it was in fact part of Germany.
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