Spiced Red Cabbage with Apples

Serves	8 to 10 servings
Prep time	30 minutes
Cook time	2 hours, 30 minutes
Total time	3 hours
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish, Side Dish
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Hot
Occasion	Casual Party, Christmas, Formal Party, Halloween, Thanksgiving
Region	British
By author	Karen S Burns-Booth

A delicious festive recipe using red cabbage, fragrant spices & apples or pears; whilst this is happily cooking away, the spicy smell pervades the kitchen & indeed the rest of the house and heralds the start of my festive baking and freezing season - who needs expensive pot-pourris! Not only is this dish delectable to eat alongside turkey, pork, beef and hams in particular - but the colour is just gorgeous, a rich jewelled ruby red. This cabbage can be kept warm for long periods, reheated and also freezes very well, making it a very well behaved recipe.

Ingredients

900g to 1 kilo red cabbage, shredded finely (I used my Kenwood Food Processor)
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons soft brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, peeled & finely minced
4 large apples or 4 large pears, NOT peeled, finely diced
4 large onions, peeled & finely diced (I used my Kenwood Food Processor)
25g butter

Note

A delicious festive recipe using red cabbage, fragrant spices & apples or pears; whilst this is happily cooking away, the spicy smell pervades the kitchen & indeed the rest of the house and heralds the start of my festive baking and freezing season - who needs expensive pot-pourri! Not only is this dish delectable to eat alongside turkey, pork, beef and hams in particular - but the colour is just gorgeous, a rich jewelled ruby red. This cabbage can be kept warm for long periods, reheated and also freezes very well, making it a very well behaved recipe.

Directions

Step 1	Discard outer leaves of the red cabbage and cut into quarters. Cut out the central woody root and then shred the quarters very finely. Place in a bowl. Cut the apples or pears into quarters, core them & then slice into fine dice and set aside in another bowl. (I used my wonderful Kenwood Titanium Chef for the shredding, cutting back time by about three-quarters.)
Step 2	Place peeled and diced onions into another bowl & make sure all the other ingredients are measured and to hand.
Step 3	If cooking in a conventional Dutch oven or Le Creuset type casserole dish, turn oven on to 180C/ 360F/Gas 4. This can be cooked on the top of the stove too.
Step 4	For cooking in a slow cooker - take the inner crock out and start layering the ingredients: Red cabbage, then salt & pepper; Apples or pears, onions & garlic, then the spices & brown sugar;keep layering this way until everything has been used up. Layer the same way for conventional cooking too, as in step 3.
Step 5	(If you would like it slightly spicier, add a little more spices, but no more than 1 teaspoon per spice, as it will be too spiced & will detract from the apple/pear & red cabbage flavours)
Step 6	Dot the top of the red cabbage with the butter and pour over the red wine vinegar.
Step 7	Season once more with salt & pepper and cook for 6 to 12 hours on High in the slow cooker, until everything has broken down, is soft and it is a rich red colour.
Step 8	For conventional cooking - cook for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours in pre-heated oven. It can be cooked on the stove top too; takes about 2 - 3 hours on a low heat, just a slow simmer.
Step 9	Pears can be used as well, and I sometimes add a handful of cranberries for a really festive touch!