Boreegard Rassles With Red Cabbage

Our faithful Woodland Valley View food columnist (he is one of the only people who send me recipes) Mike O'Neil (aka Boreegard) sent me this message earlier in the week. I can't wait to try and make this dish! Read on for Red Cabbage Boreegard style.


Well Huck Honey, there comes a time when to compliment a perfect piece of pork, you MUST do something with red cabbage. I see by my voluminous kitchen notes that on December 23, 2001 I did indeed do something.

I quote:

I served red cabbage this evening along with my stuffed acorn squash and a brined two pound pork tenderloin. The recipients, at a Christmas set table—a beautiful creation of Jeanne’s—were Tim, Karen, Kelly, Dan, Stelious, Jeanne, and me. Griff and Julia were also there and at the end of the meal were cradled, hugged, held, and photographed again and again.

INGREDIENTS

A medium head of red cabbage (about two pounds)
1 medium onion, sliced and chopped.
A large sweet apple, sliced and chopped.
4 slices of bacon, fried to a brown crisp, crunched up, save the drippings.
½ cup of apple vinegar
1 bottle of Ballantine 3 ring ale (XXX)
3 tbsp. honey (preferably Oberbeck’s)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp caraway seeds

TO DO

In a kind, large fry pan or pot, fry bacon to a brown crisp. Remove, and save two tbsp bacon fat. Take pan off heat.

Place cabbage, onions, vinegar, salt, pepper in the pan/pot and allow them to get together. Stir this mix from time to time for about 15 minutes. What you’re doing, Honey, is allowing the cabbage to keep its vibrant redness, by the vinegar soak. Otherwise, it will come out a disgusting pukey color that even Wendy de Austin would rather not describe in polite Texas society.

Add ale ,bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer. Add apples, bacon, butter. Cover. Stir every once and a while. Continue this for at least an hour and a half, maybe longer—red cabbage is a tough mother and needs to be beaten into submission.

Eventually, uncover, and reduce liquid to a minimum. It should stop looking like soup, and look more like something you’d want to put on your plate, or in your bowl.

Boreegard March 29, 2012