Adrians Braised Red Cabbage with cider, apple & cranberry
One of the first Christmas side dishes I learned to make as a chef. I’ll always go back to this recipe. As soon as you start cooking your house will smell like Christmas. By Chef Adrian Martin
4 people
120 minutes
20 minutes
Ingredients
- 300 ml Cider
- 1 large Cooking Apple peeled and grated
- 300 ml Cranberry Sauce
- 50 g Dried Cranberries
- 4 tbsp Duck Fat (goose fat will work also, or for a lower fat version, you can use 2 tbsp Rapeseed oil)
- 0.5 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 pinch Ground Cloves
- 0.5 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 large Red Cabbage trimmed, cored, and finely shredded. I like to use a mandolin for this.
- 2 - Red Onion sliced
- 4 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 6 tbsp Redcurrant Jelly
- 1 - Salt and Black Pepper
Method
Method:
1. Start by heating your fat or oil in a large, heavy-based pot over medium heat. If you're using the duck or goose fat, you're in for a treat — it’s going to give this cabbage some seriously rich flavor. But rapeseed oil will do the job just fine too.
2. Now, toss in your red onions. You want to sweat these down for about 5 or 6 minutes until they're soft and just starting to caramelize. Keep stirring them — don’t be afraid to get in there with the spoon, make sure they’re cooking evenly.
3. it's time for the shredded red cabbage and grated apple. Stir them into the onions, let them cook away for another 5 minutes. That apple is going to bring in a lovely sweetness that'll balance out the tang from the vinegar later.
4. Get your liquids in there — pour in the cider and cranberry juice. These are going to give you a lovely depth and a bit of sharpness. Then stir in the redcurrant jelly for a hint of sweetness, and follow that with the red wine vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, and a pinch of ground cloves. Season well with sea salt and black pepper.
5. Give it all a good stir to make sure those spices are evenly spread out. Then bring it to the boil — this is where all the flavors start coming together beautifully.
6. Once it’s bubbling, turn the heat down to a gentle simmer, pop a lid on, and let it cook away for 1 to 1.5 hours. You want to check on it every so often, give it a stir so it doesn’t catch, and make sure it’s cooking down nicely. It should be soft, tender, and packed with flavor.
7. Right at the end, give it a taste, adjust the seasoning if needed, and if it’s a bit dry, just splash in a bit more cider or juice. Serve warm.
