Christmas Red Cabbage

Red cabbage served hot as a vegetable is something that has only found its way onto my food radar in recent years. Seems like I was well behind the curve on this one because it’s evidently quite a popular Christmas side dish, which somehow I’d managed to miss! Anyway, the fact is, whenever I’ve had it in a restaurant I’ve loved it, so I thought it was time I had a go at making it myself.

Obviously, Delia was the first port of call for a recipe and, as ever, I found just the thing I was looking for. Mind you, I was a bit sceptical when I found the cooking time was at least two hours; I wouldn’t even want to imagine what a green cabbage would look like if it was cooked for two hours (don’t go there…!) but the red variety is a lot more robust and is happy to cook long and slow.

Before it was cooked it looked a bit like a winter coleslaw but, once cooked, it transformed into a fragrant, beautifully coloured blend of textures and flavours. We both had a large spoonful with that night’s dinner of sausages and mash with onion gravy…and it went down very well indeed! The rest has been portioned up and put safely in the freezer until the big day.

I changed one thing about Delia’s recipe: I cooked mine on the hob on a very low heat rather than in the oven. It was absolutely fine and the cooking time was the same.

On a different cabbagey note:
Every year, for as long as I can remember, I’ve bought a jar of pickled red cabbage just before Christmas; I always have some on Christmas night when I put out some nibbley bits for us to pick at. Just one jar and I never eat it at any other time of the year. It’s one of those family traditions, the reason for which is lost in the mists of time, a bit like nuts in their shells which always get thrown away the week after New Year (!) or sprouts even though nobody likes them; it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them. What a strange lot we are!