Slow Baked Red Cabbage with Apple
This is a classic combination of red cabbage and apple, slowly cooked until it melts in the mouth. It’s a perfect accompaniment to pork in particular, whether that’s a roast, pork chops, or simply a few pork sausages cooked on the BBQ. I’ve made this much more frequently since being told by a friend that it freezes incredibly well – it’s not really worth making in small quantities due to the long cooking time.
Ingredients
- 1 large red cabbage finely sliced
- 1 large onion halved and sliced
- 2 eating apples cored and roughly chopped
- 100 ml red wine
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 cloves
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- ½ tsp nutmeg grated or ground
- 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300 °F).
-
Mix the cabbage, onion, apples, red wine, sugar, red wine vinegar and spices in a large casserole dish.
-
Drizzle the olive oil over the top and cover.
-
If the casserole dish is flameproof (and you have time), bring to the boil on the stovetop. This will slightly reduce the oven cooking time.
-
Place the casserole dish into the oven and leave to cook for 3 – 3 ½ hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so if possible.
-
The cabbage is cooked when it’s tender and melting, and most of the liquid has been absorbed… At this point add seasoning as needed.
-
Either enjoy immediately, or refrigerate or freeze and reheat later.
Recipe Notes
The red wine can be substituted by port, or orange juice. The flavor can be varied too by using different combinations of spices such as coriander, cumin, and allspice. I find a casserole dish of about 4L capacity will take the volume here, although it depends a little on the size of the cabbage! In the days when I didn’t have a casserole dish this size, I split the recipe in two, and squeezed both in the oven. The volume reduces significantly during cooking.
***********************
I’ve been trying lots of sweet and savoury recipes for apples recently, as our apple tree is laden this year. My current favourite cake is this egg and dairy free Apple Sauce Olive Oil Cake, made using homemade slow cooker apple sauce, although bought would work just fine too. Check out your local markets if you can for some great deals on apples while they’re in season, and enjoy tasting some different varieties!
And if you need fresh Tasmanian Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO), then you can buy from our online shop here and have it delivered by Express Post within Australia. Or you may be one of the lucky people living near Hobart, and able to get to Farm Gate Market at Bathurst St on Sundays – which is where I’ll be roughly fortnightly from this weekend between 8.30am and 1pm. Come along and say hello, while eating your way around the best food Tassie has to offer.
