Red Cabbage, the hot way

 

I bought a new computer! Because my old one was acting up, and because the geek in me always likes a new toy :) That means I'm basically broke for the next couple of weeks. Now what does this has to do with my food blog? Well don't expect any caviar or truffle recipe these days, not that you ever should expect that here.

But that doesn't mean there's no cooking going around here, quite the opposite actually, I'm just on a tighter budget than usual. So I'm trying to use more things I have in my pantry with some less pricey ingredients.
The answers to little money is quite easy: just go for in season vegetables that grow in your area. One that I enjoy, that just starts being in season and that you can get more than one meal out of it is red cabagge.

It works raw, chopped finely in a salad like coleslow or cooked, like we often do here. This is actually a traditional recipe from my region, but it's mostly a side dish to go with red meat or game, I personally like it just like that as a main dish. And like every good old fashionned recipe, it's even better when you warm it up again.

So first, this is not really a "pretty" recipe, it's a casserole that cooks for about 2 hours, so everything combines together. And as said, I cooked mostly out of my pantry, and red wine is not something I have around, but I have a little Porto wine, so I used that instead. You can also make it all vegetarian and leave the bacon aside.

Red Cabagge Casserole

Serves 2 for a main course

1/2 a Red Cabbage
2 Apples
200gr of Chestnuts, pealed
100gr of Bacon
1/2 a glass of Porto Wine
1 glass of Water
2 Tablespoon of Cider Vinegar
Salt, Pepper, Sugar
Oil or Butter

Chop the red cabagge and cube the apples. Preferably use a stoneware casserole, put it on a medium heat with a bit of oil or butter, depending on your choice.

Cut the bacon into cubes and put them into the casserole to let them color a little. Add the apples and the chopped cabagge, stir every now and than for about 5 minutes.

Add the porto, the water and the vinegar, aswell as the salt, pepper and about a tablespoon of sugar. Lower the heat and put the lid on, let it cook for about 1 hour and a half, stir it every now and than. For the last 30 minutes, cook it with the lid off to reduce the liquid down as much as possible.