Cooked Red Cabbage

This recipe for cooked Red Cabbage is from The Penguin Freezer Cookbook. When I buy red cabbage it is always more than I need, I shred it into my salads in small quantities but it is always in danger of getting past its best before I've used it all. As a hot vegetable it takes ages to cook so it makes so much sense to batch book cabbage and freeze it in smaller qualities. Cooked Red cabbage freezes very well, it doesn't spoil and almost improves!

Ingredients

• 1.5 Kgs red cabbage

• 1 large onion

•  garlic clove

• 2 tbsp. olive oil

• 2 large cooking apples

• 2 cloves

• 125ml red wine or a mixture of wine vinegar and water

• 1-2 tbs. brown sugar

• salt and pepper

Method

1. Slice the onion and garlic and cook them very slowly in the olive oil in a large saucepan for about 10 minutes.

2. Add the cabbage, cut into 1/4 -inch slices, and when this has cooked down in the saucepan-after about 15 minutes-add the peeled, cored and sliced apple, the cloves, the wine and a tablespoon or so of sugar. 

3. Season and cook gently over a low heat for about 3 hours.

4. Test for seasoning, and if necessary add more salt or sugar.

5. The dish is now ready to serve or freeze.

6. To freeze, allow to cool, and freeze in waxed cartons.

7. To re-heat: turn the frozen cabbage into a heavy saucepan and gently cook until it is hot all through (which will take 1/2 an hour at least, unless the quantity is small).It may have become a little dry during the freezing, if so add a small quantity of stock.

Variations on this recipe include adding the juice and grated peel of an orange 1/4 hour before the end of the cooking or adding 500g chestnuts for at least 2 1/2 hours of the cooking time. I quite like to add a hand full of raisins or sultanas to  the basic recipe