Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I was thinking of you yesterday. Did braised pork chops in a brown, mushroomy gravy, braised cabbage, and buttered spatzle with parsley. It's cold, what can I say? Oh Tannembaum!

Again, the Epicurious braised red cabbage recipe is excellent done in the pressure cooker. I caramelize the onions in bacon fat (I have it in the freezer so skip the bacon browning step), add the cabbage and about 1/2 cup water. High pressure for 4 minutes, quick release, and add in the vinegar and sugar and simmer to reduce. I think red wine vinegar or even white vinegar is better than the white wine vinegar called for in the recipe though.

Carey,

Thanks!

It's this one (it's simple but good)

• 3 1/2 lb red cabbage (1 medium head), quartered, cored, and thinly sliced crosswise
• 4 bacon slices, chopped (can substitute with more butter and it's still good)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup white-wine vinegar. (use red wine vinegar instead)
• 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Cook bacon in an 8-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until crisp, about 3 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, reserving it for another use. Add butter to bacon fat, then increase heat to moderate and cook onions, stirring, until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in cabbage, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and pepper and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 1 1/4 hours.

I've done it stovetop and in the pressure cooker. Both are good. I like it because it skips apples/other weird fruit additions and is just good old fashioned German braised cabbage. Tastes like home to me. leftovers freeze well too.

Carey,

Really? I was kinda thinking of doing this one: http://thewanderlustkitchen.com/german- ... e-rotkohl/
... partly because I was interested in the apples and onions. You think those taste wierd?

There's also this recipe: http://www.suppenkuche.com/recipes.html
... which has, of all things, cranberry sauce in it.

Golly gee there's a lot of recipes for Rotkohl. You'd think it was a traditional peasant dish or something.

I prefer mine without the apples as well, for me they dilute/sweeten the flavors more than I like.

Eeeew! My cabbage will never taste like Gin!

No, I grew up on plain braised cabbage. No fruit. Just onions, bacon fat (or butter), vinegar and sugar. I never had one that had apples mixed in when I was in Germany. I've had it here and I find it too sweet and fruity. Germans are usually pretty straight forward with their traditional foods.

Edit: The Mennonites get adventurous though. I have Food that Really Schmecks on an iPad app if there's anything that I can look up for you. It's food I ate when I lived near Waterloo as an undergrad, and it's what we get a lot of here. We have a large Mennonite population in Manitoba. A large Hutterite population too. They both make delicious food that is German-inspired, but it's distinctly different than German food from Germany. For example, they do boiled perogies (that they call Wareneki) that get served with a bacon fat roux-based cream sauce.

Here's the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website if you're interested. It's tasty, hearty food that is common in our rural Mennonite communities (classics for fall suppers and the like):

http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/p/recipe-index.html.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that you have to go to the Mennonite Recipes section to find the Mennonite recipes. The rest are things you'd probably find on allrecipes.com and the like.

Carey,

Thanks!

I actually have had cabbage flavored with juniper, in Germany. Not sure I'll make that, but still figuring things out ...

Maybe it's a regional thing.

Carey,

Could be. I was in Baden-Wutenberg at the time, in the Black Forest.

Too bad you aren't a meat eater, Fuzzy. My all-time favorite Portland restaurant is Gustav's in Clackamas. Schnitzels, all kinds of fabulous sausages, meat pies and of course many excellent German beers.
He also has Der Rhinelander restaurant as well as other Gustav's locations in other 'burbs.
There also used to be one in the Airport, but I don't know if that's still there.