Red cabbage

[Green Aura]

I'm the only one in my family who really likes red cabbage - as a vegetable not just pickled. I usually cook it really slowly with apples, carrots and wine etc until it's soft and tasty but then have to eat most of it myself. I end up freezing portions just for me and it seems to make a lot!

Anyway yesterday I tried a new way of preparing it (new to me). Having taken off the end of the stump and the outer leaves I sliced it in half and then into 1" slices. I mixed crushed garlic (lots) with olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice and smeared it on the slices then baked it for about 40 minutes.

Oh it was good. So good we went back and snacked on the rest of the slices after dinner and scoffed the entire cabbage between two of us.

[Odsox]

Now what did you have to go and post that for ?
I've only just recently persuaded my better half that growing red cabbage is a silly idea.
Do you think it would work with Savoy cabbage ?

[Flo]

You can cook Savoy cabbage with apples and sultanas but it's not the same as red cabbage.

[Green Aura]

It would work just fine. I've had roasted green cabbage wedges before and they're lovely. Not so amazingly transformed into loveliness as red cabbage though.

[Odsox]

Out of interest, what do you mean by "roasted" cabbage?
Do you mean roasted like roast root veg in an open tray so that it ends up with crispy edges, or do you just mean cooked in the oven in a covered casserole?
Not sure I like the sound of crispy cabbage.

[diggernotdreamer]

I love that crispy seaweed they do in the Chinese takeaway, which is actually shredded and fried cabbage. I will try that red cabbage recipe, we are big fans of braised red cabbage too

[old tree man]

mmmmm love fried seaweed, my sister gave me a great recipe for garlic cabbage/kale i cant stop eating it
1 onion finely chopped
4/5 cloves garlic depending how strong you like it
1/2 cabbage or kale
salt and pepper to taste
in a large pan sweat the onion and garlic gently in butter then add the cabbage with a small amount of water (just enough to sweat the cabbage) and steam out until the cabbage has settled in the pan season then serve and eat straight away yum

[Green Aura]

Sorry, Tony, I needed to go to Inverness today while there's a break in the weather. I roasted the slices open on a baking sheet. That's where the magic happens - the outer leaves got a little bit crispy, sort of puffed up and the inner slices were soft, sweet and juicy.

You really have to try it.

That recipe sounds great Russ. Hopefully there'll be some kale in my veg box tomorrow.

[doofaloofa]

I like red cabbage steamed and tossed in olive oil and orange juice

[ina]

Red cabbage is one of my favourite veg, but so far, whenever I've eaten it in the UK, I've always found that it was overcooked and horribly sweet... I slice it fairly thinly and cook it the "traditional" German way, with a little apple, cloves and some lemon juice to bring out the colour. Have used red wine instead on occasion, if I happen to have a bottle open. (Roasting veg for a single person is just not on - wastes too much energy, but I can imagine that that would be nice.)

[Green Aura]

Ina, I have just the answer for you - a toaster oven. It saves us loads of money for regular use, when we just want to do a couple of jacket spuds or slices of toast. It's tiny and very economical. They're not very expensive to buy either. I've even baked bread in it - when I've just wanted to make one loaf.

I use my big oven for batch cooking, baking or Sunday lunch (which maybe counts as batch because it always makes 2-3 meals).

[Odsox]

Ina, I have just the answer for you - a toaster oven

We had one of those, very useful indeed and lasted many years, in fact I think I still have it somewhere out in the shed.
Then we bought a microwave combination oven when our last microwave gave up the ghost. That was probably about 15 years ago and since then the microwave part has rarely been used, mainly for rapid defrost, but the fan oven part is used every week.
Must be more economical I would have thought as it's well insulated and sealed.
Wouldn't be without it.

[Green Aura]

Absolutely. We haven't replaced our defunct microwave.

Rapid defrost is done by sitting the object in a bowl of tepid water. It really doesn't take much longer than the microwave did!

[old tree man]

Jane and I love red cabbage too one of our favourite dinners is cabbage with mashed swede (loads of butter) salt n pepper and gravy mmmmmmmm

[ina]

Ina, I have just the answer for you - a toaster oven.

I'll get one of those once my cooker gives up the ghost altogether. At the moment, there isn't really space for anything extra in the kitchen. (Not even for a fridge, let alone a microwave!) The grill section of the cooker is bust already - so it's only a matter of time. I won't replace it with a new one, I'll just have one of those tiny ovens and a two ring table top cooker.