Hi Guys, ok, I'm gonna show you how to make really simple but really delicious brazed red cabbage.
It's an amazing dish from my new cook book Jamie's Christmas.
With fennel seeds, clementine, balsamic vinegar, smokey bacon and rosemary.
People are gonna go crazy for it on Christmas day.
Or in actual fact, anytime of the year.
First up, I've got a nice whole red cabbage. This is about a kilo in weight.
I'm taking the tatty outside leaves off.
Smokey bacon here. So first job, slice it up and I'm using a casserole style pan on a medium heat.
So bacon in, and we're gonna fry it off with about a tbsp of olive oil.
Gonna render out the beautiful natural fat from the bacon.
What I'm gonna do it split this red cabbage very carefully in half.
Roughly and finely slice the red cabbage.
The stork, I'm just gonna literally slice up in any old way.
I think this is one of the cheapest vegetables you can buy.
I think personally, that a lot of people think red cabbage is a frumpy, boring veg. Absolutely, no way- delicious.
Now I can hear that the bacon is changing sound.
It's starting to get golden if you look in there.
And when it's getting lightly golden. I'm gonna add two or three big sprigs of rosemary.
Go in and I want the rosemary to absorb all of that lovely fat from the bacon.
And the rosemary is then gonna go really really crispy.
The rosemary goes deep green and starts to go equally crispy just like the bacon.
I'm gonna remove the rosemary and the bacon with a slotted spoon.
I'm gonna leave behind the fat- right?
In there, look at that, that's all smokey bacon fat.
I'm gonna take a little knob of butter, put that in there.
We're gonna go in with two tsps level of fennel seeds.
Have a look at these, these are my favourite spice. I use it so often.
And it's really really good.
So I'm just gonna tear in some prunes, a little handful
These have the most incredible, dynamic flavour.
They will completely disintegrate into nothing.
I'm gonna go in with the red cabbage
One or two nice apples, nicely chop it
This will give an amazing sweetness to this dish without having to use loads of brown sugar and stuff like that.
Look at the colour guys! The amazing purple against the white of the apples.
I'll add a nice little pinch of salt and pepper.
And then there's one last ingredient.
I'm gonna add atleast 8-10 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
and we're gonna cook it all away.
So guys, it might seem like a lot of balsamic vinegar but please just me when that cooks away, it's gonna bring all the flavours together
So you've got the sweet and sour of the vinegar and the apples and the prunes, in there with all those spices
with the smokey bacon, it's gonna be delicious.
So lid on, medium heat, 25 minutes.
I'll stir that every five minutes.
So see you in 25
So this has had 25 minutes, it's a phenomenal colour. You might wanna add just a little bit more fresh butter.
Just to help join all the flavours
If you just wanted to, you could just use a classic Christmas flavour like clementine
and that's the last thing, the last bit of sweetness that kind of stops the frying
Look at that.
It's just a beautiful thing
Of course, cabbage is incredibly good for you
But we've made this, so desirable, so delicious
and then don't forget the rosemary and the crispy bacon bits
Absolutely gorgeous
That will feed, as a side dish, 10 people
Easy peasy
Really nice. Tender, but the crunch from the bacon still there, and the rosemary
An absolutely beautiful red cabbage dish
if you want more red cabbage inspiration hit the 'i' box up there. Aaron Craze has done a beautiful cabbage slaw
with a bit of a twist
And don't forget, if you have left overs of this, you can kind of redress it like salad
and have it with beautiful left over bits like your ham, your meats, your cheeses and boxing day fair
So there you go, red cabbage, but not as you know it.
Until next time, lots of love.