What do you do when you find yourself with a savoy cabbage, an onion, an apple, some bacon and some butter? You make 'Cabbage a la John', the cabbage for people who don't really like cabbage. John is John Reed of Heide fame and I made this recipe last night after seeing it in 'Sunday's Kitchen'. All I can say is 'wow'!
Basically you just cook up some bacon in butter (I know, I know) then layer handfuls of shredded cabbage, onion and apple with a little salt and pepper and a little marjoram if you have it. Put a lid on the pot and allow it all to steam, shaking the pan occasionally to stop it catching on the bottom. It's not much in the looks department but the taste more than makes up for it.
This dish was a household favourite at the Reeds and John and Sunday would have made it with vegetables and herbs from their kitchen garden, apples from their orchard and freshly churned butter which they made themselves every morning. Unfortunately I'm not that well set up so it was supermarket supplies this time but next time I might try and source my produce from the local farmers market - I think Sunday would approve of that.
What have you been cooking up? If you'd like to see some other lovely things people have been making check out Pip's links over here.
I saw this recipe when I read the book - isn't it delicious? In so many ways. I don't eat red meat and we have a vegetarian in the house and though I've never tried the fake meats I thought I might give the facon a go for this recipe.
ReplyDeleteWow, facon - I've never even heard of that! I served the cabbage with chicken schnitzel which is a household favourite.
ReplyDeleteI don't eat red meat either, but I think the smell of bacon cooking is probably the only thing that could possibly tempt me back......this does sound yummy.......
ReplyDeleteThe weather is warming up over here, it was 30c last weekend. At this time of the year we often make coleslaw salad with the same ingredients, substituting the butter and bacon with raw carrot and mayonnaise, or alternative. You just shred the cabbage (a hard white one) and onion finely. Grate the carrot and apple. Mix together and dress with the mayonnaise. It's lovely with fresh walnuts added too and is great served with chicken and boiled new potatoes.