Crock Pot Baked Spiced Red Cabbage With Apples or Pears

French Tart's Note:

A delicious recipe using red cabbage, fragrant spices & apples or pears; whilst this is happily cooking away, the spicy smell pervades the kitchen & indeed the rest of the house and heralds the start of my festive baking & freezing season - who needs expensive pot-pourries! Not only is this dish delectable to eat alongside turkey, pork, beef and hams in particular - but the colour is just gorgeous, a rich jewelled ruby red! This cabbage can be kept warm for long periods, reheated and also freezes very well, making it a very well behaved recipe!!

• Total Time: 6 hrs 45 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 6 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 2 lbs red cabbage, shredded finely
• 4 large onions, peeled & finely diced
• 4 large apples or 4 large pears, NOT peeled, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled & finely minced
• 4 tablespoons soft brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• salt & pepper
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 ounce butter

Directions:

1. Discard outer leaves of the red cabbage and ut into quarters. Cut out the central woody root and then shred the quarters very finely. Place in a bowl. Cut the apples or pears into quarters, core them & then slice into fine dice and set aside in another bowl.
2. Place peeled and diced onions into another bowl & make sure all the other ingredients are measured and to hand!
3. If cooking in a conventional dutch oven or Le Creuset type casserole dish, turn oven on to 180 C or 360°F It can be cooked on top of the stove too.
4. For cooking in the crockpot - take the inner crock out and start layering the ingredients: Red cabbage, then salt & pepper; Apples or pears, onions & garlic, then the spices & brown sugar;keep layering this way until everything has been used up.
5. (If you would like it slghtly spicier, add a little more spices, but no more than 1 teaspoon per spice, as it will be too spiced & will detract from the apple/pear & red cabbage flavours!).
6. Dot the top of the red cabbage with the butter and pour over the red wine vinegar.
7. Season once more with salt & pepper and cook for 6 to 12 hours on High in the crockpot, until everything has broken down, is soft and it is a rich red colour.
8. For conventional cooking - cook for about 2 - 2 1/2 hours at 180 C or 360°F I.
9. It can be cooked on the stove top too; takes about 2 - 3 hours on a low heat, just a slow simmer.
10. Pears can be used as well, and I sometimes add a handful of cranberries for a really festive touch!

Reviews

[muncheechee]

Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed in the recipe as is. I followed the directions exactly for the crock-pot and it came out pretty bland. I was hoping it would taste like the red cabbage at my favorite German restaurant. I think if this recipe was tweaked it would be better... or maybe the stove-top preparation would have more flavor. Sorry, I really wanted to like this one.

[DDW]

Great recipe and easy to make! I cooked in the crock pot (you need a large one) on high for about 6 1/2 hours. The only thing I changed was adding a 1/2 cup of ruby port about 1/2 through the cooking time. I have made other cabbage recipes that used port and just couldn't resist adding some. I used 4 green apples and it was delish. I have 2 pkgs frozen for future dinners. Thanks French Tart!

[Three Kids Make Me Crazy]

Made mine on the stove top, giving it a good stir every hour or so because I didn't layer the ingredients. Everyone loved it! Thanks!