Red cabbage help!

annie12

I cooked red cabbage in the slow cooker on Christmas Eve using Mary berry's recipe with cooking apples (only had eating so used those but omitted the 40g of caster sugar), white wine vinegar (had to use red wine vinegar as had no white) and butter. In my opinion it is bland, so my question is, what can I do with it as I don't want to waste it?

Thank you 

Gers

I've just made a hug panful!  As my late DM was German and made great red cabbage I always follow her method - red wine vinegar is perfect as it helps keep the colour.  I use lard as the fat and have cloves and black peppercorns in it too (remove before eating if possible).  Today I didn't have lard so use butter and oil.

Try adding in a little sugar but then temper it with a little more vinegar - hope you added salt already. 

In my experience red cabbage greatly benefits from eating after at least one day if not more. 

GillyLucy

Maybe some balsamic vinegar to add depth of flavour . I have used the glaze one in the past when it needed thickening .

maman

Sorry, not familiar with Mary Berry's recipe but I use Delia's and it's delicious. I've used eating apples and white wine vinegar so I don't think that's the problem. The recipe IIRC uses onions, garlic, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, sugar/sweetener and seasoning. I use little fat, just a few knobs of butter/spread on the top. It's full of seasonal flavour and freezes well., 

Katiehound

As above- have used Delia's recipe several times. I have even used apple sauce! Maybe it is the proportions or lack of spices?

I don't use any fat at all

perhaps some cloves, cinnamon & nutmeg even added now would solve the problem
personally I wouldn't add any salt

Delia's recipe is basically 2 parts cabbage:1 part apple: 1 part onion.
perhaps there's not enough onion?

Also if you are chilli lovers (hate the stuff myself!!) you add a few chilli flakes.

You should be able to rescue it

Flavour matures with keeping

JIL

Fry some onions, add some spices, a little sugar, extra vinegar(ginger, mixed spice, nutmeg) add the red cabbage and warm it all together 

seanfos

One of my favourites. I use butter, onion, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, a cinnamon stick, mixed peel, sultanas, light muscovado sugar and balsamic vinegar. I always make it a day or two beforehand to let the flavour develop then stir in a good knob of butter and slowly reheat for serving

Sean

herebeme

Red currant jelly could be a good thing to add. Sultanas soaked in wine maybe if you like that sort of thing. 

I second the ideas of slowly frying some onion in butter. Adding whatever spices, though not too much (ground cloves, all spice perhaps - depends what you like), adding a decent amount of red current jelly and some soft brown sugar, and some salt. Make sure it’s well mixed. Then add the cabbage to it. Make sure it’s well coated. Leave overnight for flavours to develop. 

[Edit: This above is as a rescue, and assuming you used the required amount of vinegar first time around, if you cut vinegar amount down then add some balsamic too]. 

Gers

Gosh, so many variations and additions to a very simple dish. 

Fat of some sort
Apple of some sort
 Vinegar (acid) of some sort 
Sugar of some sort
Cloves
Salt
Only add fluid to stop the cabbage from burning - it is naturally watery
Slow cooking on a low heat until it's cooked but not mushy. 

It's so much better after one or two days. Freezes well. 

JIL

I made mine on Christmas eve and it sat in the oven cooking away whilst I baked other things, otherwise it would have gone in the slow cooker.
I loosely follow the delia recipe, but I'm not keen on cloves. I didnt use spices this year, but added some dried cranberries for a festive touch.

It really as @Gers says as simple as chopped cabbage, chopped onion, chopped apple, butter/marg, vinegar and sugar. Mixed together and cooked long and slow. 

Freezes brilliantly.

Brambling

I use this quick version from Delia with cranberries which benefits from cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon as well as finishing with red wine vinegar and brown sugar which helps to keep the colour 

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/seasons/what-should-you-be-cooking-in-december/spiced-sauteed-red-cabbage-with-