Braised Red Cabbage

Although it doesn't have the green of St. Patrick's Day, this is still a lovely side dish for your corned beef.  I served it with smoked pork chops and boiled potatoes and it was a perfect match.  The cabbage is nice and sweet and a great match for the salty smoked pork.

Here's what you need:

1 head red cabbage
1 medium onion
1 crisp red apple
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon black currant jelly

First peel and chop the onion and core the apple and slice.  No need to peel the apple.  

Heat the butter and oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat and cook the onion and apple for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft.  

Core the cabbage and quarter it.

Thinly slice the quarters.

Mix the sliced cabbage with the apple and onion in the pot.  Add the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and water and bring to a boil.

Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 25 minutes until cabbage is tender.  Add the black currant jelly and stir to combine.

Last weekend my friend took me to an awesome farm near Burlington.  Featherstone Farm is a small family farm that sells naturally raised meat. We stocked up on steaks, pork, duck and goat meat.  These smoked pork chops were fantastic with the braised cabbage.

They are already cooked in the smoker so they just needed a quick warm through on the grill.

Served with some boiled potatoes this was a great, simple meal. The flavours were perfect together.  This would be a terrific St. Paddy's Day dinner, or any time!