THE LIGHT OF AUTUMN
We belong to the local “Swiss Club”, where we get together every so often to eat good, traditional Swiss food, chat, watch a movie, and generally have a good time.
One of our friends is a cook in one of the resorts here, and we started to talk about “Rot Kraut”, a favorite fall dish.
Then the whole table took turns telling how they make their version.
Every person had a different way to make it, and everyone was excited and thrilled to hear how. I love those kind of conversations…so much better than trying to top each other on the latest bizarre news of the moment!
I don’t remember eating “Red Cabbage” while growing up in Cleveland. I did eat it in Switzerland though, where people went crazy over it, as a side dish to other fall specialties, like homemade “spaetzli” served with wild boar sausages.
MITSOUKO by Guerlain
So if you like “Red Cabbage”, I think you will love this “recipe” I got from a French house guest we had staying with us. She also was the one who introduced me to the Guerlain perfume house, and my favorite perfume, Mitsouko. I can’t remember her name, it was over 20 years ago, but I will always remember her.
She got this recipe from her great-great grandmother that is absolutely delicious. Funny, but when I told the friend who’s a cook about how I make it, he said he had never heard of doing it like this before with garlic.
By the way, he uses apple sauce…something I will be sure to try in the months to come.
Sadhvi’s Red Cabbage Recipe
1. Take a head of red cabbage and wash, remove any outer leaves that don’t look good, core it, and cut it up into the desired size.
2. If you use a pressure cooker for everything like I do, then you know how to do the timing, etc. If not, throw the cabbage into a big pot with a tight fitting lid.
3. Take a whole head of garlic (or so), peel, and put one or two whole cloves into each piece. This makes taking them out very easy after cooking, because you don’t want the cloves after it’s done. Place them amongst the cabbage in the pot.
4. Now sprinkle some good balsamic vinegar over the cabbage. It’s maybe a cup, maybe a bit more? It doesn’t matter! We have a store around here that has really cheap prices on really good condiments. So I understand if you don’t want to use your really expensive Italian Balsamic Vinegar. Use whatever you have on hand. No need to go out and buy anything special for this recipe.
5. Now sprinkle some salt over the cabbage. And now some nice olive oil.
6. Cook. Voila! Enjoy…now wasn’t that easy? It’s even better the next day, by the way.
"ROT KRAUT"
