Recipe LXXX - Czech-style Braised Red Cabbage with Roast Pork, Brussels Sprouts and Carrots

On 28th December, I will be returning to my true home, the place I feel most like me, the place that loves me like a favourite aunt, Prague. I will only be there for six days, but the knowledge I will return to Base Camp is what keeps me going every day through the dark hours. The Czech Republic is one of Europe's best-kept secrets when it comes to food. I decided to recreate one of the dishes that will fill my stomach when I arrive.

Ingredients for the cabbage:
1 red cabbage
1 piece of fennel, sliced, but not too small
10 peppercorns
2 apples, chopped
1 onion, cut into rings
1 glass cherry schnapps
1 litre beef stock, warmed up
1 knob of butter
(Sultanas are also good with this dish! You are also welcome to add other things that would suit it: red onions or shallots, parsnip, pumpkin,  whatever...)


Instructions:
Take a large saucepan and melt some butter in the bottom on a medium-low heat. Add the fennel, a little salt and stir until it sweats. Then the onions and peppercorns. Finally, add the apples 2 minutes before you put in the red cabbage. Stir continuously.



Add the cabbage and continue stirring for a good 5 minutes. This allows the vegetables to get softer without burning.



Put in a good 20cl of fruit schnapps. I used cherry, as it's also a red fruit. Allow it to bubble in the bottom, then continue stirring.



Add the beef stock and put on the lid. Turn the heat right down and allow everything to run for as long as two hours, always checking the liquid level. With the right saucepan, nothing should escape, and you should end up with a truly delicious jus.



I served it with roast pork belly with crackling, roast carrots and Brussels sprouts.



To get a hard roast pork skin:
All you need to do is put the oven on at a low 150°C, cut your pork skin at each end a couple of gashes (this hardens it more easily), not forgetting to rub salt over it, baste your pork in the oil, put the pork in the baking tray with the skin facing upwards, leave some butter on top of it and allow it to melt in the oven. After 45 minutes, you can add the sliced carrots and baste the pork a little more. After an hour, turn the heat up to 200°C. For extra crackliness to the skin, spread some honey or caramel on it 10 minutes before removing it from the oven.

To get a tasty Brussels sprout:
After boiling in salt water, pour out the water and put a knob of butter in the pan. Once sizzling, add the sprouts, stirring constantly. Put in some ground black pepper and grate some nutmeg over it.

Recipe XXXIII - The aubergine, the Brussels sprout, and the broad bean: Cooking with unpopular vegetables

The aubergine. The Brussels sprout. The broad bean. Three vegetables that kids find boring, adults don't really know what to do with them. They sit on the shelf in the supermarket, begging for someone to take them away and give them some love, but nobody does. These are three easy recipes to warm up your winter, and maybe, with the coming Yuletide festival, they will give you an idea for guests.



Ingredients for the aubergine:
1 aubergine
6 thin slices of prosciutto or serrano or any cured ham
Some olive oil

Instructions:
Take a large frying pan and heat up the olive oil to a very high temperature. By heating it up very high before putting anything in, the aubergine does not absorb so much oil. Fry it on both sides until it browns.



Put the ham flat on a plate. Take the aubergne out of the pan and put them on top of the ham.



Roll the ham up inside the aubergine and serve on a cocktail stick or with forks.



Done!

Ingredients for the Brussels sprout:
200g Brussels sprouts
200g Gelderland ham or English bacon
Some whole peppercorns and a pestle & mortar
A corner of butter
A small onion
Some nutmeg and a nutmeg grater

Instructions:
Steam the Brussels sprouts with the lid on and cut up the bacon with a pair of scissors.



Fry the onion and bacon in the oil (if you still have it, of the aubergine)



Remove the sprouts from the steamer and heat some butter in a saucepan. Grate the nutmeg into the butter. Fry the sprouts in the butter, then add the other ingredients. Leave half the bacon and onions for the next recipe. Serve immediately.



Splendid!

Ingredients for the broad beans:
1 jar of broad beans
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
A generous sprinkle of oregano
The rest of the bacon
Tomato passata carton
Red wine

Instructions:
Put the onions in the frying pan and sweat them. Two or three minutes later, add the beans and garlic, and fry for a few minutes.



Add the tomato passata and the red wine. Cook for 35 to 30 minutes with the lid off and allow it to reduce.



Serve in bowls.



Delicious!

Recipe XXVI - Steamed Brussels Sprouts in a Parmesan and Pepper Sauce

Certain vegetables just look miserable sitting there on the plate, staring at you for love, wanting some much-needed attention. Brussels sprouts are the most vilified vegetable in the entire history of cooking, seemingly only brought out once a year at Christmas by the British then boiled to a horrible sludgy mess and dumped on the plate because that's what you do at Christmas. I beg to differ. Certain vegetables ARE dull, yes, but they have ample taste and texture if you just give them some love.

Ingredients:
One bagful of Brussels sprouts
200g Parmesan cheese
1 pot of crème fraîche



Instructions:
Peel the sprouts and put them in the steaming part of a saucepan. Don't put the cross in the bottom - it doesn't do anything to the sprouts' self esteem. Steam for about 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut up or grate some Parmesan (or Cheddar, or Manchego or such like) and put it in a small saucepan with some ground pepper and the crème fraîche. Heat slowly, making sure all the cheese melts.



Pour over the sprouts on the plate.



I had mine with some sautéed chicken breasts, but the star of the show is the sprout.



I'll have a few more appearances by these wonderful vegetables nearer to Christmas.