Cabbage and Apple, Rösti, and a Salad

At the beginning of the week I was planning on making the Formosan Fried Cabbage from More with Less but decided I wanted a little bit more “going on” with the recipe.  My search for “cabbage and sausage” brought me to Canadian Living’s Braised Cabbage with Apples and Sausage.  Then I searched for “braised cabbage” and wound up at a Jamie Oliver recipe.  He used bacon in his and I didn’t have bacon so I decided to use the two recipes as the base for my new recipe with an awesome name (no, not Cabbles and Sausage, that was already taken…):  Memories of Winter Cabbage & Apples.  Why “memories of winter”?  Well, I definitely will remember all the cabbage and apples we ate this winter.  We’ve pretty much survived on apples as our only fruit source since arriving in January.  We’re not sick of them but we are ready for more variety!  Sadly we’ll have to continue waiting until… wait, when do fruits become available here?  In Atlanta we would go strawberry picking in late April!  Something tells me I’m going to have to wait a bit longer than that….

The second part of the the meal, Rösti, I have cooked once before and it was pretty simple, although a bit stressful to do the flip.  Since there is little holding together the entire “pancake” it is important to be cautious when flipping it.  One possibility would be to make several smaller pancakes but then would they really still be Rösti?

Finally I added a salad to the meal because I forgot to make it on Monday!  Well, I didn’t forget entirely, I realized right before we were about to eat that I had forgot so I just figured I’d tack it on to today’s meal.  (Monday got a bit disorganized because my Young Assistant had his first swim lesson ever at 6:30 and we debated about whether or not to eat before or after and things got forgotten in all the newness of the situation).

Memories of Winter Cabbage & Apple

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tb. oil
  • 1 Tb. fennel seeds
  • 1 Italian sausage
  • 1 medium onion, sliced into thin wedges
  • 1 apple, sliced in thin wedges
  • ½ large cabbage or 1 whole small cabbage, outer leaves and core removed, sliced into thin pieces (red cabbage will be prettier but is not essential)
  • ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (you can use more if you want it more tangy)
  • Salt and pepper (you decide the quantities!)

Heat the oil in a large pan or pot over medium-high heat and add the fennel seeds and sausage.  When the sausage has begun browning remove it and cut it into small thin pieces.  Return the sausage to the pot and add the onion.  Let onion soften and then add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to mix all the ingredients together.  Lower the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Now make your Rösti!

(I felt disappointed with the appearance of the cabbage dish, but not with it’s taste–it was really tasty!  I just think that next time I’ll follow Jamie Oliver’s advice and only use a red cabbage, as opposed to my mixture of a savoy and red).

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So… the colors  and texture of the savoy cabbage aren’t quite right, I should have only used the red cabbage. Regardless of the appearance everything tasted awesome! (I just won’t be getting any lucrative cookbook deals with this one…)

Rösti

The best recipe I’ve found for Rösti is from Fine Cooking.  It’s a very thorough explanation of how to make it.  My super-short version of the recipe is:

1)   Get several potatoes and grate them (I used a food processor).

2)   Heat several tablespoons of butter in a pan and fry the potatoes, stirring a few times for a the first few minutes.

3)   Press the potatoes into a large pancake with a spatula and cook for 10-15 minutes.  Then flip it!  Cook the Rösti another 5-10 minutes and it’s ready to go.  (I topped mine with shredded cheddar and broiled it until the cheese was starting to bubble).

4)   Top with sour cream, or ketchup (that’s why our boys like), or salsa, or anything else that sounds good!

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My goal for next time I make Rösti is to get a more golden color, but the flavor was great!