Braised Red Cabbage With Chestnuts, Bacon and Apples
- 1 pound chestnuts
- 1 head red cabbage
- 1/4 pound lean, unsliced bacon
- 1 medium onion
- 2 greening or Granny Smith apples
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/2 cup full-bodied red wine (cabernet sauvignon is a good choice)
- 2 1/2 cups beef stock
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Bring a saucepan of water to the boil.
- Score the chestnuts and drop them into the boiling water.
- Let simmer 2 minutes.
- Turn off heat and leave chestnuts in the water.
- Extract 2 or 3 at a time and peel them, carefully removing the inner skin that clings to the nutmeats.
- If the process becomes too difficult, bring the water to the boil again to help loosen the skins.
- When all the chestnuts are peeled, set aside.
- Cut the cabbage in quarters, remove any wilted leaves, cut out the core and slice each quarter approximately 1/4 inch thick.
- Set aside.
- Remove rind from bacon.
- Cut into lardons and fry gently until the bacon bits are brown and crisp.
- Drain the bacon bits and set aside.
- Chop the onion coarsely and saute in the bacon fat until it starts to brown.
- Set aside.
- Peel and core the apples and cut into chunks.
- In a medium-sized casserole dish, arrange the cabbage, bacon, onion, apples and chestnuts.
- Bury the bay leaves and the crushed clove of garlic in the center.
- Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper.
- Add the wine.
- Bring the broth to a boil in a separate saucepan and pour broth over the cabbage mixture.
- Cover the dish with aluminum foil and place in preheated oven.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Remove foil and if there is still a lot of liquid in the dish, raise heat to 400 degrees.
- Continue baking for another 30 minutes until the top starts to brown.
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Serve immediately.
chestnuts, red cabbage, lean, onion, greening, freshly ground black pepper, bay leaves, clove garlic, fullbodied red wine, beef stock, butter
Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/2030 (may not work)