How do you cook red cabbage so it doesn't come out grey?

[rogerzilla]

However short the boil, it always ends up as an unappetising colour, although it tastes fine.  Any tips?  Needed for tomorrow lunchtime!

[Butterfly]

Steam it. Or use half an inch of water and boil it with the lid on, which amounts to the same thing.

My dad says: 'never put the cabbage on until you can see the whites of their eyes'. Last minute job.

[CrinklyLion]

Braised in a lidded pan with butter, cider vinegar, chopped apple and sultanas does it for me....

[perpetual dan]

Steam it. Ideally over rice to turn that blue.

[tiermat]

Just enough time to cook it then!

The trick is not to treat it like normal cabbage in that you throw the cooking liquid away, but you cook it in just enough liquid to keep it moist and serve it with that.

The best way is to stick the cabbage in a oven proof bowl with chopped up apple and a splash of cider.

Cover bowl well (a pyrex dish with lid is best for this, I find) and place in the oven.  Forget about it for an hour or so.

[benborp]

Braise it. Apparently hard water turns it blue so adding lemon or vinegar keeps it looking good.

[rogerzilla]

Ah...it might be our water, which is harder than a Glasgow doorman.

[John Henry]

Red cabbage is a pH indicator. It goes blue in alkali and stays red in acid. So +1 with regard to a splash of vinegar or something acidic in the water to keep the colour.

[Clare]

Pan fry it in a hot wok with some finely sliced shallott, and a grind of Szechuan pepper add a dash of sesame oil just before serving.





Edited to make sense.

[SteveC]

Red cabbage is a pH indicator. It goes blue in alkali and stays red in acid. So +1 with regard to a splash of vinegar or something acidic in the water to keep the colour.

Another +1 for this. Every red cabbage recipe I've ever seen has some sort of acid in.

[rogerzilla]

Thanks everyone.  This sounds like a simple case of The Wrong Water.  I'll steam it with some vinegar.

[rafletcher]

Braised in a lidded pan with butter, cider vinegar, chopped apple and sultanas does it for me....

This, though go easy on the vinegar - and it can take quite a while to cook until tender, but worth it. Freezes and reheats very well too.

[Julian]

Perfect red cabbage (I do this every year for Christmas dinner):

Sliced red onions, cooked in knob of butter until tender
Add sliced red cabbage and sliced apple
Slosh of red wine vinegar and an equal-ish slosh of demerara sugar
Slosh of real red wine if needed
Cover and simmer very very gently for AGES.

You can lob raisins in instead of apple, too.  Tastes even better the next day, reheated.

[SteveC]

Julian's recipe is basically what my mother would do.  She'd make a huge pot and we would have it as a vegetable every day until it ran out (my younger siblings weren't too fond of it).
You can add bacon or even sausages at with or before the onions.

[hellymedic]

Chop cabbage.
Place into Pyrex bowl. Cover with lid,
Add salt, sugar and vinegar.
Microwave till cooked.
I don't do quantities or timings.

Red cabbage is pH sensitive; it's red when acidic and blue/grey in a higher pH. Add vinegar or lemon juice to keep it red.

[fred the great]

Sounds like pickled red cabbage is a good idea if I could buy it

For the moment I will have to accept boiled Chinese cabbage which mixes well with other greens and pumpkin.

Sorry for being OT

[her_welshness]

Julian's recipe sounds lovely 

For Xmas Day I did Lorraine Pascale's recipe, which was stewing some red onions for 10 minutes, then add some soft brown sugar to it, then some red wine, star anise and a little bit of cinnamon. Then add the red cabbage and cook on the hob for 10 minutes. Transfer to the oven. After 30 minutes add in some pears (2 of them, chopped into bite-size pieces), stir into the mixture. Lorraine says this will all cook in one hour. She is lying. It will take about an hour and a half.

Bloody gorgeous it is, and tastes better with cold cuts.

[Arch]

Perfect red cabbage (I do this every year for Christmas dinner):

Sliced red onions, cooked in knob of butter until tender
Add sliced red cabbage and sliced apple
Slosh of red wine vinegar and an equal-ish slosh of demerara sugar
Slosh of real red wine if needed
Cover and simmer very very gently for AGES.

You can lob raisins in instead of apple, too.  Tastes even better the next day, reheated.

Yes, this. Did it for Christmas dinner as usual - cooked on Christmas Eve and reheated on the day - partly for convenience and partly because it's even better after a second heating. A little left over made a nice relish for the leftover beef sandwiches.

[neilrj]

As others have said it needs acid to keep the colour - if you want Pukka 'spicy red cabbage' then you will of course need cloves (10) 80g of sugar, 1tsp ginger and half as much of cinnamon/cumin/coriander as you prefer all in 300ml of water and 150ml of (red wine vinegar) palatable acid. Simmer for about 45 mins and then drain and just before serving add a good Tbsp of Redcurrent jelly as a glaze - a few apple cubes thrown in last minute, and indeed sultanas thrown in 'at the off' will add interest. (recipe is for 1-1.5kg cabbage)

[Cudzoziemiec]

Braised in a lidded pan with butter, cider vinegar, chopped apple and sultanas does it for me....

This is how my mother usually cooked it, having learnt it from my father's mother. But as kids we preferred it less vinegary and didn't mind at all if it went blue.

[Toady]

Julian's recipe is very similar to what my wife cooks - indeed she cooked it last night for a new year party.  The main difference is that she adds crushed juniper berries (and possibly some other stuff - maybe bay leaf, maybe cloves or something aromatic like that).  She cooks it in a covered pan in the oven rather than simmering on the hob.  The cabbage keeps its colour.

For a carnivorous version, she sometimes braises pork steaks in with the cabbage.  In fact that's what the recipe was when she got it from my mum.

[docsquid]

I always fry it, with a little bit of garlic and some bacon for non veggies. Comes out lovely.

[Bledlow]

Sounds like pickled red cabbage is a good idea if I could buy it

I'm sure both Sainsburys & Tesco sell it. I think our current jar is Sainsburys.

[tiermat]

Sounds like pickled red cabbage is a good idea if I could buy it

I'm sure both Sainsburys & Tesco sell it. I think our current jar is Sainsburys.

Not much use in the far east

Marbeau, try to find a Polish supermarket, I usually by mine from Asda's world food section.

[Biggsy]

What's wrong with grey cabbage?  Racists!  You're all vegetable Nazis!

Ok, I suppose pleasantly coloured food does taste better, as taste is as much psychological as physical.