onions – Simply Splendid Food

A traditional dish served during the Christmas season in Sweden. Pair the Swedish red cabbage and apples with Finnish meatballs or as a side dish with just about anything. A bright and colourful addition to your festive holiday dining! Easy to make in advance. This dish is actually better the next day. Enjoy your red cabbage/apple dish in the summer since it is equally delicious served cold. Any leftovers will disappear quickly from your fridge.
Note: I have used olive oil instead of the traditional butter, so you can served cold. Yumm!!!

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INGREDIENTS
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
2 organic Granny Smith, Macintosh or other slightly tart apples
1 large onion, chopped
1 red cabbage (1 lb. before trimming)
3 Tablespoons sweetener
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon red currant or hot pepper jelly
salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot.
2. Add chopped onions and saute until translucent on medium low heat.
3. While they are cooking, peel and chop the apples and add to the onions stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the inner core of the cabbage and roughly chop. Add to the onions and apples and cook for about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low if it is boiling.
5. Add the salt, vinegar, spices, and sugar substitute. Cook covered for 10 minutes.
6. Add wine and jelly and cook uncovered for 5 minutes longer.

I try not to overcook this dish as texture is a very important part of food appreciation. Crunchy and chewy textures slow you down and help you eat more deliberately and more joyfully.

Red cabbage is an excellent source of vitamins C and K and a very good source of fiber, folate, vitamin B6, and omega-3 fatty acids. It is also a good source of vitamin B1, B2, calcium, vitamin A and protein. One cup of boiled cabbage has just thirty-three calories. Cabbage is good for reducing your risk of cancer and possibly of Alzheimer’s disease. In the laboratory, red cabbage protects against oxidative stress in the brain, reducing the buildup of plaque and again reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s. Also, a Chinese study found that women who ate the most cruciferous vegetable such as cabbage were at half the risk for breast cancer as those who ate little or none.

Every day when you cook something you almost invariably have to cut onions. It appears to be unavoidable. Well, how are you cutting your onions?

If you cut your onions horizontally, you may have these unmanageable round rings in your soup and pick up the pieces on your spoon the soup can easily splatter. Don’t wear your good white blouse!

I remember Julia Child discuss this as well. Cut the onion in half from the root end to the tip and then slice. That way the slices are manageable when eating a soup or another dish. No long circular strands hanging down.

Please don’t cut off that stem. If you leave the stems on your onion, you will have a handle to use to do your fine dicing. If you watch the chef’s on TV dicing onions like a human Cuisinart, they never show cutting the end of the onion do they?
Well that’s a problem especially if you have no stem or handle it is difficult and not so elegant to deal with the end. This is so much easier!