Red cabbage and beef casserole

Automn is here in NZ, sunny as ever but winter is coming. It's time for dishes that warm you up! Let's go around the Franco-German border, the Rhine Valley, the Vosges and Alsace in France and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in Germany.

Farm in the Schwarzwald, Germany (pic found here)

Riquewihr, medieval village, Alsace, France (pic found here)

Farmhouse Ostein, Alsace/Vosges, France (pic found here)

Roasted chestnuts (pic found here)

Around there, automn brings a lot of delicious food that can bring you some comfort during the hard winter time... Chestnuts, which are rosted in the streets, are particularly enjoyed to warm up your hand.



 

Pic found here

Automn is also the time eat various pork deli food freschly made, e.g., bacon, blackpudding sausages, wieners, pâté... In France, we name it the "Cochonnailles". This is fat but delicious food that gives you everything you need to face the cold winter time.

Pic found here

Today, I propose you to use these ingredients in a red cabbage and beef casserole perfumed with chestnuts and smoked bacon and wieners.

Ingredients (5-6 servings):

1 big red cabbage

1 onion

1 big apple

1+1/2 bowl of fresch chestnuts (or 1 can)

2 smoked wieners (facultative)

250g pieces of bacon (off cuts are very good, but streaky bacon also work)

1kg of chuck steak

25cl of red wine (preferrably Pinot Noir)

15cl of water

1+1/2 Tbsp sugar

3 baie leaves

Thym

Coarse salt

Pepper

Method 

If you are using fresch chestnuts, start preparing the chestnuts. This is a long and fastidious work, so it's preferrably you use a can of already prepared chestnuts, if you can. I have been unable to find one here in NZ, so I used fresch chestnuts. Here is the preparation method:

1. Incise the shell of each chestnut (make a cross)
2. Put them into boiling water for at least 20 min
3. Peel when still warm.

• At this stage, the chestnuts are only precooked. They will cook with the cabbage later.

 Precook the red cabbage:

Raw cabbage

• Slice the red cabbage as thin as you can, or it may be better to use a food processor
• Wash it
• Put it in a large pot and add water (to cover the cabbage) and 2 pinches of coarse salt
• Bring it to boil and let it boil for about 20 min. The color will change from flashy purple to dull purple, but the cabbage is still a bit hard.
• Drain it
• At this stage, the red cabbage is preccoked.

Precooked

The casserole:

• Slice the bacon, the onion and the wieners
• Cut the apple into quarters
• Cut the steak into 2 or 3 large pieces
• Heat a large pot with a little bit of oil
• Stir fry the bacon, the onion and the wieners into. Add some pepper.
• Add the apple when the onions are brown (not black! hehe ;-))
• Then add the meat but do not allow it to fall on the bottom of the pot, let the bacon, onion, wieners and apple; 4-5 min each side. Add 2 pinches of coarse salt

• Add the precooked red cabbage, the herbs, the sugar, the water and the red wine, mix together
• If using fresch precooked chestnuts: Stew on a low heat for about 20 min, then add the chestnuts and let stew for 40 more min
• If using a can of chestnuts: Stew on a low heat for about 40 min, then add the chestnuts and let stew for 20 more min
• Stir occasionnaly and make sure it does not sitck on the bottom of the pot. Add some more water if too dry.

Serve when still hot and enjoy with a glass of your favorite Pinot Noir!

Personnally, I like to eat the meat with a pinch of coarse salt on the top or with some horseradish condiment. But some other people like it with mustard.

Note that the red cabbage can be cooked the same way but without the beef that can be replaced by a roast beef or pork.