Braised cabbage - general principles and methods of preparation
Truly royal dishes can be prepared from this seemingly simple and inexpensive vegetable. Braised cabbage is one of them. Varying with spices and additional ingredients, sometimes you get real culinary masterpieces - tasty, hearty, fragrant. You can put out cabbage modestly in the water, with a small addition of oil, and you can put meat, mushrooms, raisins, prunes, tomato paste, beans and other vegetables. In any case, it will turn out delicious. Try and choose your favorite recipe.
Braised Cabbage - Food Preparation
You can stew both fresh cabbage and sauerkraut. Fresh must be washed under water, clean from the upper hard leaves, usually they have a greenish color. Then, if it is a whole head of cabbage, it must be cut into quarters and then finely chopped with straws. The stump must be removed.
If sauerkraut is picked, large pieces are finely chopped. If it is very acidic, you can wash it in water. But along with the water, a large amount of vitamin C will leave the cabbage. Therefore, it is still better to take the cabbage of optimal acid so that it does not have to be soaked and washed. A teaspoon of granulated sugar added to the pan where the dish is prepared will help balance the acid level.
Braised Cabbage - Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Braised Cabbage
A very simple recipe, even novice housewives can cook it. The amount of cabbage should be taken based on the volume of the cauldron, where it will be stewed and the number of eaters. On average, you can take one small head or half large, by weight it goes 1-1.5 kg. Even if it seems that there is too much chopped cabbage, during stewing it will let the juice and settle, i.e. will decrease in volume. It is better to take cabbage of late varieties, i.e. autumn harvest. In addition to salt and pepper, you can put dried dill, parsley and bay leaf to taste. Some like more fresh cabbage, then it should be stewed without adding tomato paste.
Ingredients: head of cabbage, 2-3 medium onions, 50-70g of tomato paste, frying oil, pepper and salt.
Cooking method
Chop cabbage into small straws, onions in half rings. In a cauldron with hot oil, fry the onions, then the tomato paste and add the cabbage. Fry it a little, mixing with tomato and onions, add one and a half glasses of hot water. When the mass boils, reduce the heat and simmer the cabbage until soft. It takes 30-40 minutes. About ten minutes before the end of the stew, pepper and salt the cabbage.
Recipe 2: Braised Cabbage with Sausage
Meat is not always at hand, but a piece of boiled sausage or a couple of sausages in the fridge will be found. They can be combined with cabbage and quickly cook an inexpensive, but tasty and hearty dinner.
Ingredients: cabbage, 2 large onions, 1 carrot, 100 g of tomato paste, boiled sausage (sausages, sausages) - 300 g, pepper-salt, bay leaf, vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Fry the onions chopped in half rings in a casserole, add grated carrots, and after two minutes thinly chopped cabbage. Stir the ingredients and simmer until soft, adding a glass of boiling water. Vegetables are stewed over low heat with the lid closed.
Chop the sausage or sausages arbitrarily, fry to a crust and add to the cauldron with cabbage. In the oil where the sausage was fried, fry the tomato paste for a minute and add to the vegetables. Put all the spices and salt, mix and simmer all together for another five to seven minutes.
The second way to stew cabbage with sausages more dietary and faster to prepare. You will need: all the same cabbage, 2 small carrots, sausages, 3 tablespoons of olive oil (namely olive), herbs and salt.
Pour oil into a frying pan or a cast-iron cauldron, pour grated carrots and cabbage chopped into small strips. Cover and fry over high heat. It is necessary to ensure that the vegetables do not burn, for this they are periodically mixed. When the cabbage is browned, reduce the fire, pour half a glass of boiling water, chopped sausages, salt and simmer for ten minutes. Sprinkle ready cabbage with fresh herbs - dill, parsley, etc.
Recipe 3: Chicken Stew
The dish is cooked quickly enough, so it is quite possible to have time to prepare it for the husband's arrival from work. The cabbage comes out very juicy and tender, and even in combination with chicken meat it turns out perfectly perfectly. This recipe without the addition of onions, but for those who can not imagine cooking meat and cabbage without a beam, can of course add it. In this case, it is pre-fried before adding meat. If you want to put whole pieces of chicken, before adding the cabbage, they must be brought to half-preparedness - well fry or stew.
Ingredients: 1-1.5 kg cabbage, 0.5 kg chicken (breast, fillet or a couple of legs), a couple of spoons of tomato paste, salt, pepper, vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Cut the meat into large pieces. If this is a ham, then it is necessary to cut the meat from it, separating it from the bones. For cooking, you can take a pan, cauldron or thick-walled dishes. Put the meat in it and fry for about four minutes so that it turns white on all sides.
Add cabbage chopped into thin strips, mix and fry for 20 minutes under the lid. If the cabbage burns, you can add a little water from the kettle. Pepper, salt, add tomato paste and mix. Leave to simmer for another 20 minutes, so that the cabbage becomes very soft. Potato puree or just boiled potato goes well with such a cabbage.
Recipe 4: Braised Cabbage with Prunes
Delicious stewed cabbage with a haze aroma. Prunes add a piquant flavor to the dish. If it is dry, it should be steamed for 10 minutes, i.e. pour boiling water. To make the taste more piquant, and the aroma richer, you need to buy smoked prunes. If you want the dish to be lean, you can exclude meat from the recipe.
Ingredients: cabbage - 1-1.5 kg, 200-300 g of chicken breast or fillet, one carrot, onion, 150 g seedless smoked prunes (incomplete glass), tomato paste 2-3 tablespoons, salt and pepper to taste, a couple of leaves of parsley and vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Cut the meat into cubes and fry it. Then add alternately, gradually frying, onion in half rings, grated carrots, chopped cabbage in small strips. Pour in a glass of boiling water and simmer for 15 minutes with medium heat. Open the lid and add tomato paste and prunes. Pour in about a glass of boiling water, mix, put bay leaves, salt and pepper. Close the lid and simmer for 15 minutes until cooked.
Recipe 5: Braised Sauerkraut
The sour taste of sauerkraut stew is in harmony with any meat, so it is considered a traditional side dish for many meat dishes. This recipe is borrowed from Latvian cuisine. The cabbage turns out to be very tasty. And the secret is simple - you need a lot of carrots. And she necessarily rubs on a fine grater. You can, of course, and grate coarse, but in the original it is finely.
Ingredients: 1 kilogram of sauerkraut, 0.6 kg of carrots, 3 onions, vegetable oil or fat (any - pork, chicken), one or two teaspoons of caraway seeds.
Cooking method
Finely chop the onion and lightly fry, add the grated carrots and darken them a little together. Then put sauerkraut and pour water - approximately at the level of the cabbage layer. Leave to simmer until cooked.
After about half an hour, add caraway seeds and continue to simmer until soft. Especially delicious cabbage is obtained, cooked on pork fat.
Recipe 6: Braised Cabbage with Mushrooms
Cabbage with mushrooms tastes amazing. It is cooked in the oven, but before that, the vegetables are fried on a stove in a pan. Extinguishing process takes from 40 minutes to one hour. The time depends on the hardness of the cabbage and the temperature in the oven. At the exit, the cabbage gets a beautiful light brown hue and just melts in your mouth.
Ingredients: 1.5 kg of fresh cabbage, 0.5 kg of carrots, 4 large onions, half a kilogram of any fresh mushrooms, tomato paste - 100 g, salt and spices to taste.
Cooking method:
Cut the cabbage into quarters and chop with a thin straw. Pour a few tablespoons of oil into the pan, heat it and fry the cabbage. All cabbage is unlikely to fit. Therefore, you need to fry in batches and transfer to a cauldron. Fry until it becomes limp and decreases in volume. You do not need to pour a lot of oil, so that the cabbage is only slightly moistened with it.
Onion cut into half rings or small cubes and fry. Add carrots and simmer until soft - you can pour a little water. Transfer to the cauldron.
Chop mushrooms and put into an almost dry pan. As they let the juice, it must be poured into a cauldron, and add oil to the pan to the mushrooms and fry. They also shift to the cauldron. The contents of the cauldron must be salt, mix, add tomato paste (you can slightly dilute it with water), a couple of glasses of boiling water and place in the oven (180-200C). Simmer with lid open until cooked.
From time to time, you should look into the cauldron and be interested in the state of cabbage. If the water will boil, you can gradually add it. 15 minutes before the end of the stew add a few bay leaves and salt.
Braised Cabbage - Tips from Experienced Cooks
A tablespoon of ordinary wheat flour will give the density and peculiar taste of stewed cabbage. It must be dried in a dry frying pan until creamy and five minutes before being ready to add to the pot.
Fans of sweet and sour taste can add a spoonful of vinegar and sugar to the cabbage five to ten minutes before the end of its stew.
If you love cabbage, but cannot stand its specific smell when cooking, put a slice of stale bread in a pan. At the end of cooking, remove softened bread with a slotted spoon.
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