Braised Red Cabbage

Make it step by step

1. Melt the butter in a wide heavy pan with a lid, over medium-low heat.
2. Cook the sliced onion for 8-10 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is soft and translucent with no colour on it.
3. Add the shredded cabbage a handful at a time, turning each one through the butter before the next goes in.
4. Pour in the 60ml of cider vinegar and turn it through the cabbage straight away.
5. Get the acid in before anything else. The colour is anthocyanin, which reads pH like a dye: bright magenta in an acid pan and a flat blue-grey in a neutral one, and cabbage that has gone grey in the first ten minutes stays grey for the rest of the braise.
6. Stir in the grated apple, the brown sugar, the cloves, the cinnamon, the bay leaf and the 5g of fine salt.
7. Pour in the 150ml of water.
8. Bring it to a simmer, then turn the heat as low as it will go.
9. Cover and cook for 60-75 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes and scraping the base as you go.
10. Add a splash of hot water any time the base looks dry. There is sugar in this pan, a dry patch catches and burns within a minute or two, and one scorched corner flavours the whole pot.
11. Test a shred at the hour mark. It should collapse under the side of a spoon while still holding its shape.
12. Take the lid off and cook for a final 10-15 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to a glossy syrup clinging to the shreds.
13. Fish out the bay leaf and the cloves.
14. Season with the ground peppercorns.
15. Taste it, and add a splash more vinegar if it reads flat rather than sharp. A long braise blunts acid and brings the sweetness forward.
16. Serve hot, or cool it within two hours and refrigerate it. It is better on the second day, once the spice has moved through the shreds.
17. Reheat it in a covered pan over low heat until it is steaming hot right through.