Rødkål

A traditional norwegian dish, usually made for christmas. Pickled red cabbage works well as a side-dish for heavy and savory food. The recipe is very forgiving. You can make many and large substitutions, and you don't really have to be that precise with the measurements, and you'll still get a result that is firmly in "tastes good" territory. Maybe because it has a lot of "christmasy" flavors? Also note that this is one of the recipes where you will most likely end up buying 1 red cabbage, because that's the only quantity you can buy it in, and you don't have any real good plans for the leftovers. In that case I recommend scaling the recipe for the amount of cabbage you have, and freezing any leftovers you end up with in portion batches.

Note that with approximately 1.4 kg of cabbage we filled a 5.3 L pot to the brim when we added everything and started cooking.

Rødkål

Created on 2019-12-19
Last updated on 2022-12-04

Adapted from Rødkål by Berit Nordstrand @ beritnordstrand (2019-12-14)

Estimated time needed: At least 2 hours 52 minutes. At most 3 hours 5 minutes.

Ingredients

1000 g red cabbage
200 g onion 1 large onion is about 200 g
150 g apple
100 g butter can be substituted with lard or other fat
100 g prunes can be substituted with figs
60 g raisins
10 g chicken bouillon or use 1 cube if you have bouillon in cubes, can be substituted with vegetable bouillon or left out completely
5 dl red wine can be substituted with sherry or port
5 dl orange juice
5 dl water
4 cloves
2 tsp salt
2 dl vinegar preferably red wine vinegar, but worked well with plain white vinegar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp honey
1 cinnamon stick 1 small cinamon stick, can be substituted with just adding a bit of ground cinnamon

Scaling

Percent %
By ingredient

Timeline

Directions

⌛ Active time 5 minutes

  • 1000 g red cabbage

Shred red cabbage

⌛ Active time 5 minutes

  • 150 g apple
  • 100 g prunes | can be substituted with figs

Chop apples and shred prunes:

Chop some apples and shred the prunes. Leave the skin on the apples.

⌛ Active time 10 minutes

  • 5 dl red wine | can be substituted with sherry or port
  • 5 dl orange juice
  • 2 dl vinegar | preferably red wine vinegar, but worked well with plain white vinegar
  • 60 g raisins
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 cinnamon stick | 1 small cinamon stick, can be substituted with just adding a bit of ground cinnamon

Mix vegetables and spices/sauce:

Mix everything together in a bowl with the cabbage, apples, and prunes you just shredded.

⌛ Passive time 60 minutes

Let marinate:

Set aside and let marinate for at least 1 hour. Can safely be left overnight for even better results. (You might want to consider covering it if you are leaving it for a long amount of time.)

⌛ Active time 1 minutes

  • 5 dl water
  • 10 g chicken bouillon | or use 1 cube if you have bouillon in cubes, can be substituted with vegetable bouillon or left out completely

Prepare broth

⌛ Active time 2 minutes

  • 200 g onion | 1 large onion is about 200 g

Finely chop onion

⌛ Active time 5 minutes

  • 100 g butter | can be substituted with lard or other fat

Fry onion in fat:

Take the onion you just chopped up in some butter, or even better fatty meat juices left over from other christmas cooking. To save yourself a round of washing you can just do this in the casserole/pot you'll be cooking the cabbage in from here.

⌛ Active time 3 minutes

Add everything to pot:

In a large pot, mix the cabbage you've let marinate (with all the juice it marinated in), the broth you prepared, and the onion.

⌛ Active time 1 minutes | Passive time 90 minutes

Boil:

Bring it all to a boil, and let simmer until the cabbage is done and soft, and the fluid is reduced. Depending on how much you're making, and how much you want the liquid reduced, you might find that you need at least a couple of hours if not more of simmering/boiling before there is noticeably less fluid.

⌛ Active time 1 minutes | Passive time 2 minutes

  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tbsp honey

Season:

When you feel that the cabbage is done, season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and honey until you're pleased with the taste. Give it a good stir, and let it have a couple of minutes to balance out before tasting again or serving. Remember, as this is usually a side dish, you might want it to for instance be more distinctly sweet, or less salty, depending on what you're serving it with (not everything has to have a completely rounded taste when served with other things).