Cranberry Cabbage: or, Cranberries that aren't a dessert

We must bid a reluctant farewell to cranberry season. 

Spiced Cranberry Cabbage 1 pound (450g) red cabbage, quartered lengthwise 4 oz (110g) cranberries 2 teaspoons peanut oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 (or 2) large garlic clove, finely chopped ¼ tsp cloves ¼ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste 1 tbsp brown sugar 7½ tsp red wine vinegar Shred the cabbage finely (about ¼ inch or so). Discard the stalks and tougher portions of the leaves. Place oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. When it's hot, cook the onion for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Then turn the heat up to high. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring constantly, for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then add the seasonings and cranberries. Reduce heat back to medium and cook until tender, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the sugar and vinegar, stir well, taste to see if it has enough sugar, and serve. Note: Any leftovers are really good mixed with mashed potatoes. Delia Smith's Winter Collection, 1996

Today's recipe comes from Delia Smith's Winter Collection. Apparently she somewhat infamously started a cranberry fad after using them so heavily in the book. So I was really excited to see what creative ideas she had. This one looked a lot like a variation on the sweet-sour cabbage we have made, except with cranberries instead of apples.

I was excited to make this because every other cranberry recipe we've made has been some variant of cranberry sauce: boil cranberries and add a lot of sugar. Even the apple-cranberry pie felt like putting cranberry sauce into a pie crust instead of a serving bowl. The cranberry cream is only non-sauce recipe we have made until today.

Now that all our ingredients were lined up, it was time to try cabbage like I've never made it before. 

New recipes can sometimes be daunting. But if you are ever in doubt, start with onions!

Our refrigerator has been a bit overzealous since getting repaired. It half-froze the onions. So, I turned the heat a little higher than Delia did. Our onions were perfect and golden right on time.

I know I've said this before, but cabbage expands a lot when you shred it. This was going to be one of those recipes that leaves a ring of half-dried flyaways around the pan.

So far, this recipe had been a simple matter of sauteeing cabbage. But now, we have gotten to the special ingredient: Fresh (ish) cranberries!

After just a few seconds, the first berries popped. I was so excited. You would never know they'd been in the refrigerator for at least three weeks.

As I found out on the first taste, cranberries get very bitter when you cook them. I nearly threw out the whole thing, grocery money be damned. But just in case, I added the vinegar and brown sugar because Delia told me to. To my surprise, they fixed the dish and unlocked the flavors that I didn't know were in there. Though I should note that I had to add a few more spoonfuls of sugar to balance out the cranberries' bitterness.

I liked this a lot more without the spices (yes, I made it twice). It was also one of the few times I get almost as excited about the leftovers. We had special plans that involved a mashed potato.

 This was exactly as good as I hoped it would be.

Of course, we didn't close out cranberry season with healthy vegetables. Instead, we made cranberry blondies. (The recipe is my Mom's. By which I mean it came out of her Betty Crocker cookbook.) 

They didn't come out of the pan without a lot of well-chosen language, but they were delicious.