My mother always served this dish with roast pork, or sometimes goose, and tiny boiled potatoes. I have served it with our Seared Duck Breasts with Pepper Jelly Glaze (p. 264) for a long time, and I never get tired of it. It’s easy to prepare, and yet, to please Alice, my mother, it must be “just so.”

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 to 6 servings

　　2 tablespoons butter

　　1 small red onion, thinly sliced

　　1 small head red cabbage, quartered, cored, and sliced as thin as possible

　　Salt

　　2 tablespoons brown sugar

　　2–3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

　　

Step 1

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cabbage and stir to mix. Sprinkle with salt and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is starting to wilt. Stir in the brown sugar and vinegar and cover. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time to prevent the vegetables from getting too brown.

　　

Step 2

Remove the cover and raise the heat a little to evaporate the liquid in the pot. Cook for about 5 more minutes, stirring often. The cabbage will be very tender and a dark reddish purple when ready. If the color is still light and opaque, you need to keep cooking and stirring, until the cabbage is moist and tender but not wet or mushy. Taste for seasonings (it should be a balance of sweet and sour) and add vinegar or salt as necessary.

　　From Crescent City Cooking by Susan Spicer Copyright (c) 2007 by Susan Spicer Published by Knopf.Susan Spicer was born in Key West, Florida, and lived in Holland until the age of seven, when her family moved to New Orleans. She has lived there ever since, and is the owner of two restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint. This is her first cookbook.Paula Disbrowe was the former Cowgirl Chef at Hart & Hind Fitness Ranch in Rio Frio, Texas. Prior to that, she spent ten years working as a food and travel writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and Saveur, among other major publications.