Chou Rouge a la Limousine (Feb 23, 2010)

I've been noticing that I only had one French meal in the labels to the left. So I was determined to up that number and get another vegan notch on the cooking spoon, too. So I looked through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and, after eliminating all the recipes that called for butter or cream or veal I was left with red cabbage braised in red wine.

It's actually an interesting recipe... It cooks very slowly (5+ hours) and calls for red wine, carrots, onions, apples, and chestnuts. Also bacon, goose fat, and beef stock--but I substituted olive oil and vegetable stock to keep it vegan-legit.

The french title for the dish provoked a few thoughts. Limousine, I gather, means chestnuts... Who knew that high school students have been going to proms in stretch chestnuts? I figured out a few years ago that choux creme is French for cream puffs (because that's what the Japanese bakeries call them). But now I'm guessing that the puffs are being compared to cabbages (which kinda makes sense, I guess).

Anyway, here's the cabbage pre-five-hour-braising:

Here's after the cooking:

Julia Child's recipe mentioned that the acidity in the apples & wine help keep the cooked cabbage red. Yeah, and I think the red in the red wine didn't hurt either!

Plated (along with some potatoes) and ready to eat!