A Meal for the Day you Pick the Cabbage

An exclusive recipe from my next book, Rough Patch: Braised red cabbage, puy lentils and ham hock

4 weeks to go

My next book, Rough Patch, is out four weeks today, on the 6th February. More on the book here:

I've written another book!

And it’s all kicking off. I recorded the audiobook last week (clip of that here); I went to see it being printed (watch me cry over the first copy here); I’ve got a launch coming up at the end of Jan (paid subscribers should have their invitations in their inboxes, but if you haven’t received it, do message me). In short, the nerves are building nicely.

I’ve already shared a few extracts here:

Rough Patch: a Christmas reading from my new book

Rough Patch: an exclusive preview of my new book

But since Rough Patch is a sort memoir with recipes, I thought I’d share a few recipes from it here over the coming weeks:

Some of the recipes in Rough Patch

First up, and exclusively to this newsletter, here’s a recipe from the February chapter and an extract to set the scene:

In winter, you look at the cabbages, red, fat and polished in neat rows, and ponder the picking of one for days. You make a plan for braising it, or for shredding it into slaw or kraut-ing it, and only then, only when you have a recipe in mind, do you pick it. You carefully cut it from the stem, leaving a poignant gap in the regimental lines, and carry it home in both hands like a precious ruby. You make it the centre of the meal that evening, lavishing it with attention. You will remember today as the day you ate The Cabbage. You will use any leftover cabbage for a crisp winter slaw in days to come; nothing is wasted. A winter crop is harder to grow and far scarcer than in summer, so we treat it with reverence.

A Meal for the Day you Pick the Red Cabbage

On the day that you finally pick the first red cabbage and parade it home triumphantly like the severed head of Medusa, you will want to make it the centre of your evening meal. Not always an easy task with a cabbage, but very possible. Here’s how.

Serves 4

For the cabbage:

• 1 small red cabbage

• 2 Bramley apples

• 85g soft brown sugar

• 50g butter, diced