Recipe: Kriek Cabbage

the appetizer:

Think of German cuisine and you probably think of sausages, sauerkraut and beer. But Germany's central location in Europe has made it a melting pot of culinary influences, from Italian pasta to the popular Döner kebab invented by Turkish immigrants.

Germany

Kriek Cabbage

1/3 cup dried sweetened cherries
1 cup cherry ale or kriek (a Belgian cherry lambic)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced orange zest
1 tablespoon minced shallots or mild sweet onion
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
10-12 oz. red cabbage, tough outer leaves
removed and cored, quartered, and sliced thin
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the cherries in an oven-proof dish and cover with the cherry-flavored beer. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on high power; remove wrap and let cool.

2. Stir together the olive oil, orange zest, shallots or sweet onion in a 10-inch heavy sauté pan placed over low heat. sauté gently until the shallots are translucent and tender, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the cabbage, red wine vinegar, cherries and beer, stirring often, and cook for 15 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

From:
Cooking with Beer
Taste-Tempting Recipes and Creative Ideas for Matching Beer & Food
by Lucy Saunders
Time-Life Books, $12.95
154 pages, 1996
ISBN 0-7835-4832-X
Reprinted by permision.