Best Ever Red Cabbage Recipe

A must have accompaniment to any Christmas meal, this red cabbage recipe borrowed from BBC Good Food is a sure fire hit!

1½ kg red cabbages
2 onions, chopped
4 Granny Smiths apples, peeled and cored and chopped
zest 1 orange or 2 clementines
2 tsp ground mixed spice
100g light soft brown sugar
3 tbsp cider vinegar
300ml dry cider
25g butter

1. Peel off the outer leaves from the cabbage and discard. Quarter the cabbage, removing the tough stem, then thinly slice. Arrange a layer of the cabbage on the bottom of a large saucepan, followed by some of the onions, apples, zest, mixed spice, sugar and seasoning. Continue to create layers until you have used up the ingredients.
2. Pour over the vinegar and cider and dot the butter on top. Bring to the boil then simmer with a lid on over low heat for 1½ hrs, until tender. The cabbage will keep for 2 days, covered, in the fridge or freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat in either a pan or in the microwave.

Mulled Wine Recipe

Now Christmas is less than a month away it is time to well and truly embrace Christmas food and drink, starting with this fabulous winter warmer - mulled wine. Contrary to popular opinion, it's super easy to make and taste exactly like Christmas in a glass. The beautiful warmth comes from the use of festive spices: cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix together all the ingredients over a very low heat to help all those Christmas flavours infuse.

source

To make this festive warmer, you will need:

2 clementines
1 lemon
1 lime
200 grams of caster sugar
6 whole cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
3 fresh bay leaves
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
1 vanilla pod, halved lengthways
2 star anise
2 bottles of red wine

Method:

Peel large section of peel from your clementines, lemon and lime using a speed peeler.
Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the clementine juice. Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Add in your halved vanilla pod and stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine and then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you've got a beautiful thick syrup.
When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it's warm and delicious, ladle it into glasses and serve.

Christmas Playlist

Now we're into the month of December, we can officially start playing Christmas songs and we thought we'd share our favourite festive sound track.

Irving Berlin – White Christmas
Burl Ives – A Holly Jolly Christmas
The Platters – Christmas Time
Perry Como – Medley: Caroling, Caroling / The First Noel / Hark! The Herald Angels Sing / Silent Night
Carpenters – Silent Night
Frank Sinatra – Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - 78rpm Version
Chuck Berry – Run Rudolph Run - Single Version
Perry Como – Here We Come a-Caroling / We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Remastered
Burl Ives – Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Carpenters – Sleigh Ride
Nat King Cole – The Happiest Christmas Tree