Pan-fried pointed cabbage with mustard-butter sauce and apple

Pan-fried wedges of pointed cabbage with deeply golden cut sides, warm apple and a butter-enriched sauce of white wine and mustard. Lemon adds freshness and balances the butter, cabbage and apple.

Serves: 4 people
Preparation: approx. 15 minutes
Cooking: approx. 25 minutes
Total time: approx. 40 minutes

Ingredients

For the pointed cabbage

• 1 medium pointed cabbage, approx. 800–900 g
• 1 firm, tart apple, such as Elstar, Cox's Orange Pippin or a firm Jonagold
• 20 g unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• fine salt
• freshly ground black pepper

For the mustard butter sauce

• 40 g unsalted butter
• 1 small shallot
• 1½ tablespoons wholegrain mustard
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 75 ml dry white wine
• 75 ml vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1–2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley

Equipment

• large chef's knife
• large frying pan with lid
• small saucepan
• whisk

Preparation

1. Remove any damaged outer leaves from the pointed cabbage.
2. Cut the pointed cabbage lengthways into four equal wedges. Leave part of the core attached so the wedges stay together during cooking.
3. Peel the shallot and chop it very finely.
4. Wash the apple, remove the core and cut the apple into thin wedges. There is no need to peel it.
5. Finely chop the parsley.
6. Divide the 40 g butter for the sauce into 10 g and 30 g. Cut the 30 g butter into small cubes and keep chilled until needed.

Method

1. Season the pointed cabbage
   Lightly season the cut sides of the pointed cabbage with salt and black pepper.
2. Brown the pointed cabbage
   Heat 20 g butter with the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Place the pointed cabbage wedges in the pan with one cut side facing down. Cook for 4–5 minutes without moving them, until the cut side is deeply golden brown.
3. Brown the other cut side
   Turn the wedges onto the other cut side and cook this side for 3–4 minutes until golden brown.
4. Continue cooking the pointed cabbage
   Add 50 ml water and immediately cover the pan with the lid. Reduce the heat and allow the pointed cabbage to cook gently. Allow about 8–12 minutes, but judge primarily by doneness: the core should be cooked through while the cabbage still retains some bite and structure. Add a little extra water only if the pan is at risk of becoming completely dry.
5. Cook the apple
   Carefully remove the cooked pointed cabbage from the pan and keep the wedges warm. Cook the apple wedges for 2–3 minutes over a medium heat in the remaining cooking fat. Allow them to colour lightly, but make sure they stay firm and retain their shape. Remove the apple from the pan and keep warm.
6. Soften the shallot
   Melt 10 g of the butter for the sauce in a small saucepan. Add the finely chopped shallot and cook gently over a low heat for 2–3 minutes without allowing it to colour.
7. Reduce the wine
   Add the white wine. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until reduced to about half its original volume.
8. Add the stock and reduce
   Add the stock and continue to simmer gently until about 60–75 ml of concentrated sauce base remains.
9. Add the mustard and honey
   Turn the heat down very low. Stir the wholegrain mustard, Dijon mustard and honey into the reduction and heat briefly. From this point onwards, do not allow the sauce to boil vigorously.
10. Whisk in the butter
    Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the 30 g cold butter one cube at a time. Add the next cube only when the previous one has almost completely incorporated. The sauce should become lightly thickened and glossy.
11. Season the sauce
    Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice first and taste. Add a little more lemon juice, salt or black pepper to taste. Finally, stir the finely chopped parsley into the sauce. Keep the sauce warm, but do not allow it to boil again.

To serve

Place one wedge of pan-fried pointed cabbage on each plate and arrange the warm apple wedges around it. Spoon the mustard butter sauce over and around the cabbage.

Serve as a vegetable dish with, for example, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, pork, chicken or a firm white fish.

With good bread alongside, the pointed cabbage can also be served as a light vegetarian meal. In that case, use vegetable stock for the mustard butter sauce.

Prepare ahead

The pointed cabbage can be cut into wedges a few hours in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator. The shallot and parsley can also be chopped in advance.

The sauce base of shallot, white wine and stock can also be made a little earlier. Gently reheat it before serving and only then add the mustard, honey and cold butter.

Ideally, prepare the fully emulsified mustard butter sauce just before serving. Once the cold butter has been added, the sauce must not boil again, as the emulsion may split.

Ideally, brown and cook the pointed cabbage just before serving. This keeps the cut sides nicely browned while allowing the core to retain some structure.