Lamb with Red Cabbage -- Another recipe from the Transylvanian cookbook

It is time to pick a recipe from the Transylvanian Prince's Cookbook!

This is the digital translation of a book in Hungarian that I have tried recipes from before.  Here is the book reference:

The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook 

From the 16th century 

THE SCIENCE OF COOKING

You can find a copy of it here:
 http://www.fibergeek.com/leathernotebook/files/2018/05/Transylvanian-Cookbook-v3.pdf

The recipes I have tried are here:  Prince of Transylvania's court cookbook

Today I picked recipe number 82, found on page 20.


Lamb with red cabbage. 

Put the lamb on the fire, cut it, boil it, then roast it, add some bacon, but you can do it without. Boil it until tender, put it to the fire and let it cook, clean the red cabbage, poach it, wring it out, then put it with the meat, then add some honey and spices. 

I love how this recipe gives me so much room to experiment.  Spices?  Which spices?  I look around at other lamb recipes in the book and only got a glimpse of what our author might choose.  Garlic didn't seem right but Recipe 84 suggested black pepper and ginger.  Some websites I browsed suggested that you need spices that would stand up to the stronger flavor of lamb.  So I decided on pepper, ginger, and cinnamon.

The book's translators noted:  "This preparation for lamb, spit roasting, slicing, cooking in broth, then a final roast appears in nearly all the lamb recipes in this section".  I assumed that the spit roasting happened with large pieces of lamb, since you slice them and then continue the cooking.  As I had purchased boneless lamb steaks for this recipe, I decided I would start with the "cooking in broth" step.

My Redaction

2 lb. boneless lamb steaks
2 1/2 cups beef broth (enough to barely cover the lamb in the cooking pot)
1/2 pound bacon, sliced
1 large head of red cabbage (mine was 2 1/2 lb before preparing); cored and sliced or shredded
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

And broth

Put the lamb in a covered pan big enough to hold the meat in one layer.  Put in the broth and bring to a gentle simmer.  Simmer, covered, until fork tender.  Mine simmered for 1 1/2 hours and would have benefited from more time.  I turned the meat twice, once after 30 minutes of cooking and again at 45 minutes.

The beginning of the cooking

Place the meat in a greased oven-proof pan and cover the top with the sliced bacon.

The more bacon, the better!

Core and slice or shred the red cabbage and put into a large, covered pot.  Strain the broth and pour it over the cabbage.  (Mine was about 2 cups broth.)  Bring to a boil over medium high heat, cover the pan, and cook the cabbage.  Stir occasionally and taste test for tenderness.  My goal was to cook it to tender but not limp.  I didn't note the time but it was less than 20 minutes.



When is cabbage is done, remove pan from the heat and stir in half of the honey (I approximated rather than measured) and all of the spices.  Mix well.  Scoop into serving bowl, leaving most of the pan liquid behind.  Taste for seasoning.  I put in the rest of the honey at this point.  My mixture was only slightly sweet and the spices were tingly on my tongue.

Broil the lamb until the bacon is crisp and the meat is browned.  It doesn't take long so watch it carefully.



The Verdict

I plated a piece of lamb covered with a piece of bacon on top of a nest of cabbage.  It was served with a side of baked butternut squash and a nice pinot noir.



My guest taster was happy with the tenderness of the lamb, but I was not.  I wished I had let it braise longer (but I ran out of time).

Most bites consisted of lamb, bacon, and cabbage, and that was lovely!  We both agreed that the lamb and cabbage was a good combination but it was the crispy bacon that pushed the taste to excellent levels.

The spices did hold their own against the lamb flavor; in fact, I felt that the flavors all blended nicely together and that none actually dominated.  This is interesting because when I ate the cabbage all by itself (still a good thing), I could really taste the pepper and ginger.  The honey seemed to just mellow the cabbage flavor and shift it to a gentle sweet.

Success!  Lovely!  A nice way to serve lamb without a lot of fuss.  I think it would be fun to try different spice/herb combination in the cabbage to see if there are any better versions out there.

One last note:  The leftovers are tasty, too, although we needed more bacon...