Bratwurst in beer sauce with savoy cabbage

My recipe book collection also consists of six folders jam packed full of magazine recipes which I have collected over the years, all indexed and separated and coded, it took an awful lot of time and effort, but it was worth it, most of the recipes are in German and I fancied finally giving some of them a go, but I wanted something that wasn’t widely known as being traditionally German. I set myself this task thinking that it would be a challenge, I tend to get bored really easily and move onto something else. For example 18 years ago I started doing a large cross stitch, I designed it, drew it, put it on graph paper so I could transfer it to the canvas, I bought all the colours and set about doing it… It is now sat in my Mum’s attic, I got bored and quit doing it. So when I started this new project I was concerned it would be another one of those half-finished things that looms over me making me feel guilty and uneasy for the rest of my life until I complete it. However it was surprisingly easy although time consuming. Anyway this next recipe uses one of my favourite German ingredients the “bratwurst” as long as they are the fresh ones and not the long life ones. It’s not a recipe I would have recognised as being German, but it had what I would call German ingredients so ticked all the boxes for what I wanted to achieve.

Bratwurst in Beer sauce with Savoy Cabbage

700g Savoy Cabbage

1 leek

1 carrot

2tbsp butter

125ml instant veg stock

Salt and pepper

1tsp paprika powder

For the bratwurst

1tbsp oil

600g bratwurst

20g bread

100ml veg stock

150ml beer

2 bay leaves

2tbsp molasses

Salt and pepper

2tbsp apple or beer vinegar

50ml cream

1.       Remove any wilted or tired looking leaves from your cabbage, going length ways cut your cabbage into quarters and cut out the fat middle stalk, then cut the cabbage into thin strips. Wash the leek, cut in half length ways, wash it again and cut it into strips too, peel the carrot and julienne.

2.       Put 1tbsp of butter and the oil into a pot and heat, sauté the vegetables. Add the stock, salt, pepper and paprika, cover and cook on a high heat for 10 minutes. The vegetables should have some bite to them.

3.       In the meantime in a large skillet heat the oil, for the bratwurst. Cook the bratwurst for about 6 minutes, shaking the pan every now and again to turn the sausages. Remove the bratwurst and keep warm.

4.       Remove the crust from the bread and crumble. Add the stock, beer, bay leaves and the crumbled bread to the pan. Cook until the bread crumbs have dissolved and the sauce thickens, season with the syrup, salt, pepper and vinegar, mix in the cream – add the bratwurst to the sauce and leave until it gets really hot.

5.       Season the veg with a little butter, salt and pepper if desired, then serve with the bratwurst and sauce.