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In the bins of any hostess, pickled salads usually occupy a large volume throughout the winter. And in the most honorable place among them are cabbage dishes, since it is cabbage in the autumn that is the queen of the beds and only the lazy does not make preparations from it. Pickled cabbage is also good because, unlike sauerkraut, it is cooked very quickly, and it is easy to roll it up, and use ordinary kitchen cabinets for storage if there is not enough space in the refrigerator and there is no cellar. But when unexpected guests come or there is another reason for setting the table with pickles, you can pull out a jar of pickled cabbage salad from a secluded place and you don't have to come up with anything else. Or, on the contrary, literally a day before - two people marinate it before the planned celebration and the delight of the guests will be provided to you.
Well, it's especially good as a snack spicy pickled cabbage... It is especially appreciated by the representatives of the stronger sex and, therefore, housewives, wanting to please their halves, demonstrate wonders of ingenuity, coming up with all new, interesting and spicy recipes for making cabbage with pepper, garlic or horseradish, or even with all the spicy ingredients at once. It is these recipes that this article is devoted to.
Simple and quick recipe
According to this recipe, you can cook any kind of cabbage, and at any time of the year, if you always have stocks of inexpensive fresh cabbage in your cellar or the nearest store. Or you can, after sterilizing the cans with ready-made snacks, twist it for long-term storage.
According to the recipe, you can pickle a small portion of cabbage, and if you want to make more of it, then simply double or triple the amount of all ingredients.
An experienced hostess often prepares the marinade to her liking, using sometimes the most unexpected additives and spices. But on average, the following components are used for pickling:
- 1 liter of water;
- 60 g salt;
- 50 g sugar;
- 125 g of 9% table vinegar;
- 125 g sunflower oil;
- 3 pieces of lavrushka;
- 10 black peppercorns.
In order not to waste time, before tackling vegetables, you can already put the water on the fire. While it is boiling, peel the carrots and garlic, and from the head of cabbage, separate the two outer leaves, no matter how dirty they are.
Carrots are easiest to grate with a coarse grater, cabbage for storage in small jars is more advisable to chop into strips. However, if you like a different way of slicing cabbage, use it.
Cut the garlic into thin slices - in this form, it will be able to share its aroma, and in the finished pickled dish you can additionally enjoy it.
When the water boils, add all the spices, sugar and salt to it, boil for another 5 minutes over low heat and add sunflower oil and vinegar at the end. Set marinade aside from heat and let cool.
Now the cabbage with carrots and garlic should be mixed well together. You can do this either directly on the surface of a clean table or in a large deep bowl.
Put the mixture of vegetables with cabbage in a glass jar and pour over with warm marinade.
The dish will be completely marinated in a day and for about a week it can be stored in this form in the refrigerator.If you want to cook pickled cabbage according to this recipe for the winter, then pour the vegetables with hot marinade, then cover the jars with lids and sterilize in boiling water for 20 minutes, if we are talking about liter jars. Then the jars with cabbage are hermetically closed, wrapped up and, after complete cooling, are stored.
Georgian red cabbage
In this recipe, pickled cabbage is called red due to the use of beets, although nothing prevents you from preparing a similar dish from red cabbage.
To prepare a delicious dish, you need to find:
- A head of cabbage weighing about 3 kg;
- Several medium carrots;
- Two small beets;
- Two heads of garlic;
- 2-3 hot pepper pods.
In the traditions of cooking according to this recipe, it is customary in Georgia to cut a head of cabbage into 4 parts, and then each quarter into 4 more parts. Beets and carrots are cut into thin slices. But in Georgia, spicy cabbage is usually harvested in large volumes, from 10 kg or more. Therefore, for a modest scale, a smaller cut of vegetables is suitable. Cabbage can be cut into cubes, then the leaves will take the form of small squares by themselves, and all together will look beautiful in jars.
Cut the carrots and beets as you like. Keep in mind that both beets and carrots in the marinade are so tasty that they are pleasant to grind in the form of separate pieces, and not cut into shavings.
After peeling and slicing the garlic, it is also best to cut into small slices, without using a crush.
But hot pepper is quite allowed to be cut into thin strips.
Put the cooked vegetables in a separate bowl and stir, and in the meantime, you can prepare the marinade. According to the recipe for it, you will need to dissolve 240 g of salt, 270 g of sugar in three liters of water and add peppercorns and lavrushka to your taste. After the marinade has boiled for 5-7 minutes, add 200 g of 6% table vinegar and 100 g of vegetable oil to it. Leave it to cool and in a warm state you can pour cabbage with other vegetables.
Usually cabbage according to this recipe is prepared for instant consumption, because in a day it will already be marinated and becomes extremely tasty. Well, if you want to spin the cabbage for the winter, then additional sterilization is required.
Cabbage rolls with horseradish
Pickled cabbage with hot peppers is often prepared in the form of rolls, which add extra beauty and originality to the dish.
The main ingredients for this savory snack are as follows:
- A small head of cabbage weighing about 1.5 kg;
- Horseradish rhizomes - 500 grams;
- 2 hot pepper pods.
The marinade is prepared from two liters of water, to which 200 g of sugar and 60 g of salt are added, as well as a pinch of coriander and mustard seeds. After the water with spices boils and boils for 6-8 minutes, remove it from the heat and add 300 ml of 9% vinegar.
The rolls themselves are made in the following way:
- Rinse the cabbage head and, after removing the outermost leaves, disassemble it by leaves. You will not need the stump itself.
- Boil water in a wide saucepan and boil the cabbage leaves in it for 5 minutes.
- Remove the cabbage leaves from the water with a slotted spoon and, after they have cooled, cut them into strips 7-8 cm wide.
- Peel hot peppers from seed chambers and tails, and horseradish rhizome - from the skin.
- Grind the pepper and horseradish with a meat grinder, putting a plastic bag over the outlet first to avoid unnecessary tears.
- On each cooked strip of cabbage, put half a teaspoon of the horseradish and hot pepper mixture and wrap in a roll.
- In the next step, carefully fold all the cabbage rolls into a jar and cover with hot marinade.
Covering the jars with lids, sterilize in boiling water for 20-30 minutes - liter jars, and 40-45 minutes - three-liter jars.
Cool upside down. Delicious pickled cabbage for the winter in jars is ready, and the unusual shape of the blank will only arouse an additional appetite for your family and guests.
Useful tips for the hostess
It's never too late to learn something, and even an experienced hostess sometimes no, no, and she will learn something new from various recipes and recommendations for them. Well, for beginners it will be even more interesting to get acquainted with the main features of pickling cabbage.
Everyone knows that the basis for the marinade, as a rule, is vinegar of various concentrations. What if you find it difficult to tolerate this product? There are even several possible answers to this question. The easiest way is to replace table vinegar with any natural one: apple, wine or rice.
To pickle cabbage, you can use citric acid instead of vinegar, or even squeeze fresh lemon juice.
- One tablespoon of 6% table vinegar is equal to two tablespoons of lemon juice made from fresh lemon.
- And if you dilute 1 teaspoon of dry lemon powder in 14 tablespoons of water, then you get a substitute for 9% vinegar.
Well, many still remember and use the grandmother's method - instead of vinegar, one aspirin tablet is added to one liter jar of pickled billet.
All the specificity of the taste of this or that pickled piece is determined, first of all, by a set of spices. Here the choice is quite wide - from traditional bay leaves, cloves and peppers, to mustard, coriander, cinnamon and even ginger seeds. By combining these spices in different variations, you can not only cook delicious cabbage for the winter, but also diversify the number of flavors so that none of 10 jars is alike.
The easiest way to marinate cabbage is in glass or enamel dishes. Historically, wooden and ceramic dishes are also used for these purposes. But in no case should aluminum and iron containers be used for pickling cabbage.
If you have a little extra marinade left, then take your time to pour it out. A few days after pickling, the cabbage is able to absorb the brine, its level will decrease and it will be necessary to add the marinade to the workpiece so that it is better preserved.
Remember adding bell pepper and beetroot can make the finished pickled cabbage taste sweet.
Pickled cabbage is not only possible, but also needs to be fried in order to make amazing-tasting fillings for pies or dumplings from it.
If you open a jar of pickled cabbage, then it can be stored well in the refrigerator for no more than a week. Then it can become simply tasteless.
Any of the above recipes can be diversified with additional ingredients in the form of vegetables and berries, as well as seasonings, thereby creating many variations on the theme of spicy pickled cabbage. Experimenting will help you gain additional experience in the difficult task of stocking up for the winter and learn how to create your own culinary masterpieces.
