“I especially like duck fat and use it to sauté cabbage”

Thomas Keller, Ad Hoc At Home

This is a quick cabbage stir fry which goes particularly well with duckkeepers’ pie – the pie is very rich and the tangy flavour of the caraway seeds cuts through rather beguilingly.

Like the pie this stir fry can be easily transported and quickly assembled. You can make up the dressing, including the walnut oil, and take it separately in a bottle, with the cabbage already shredded with the raisins, pine nuts and seeds, in a plastic bag.

If you make this at home, add the walnut oil at the end of the process – heating isn’t good for it.

Recipe for stir-fried cabbage with raisins and pine nuts

For four

Ingredients

• ½ a savoy cabbage, shredded
• ¼ cup of raisins – or dried cranberries are even better
• ¼ cup of pine nuts
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds (go to The Difference between Cumin and Caraway for more on this spice)
• 2 tbsp walnut oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil – or ideally duck fat
• 1 tbsp Belazu balsamic vinegar
• smoked salt and Indonesian long pepper

Method

1. In a wok, dry-fry the pine nuts and the caraway seeds (go here for why dry-frying adds so much to nuts and seeds). Set aside.
2. Add the olive oil, and get it hot.
3. Add the cabbage and stir well to coat with the oil.
4. Add all the other ingredients except the walnut oil. Stir fry for about five minutes – don’t let the cabbage go dull-coloured and limp.
5. Take off the heat and add the walnut oil.