Bacon and cabbage

Bacon and cabbage

Ingredients
A 3-4 lb Loin of Bacon or Corned Beef Brisket
2 Onions
2 Carrots
1 Stick of celery
I Cabbage
A small pat of butter
Tablespoon each of honey and wholegrain mustard
Good pinch of ground cloves

Place the meat in a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil. From here things vary according to the meat you use.

Corned Beef: Add the onions, carrots and celery, all roughly chopped, and allow the meat to simmer for about 25-30 minutes per pound.

Bacon: Bring to the boil. If a white scum (it's salt) rises to the top, drain off the water, replace with cold water and bring to the boil again. Repeat until there is no scum. Then add the vegetables as above and simmer for 15 minutes per pound plus 15 minutes over.

In either case once the meat is cooked, remove it from the water, dry it lightly with some kitchen towels. If there is a thick fat cover on the bacon I generally cut it off at this point - though that is sacrilage to some people! Retain a cupful of the cooking water - discard the vegetables, they were there for flavour and have done their job.

Mix together the honey, mustard and ground cloves and smear it all over the bacon. Leave it, covered, to 'rest' and let the honey mixture soak in for about 20-30 minutes - or several hours or even overnight if that suits you better.

Before serving, put the bacon into a moderately hot oven, about 400ºF (200ºC/Gas Mark 6) for about 20-30 minutes. This gives you plenty of time to prepare the cabbage.

Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut it into four and remove the stalk. Then finely shred it.
Put half a cupful of the bacon water in a saucepan, add the butter and bring to the boil. Then add the cabbage and stir it constantly until it wilts and becomes slightly soft. It will take about 5 minutes to cook. The water and butter will disappear - partly coating the cabbage, partly steaming away - so you will not need to drain it at all.

Serve with mashed potato or Champ. Parsley sauce or mustard sauce goes well with this.