Very lightly creamed cabbage (sauteed with a lot of onion, small amount of cream hard-boiled down) with good balsamic vinegar stirred in at the end off-heatAssuming you're using a whole head of green cabbage (the hard, round one), shredded fine (knife, rather than food processor -- because I can't find the shredding blade for my food processor -- and cut as for coleslaw, with each shred no wider than 1/3 the width of your index finger). For that amount of cabbage, which will serve 4-6 people, I would use 2 medium-sized yellow onions, cut roughly the same size as the cabbage. I would stir them around in the pan in fat over medium-high heat for a while (15-20 minutes, but stirring only occasionally) until they turned a deep golden brown. Then add in the cabbage, and stir that around for a while; it will wilt down from an unimaginably huge pile to a merely big one; mix it in with the onions.
I would then add in perhaps 1/4 cup of cream. If your pile of cabbage and onions is such that this amount of cream amounts to a drop in a bucket, add more until you can definitely see spoonfuls of liquid cream -- not bowls-full, but what might be left in the cereal bowl after you finish all the cornflakes -- sloshing around on the bottom of the pan. With the lid off, turn the heat up to high; your goal here is to bring the cream to a boil and, by thereby evaporating the water in the cream, thicken the cream to the point where it clings to the cabbage and onion like a glaze. Stir away with your wooden spoon. Taste it -- you might want some salt and, if you're me, quite a bit of freshly ground black pepper. It should taste creamy and rather bland. That's when you stir in perhaps 2 tablespoons of good balsamic vinegar, to slice through the richness of the cream and the blandness of the vegetables and wake up your tongue.
Balsamic is one of those things where you really do get what you pay for. I'd get it at the gourmet store, rather than the supermarket, and buy the oldest stuff you can afford.
A small amount? How much is a small amount? What does that mean, hard-boiled down? Lid on or lid off? Which is the good balsamic vinegar? How do I know? From the price?
ETA "hard boil" meaning bring it to the most vigorous boil your stove will provide, over the highest possible heat, while stirring.
VERY IMPORTANT: Remember, anything with liquid -- stew, soup, vegetables in liquid (like cream), etc. -- the quantities are to your taste, and can always be corrected. If the consistency is too thin, boil the liquid down until it thickens, or use a thickener (flour, cornstarch, arrowroot). If it's too thick, add liquid (water, stock, juice, wine). If it's too salty, either dilute with liquid or cook for a while with a raw potato added; this will absorb the salt. If too much of one thing, balance with another, etc. It's all dependent on what YOU like.
