Cabbage with Fennel & Chilli - My favourite side dish for pork

As I've mentioned before, we love pork in the Primal house. But not your usual, run-of-the-mill supermarket pork. No sows were raised in stalls in the making of my dinners, thank you very much. No siree. We buy our pork (and goat and beefalo and very soon lamb) from our friends Shane & Julz from the wonderful Backfatters Farm in Ingham. Their pigs are the happiest, heritage breed free range pigs in the world. We have visited them, fed them, patted them and we LOVE eating them.

Having small kids, the go-to meal is often sausages. Pork sausages. And the Backfatters sausages contain just 3 ingredients: pork, salt and pepper. That's it. Yes, you can buy flavoured ones but for my Master 2 and Master 4 the plain ones are the best. They are DELICIOUS. Our eldest has renamed them "bacon sausages", for good reason.

I like to bake my sausages in the oven. Most of the fat drains out of them, which some people wouldn't like. I however can't escape that I work in a very sedentary job, I have limited time for exercise (I fit in two 45 minute runs a week) and enjoy being a smaller size, and too much excess fat makes me FAT. I know a lot of Paleo people would disagree with me or debate this but what can I say - I know my own body. I eat more fat than the traditional "low fat" diets but I do have to watch my consumption. So that's how I cook my snags. OF COURSE, you can BBQ yours, or cook them in cider (yum) or deep fry the fuckers for all I care.

And for my husband & I, I make this kick ass, quick side dish which never ceases to amaze me how delicious it is & how well it goes with pork.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 a sugarloaf cabbage (or quarter of a regular cabbage, or 1/2 a small red cabbage), thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped very finely
1 birds eye chilli, chopped very finely
2 anchovies, chopped very finely
1 heaped teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar & pestle
1 heaped tsp lard (or ghee, or refined coconut oil)
Himalayan salt, to taste

Heat lard in a pan. Add fennel seeds, anchovies, chilli and garlic. Stir for a few seconds & add cabbage. Cook, stirring, until oil & flavours are combined. Turn heat down to low and allow to cook until the cabbage is soft. If it starts to dry out, add a tiny splash of water (or more fat, if you're that way inclined). Season with salt, to taste.