Stuffed Cabbage

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Stuffed Cabbage

Tis the season for a whole lot of cabbage.  I think that I have at least two more heads of cabbage awaiting some sort of similar treatment as you see herewith.  Cabbage causes Storkbite to loose her cookies so we can’t feed her too much even though she loves all cabbage, especially the fermented variety.  In this tasty dish I conjured my German roots and rolled up some nice augmented pork sausage in blanched cabbage leaves.  Follow along if this sounds good to you.  It was a homerun at our house.

First blanch a head of cabbage by cutting out the core from the stem side and dunking it in a pot of boiling water.  With each dunk a few leaves will fall off. Put the leaves in a colander and rinse them with cold water.

Assemble your filling in a seperate mixing bowl.  I used browned pork sausage (like Italian sausage, just slit the casing and squeeze contents into a bowl) combinded with 2 tbs. bread crumbs, diced onion, garlic and bell peppers.  Add a few pinches of salt and pepper and mix it all up.

Take the cabbage leaves one by one, add about 1/4 c. of filling to each leaf and roll up and place in your pan.  Cover it all in a nice tomato sauce (like Basic Sauce from my previous post) and bake in a covered Dutch oven for about 40 mins.

It was extremly satisfying, dairy free and consumed with reckless abandon by the entire family — including Storkbite.

Salmon, Sausage and Scallops (again)

This week’s cooking conundrum that arrived in our CSA box was called purslane. It looks like a weed, kind of tastes like a weed and well according to Wikipedia - is a weed. The other obstacle of the week arrived on Friday - my cousins - from a landlocked place called Colorado. I was determined to show them a little something about seafood that was just plucked from the Atlantic. They were most appreciative.

Sausage and Puslane

Our local Irish butcher started carrying their own fresh made sausage and it’s excellent. It comes in a coil or links and the make it in a few flavors. This variety was cheese and parsley. The caraway and garlic flavors shined through. I had no idea what to do with the purslane, so after cooking up the sausage in our frying pan, we just added some red wine to the pork fat and reduced it. Once it was nice and saucy, we added the purslane and cooked in down for about a minute. The lemon flavors of the purslane really came through and it was a very delicious and simple dish.

Salmon and Potato Coins

From left to right: rainbow chard and garlic, yellow potatoes, salmon. Everything came from the CSA box except the salmon. This was the first time I tried grilling potatoes and I’m not sure that I recommend it. I par boiled them before grilling, but it wasn’t long enough to make them tender. They did photograph well. The chard was delicious and it’s our new favorite vegetable. I cut the leaves off the stems, then diced the stems and rough chopped the leaves. I sautéed the diced stems in olive oil and garlic, then threw in the leaves. I sautéed it all together for at least 10 minutes or so until it was tender. The salmon got tossed on the grill last after a quick hit of S&P.

Scallops and Fluke

My cousins from Colorado were talking about fish sticks and so I decided treats from the Atlantic were in order. The fisher at our local Saturday market had scallops (these are becoming our Saturday tradition) and fluke. First I counted my scallops and then counted half that amount of bacon strips. I cut the bacon strips in half and laid them on a baking sheet which I put under the oven broiler for a few minutes. I removed the bacon from the oven when it was about half cooked. I let it cool and then wrapped each scallop with a strip and pinned it with a toothpick. I lightly salted and peppered the pile. The fluke just got prepped with a little salt and pepper. In a very hot cast iron skillet I added a tablespoon of butter to a big puddle of olive oil. Once the butter melted and bubbled, I added the scallops one by one. They just take a second and then turn them over. Cooking them too long turns them into wads of gum. Once those were all finished and put on the platter, I added more butter and olive oil to my skillet, a handful on minced garlic and then the fluke. It only takes about two minutes on each side. I snipped fresh chives over the top and served it to the land lubbers. They enjoyed every single tender morsel and we had a very empty platter at the end of our delicious meal. The sides which I failed to mention were sautéed Napa cabbage and roasted red potatoes.

Breakfast

This is just a lovely little breakfast of eggs, salmon and cream cheese on brown toast and fresh strawberries. PG Tips is served here each and every morning.

Pork and Polenta

‘Tis the season for more leafy greens. As I said yesterday, I have a hard time eating what is good for me. However, on one salary I am strictly compelled to use every single bean in this house and vegetable in our refrigerator to keep this family running strong. So that means, I have to find a way to process those greens - every last piece of lettuce will get consumed this season!

Last night my brain was dead and I didn’t have any ideas of what to do. I needed a new protein besides fish, so I followed a friend to our Irish butcher and bought pork chops. I always splurge on the family pack so Storkbite’s Papa can have a wholesome lunch at work the next day.

I hit the pork chops with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them on my trusty grill pan. We didn’t have any bread in the house and I’m kind of sick of rice, so I made polenta fritters on the grill pan. I buy the rolls of polenta in the refrigerator case at Trader Joe’s and keep them for months. I also steamed the rainbow chard and covered it with oil and white balsamic vinegar just before serving. For an extra kick, dust the polenta fritters with Parmesan cheese. It’s decadent and delicious. Not bad for being a bit brain dead in the kitchen!