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.

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!