Salad Days - In Celebration of the Wedge and the Chop

From earliest memory, until the day I left home for good at the age of 22, my grandmother served a 3-course dinner 5 nights a week.  Being able to feed her family, and as she put it, to set out a nice (read: food-filled) table every night was her raison d'etre.  

My grandmother was old-fashioned in many ways.  Born in 1907 - or 1912, if you are into revisionist history - she was a very young woman when she raised her first family, my Uncle Martin and my mother Joyce.  Whatever mistakes she made in child-rearing (their numbers are legion) she never lost the ability to nurture through her cooking.  Unlike some mothers of her generation, she really liked to cook, and she was really good at it.  Although she was filled with many resentments and endless regrets, cooking for family was not one of them.  My Uncle Marty talked about her seafood casseroles with longing.  My Grand Uncle Red, her brother, would travel on subway and the Long Island Railroad to enjoy her chopped eggplant.  She could taste a dish in a restaurant and replicate it at home for us.  Oh yes, she was that good.

If there was any time in our long, contentious relationship that we were singing in the same key, it was while cooking or eating was going on.  Food was the common denominator that drew us together, despite so many other issues tearing us apart.

Her 3-course dinners consisted of an appetizer, entree with vegetable and side dish, and dessert.  Portions were big!  Back then, I could eat it all.  Today, I wouldn't get past the appetizer.  Youth is definitely wasted on the young.

The first course was pretty straight forward - a small glass of tomato juice, half of a fresh grapefruit, one of those little shrimp cocktails that came in a glass jar, maybe a scoop of her awesome chopped liver, or a salad.  Not just any salad, but a gorgeous 50's style iceberg wedge, accompanied by mini wedges of tomato and maybe a slice or two of cucumber.  Russian dressing, homemade.  I loved that salad, and when iceberg lettuce was declared déclassé, and no restaurant worth its Himalayan sea salt would be caught dead with such an item on its menu, I was sad.  Very sad.

Eventually, I found comfort and enjoyment in Caesar salad, baby mesclun, spinach salad with hot bacon dressing, dark salad greens topped with duck breast, foie gras, or quail eggs.   I still had iceberg, albeit as the base of an Asian salad with ginger dressing at any number of teppanyaki restaurants. My guilty pleasure.

At some point in this salad evolution, I met my first layered salad and my eyes opened wide.  The variations were endless, the ease of preparation was breathtaking, and results were delicious.  Same with chopped salads, full of meat and cheese and spicy vegetables, with or without romaine lettuce.

Finally, Wolfgang Puck, that clever clever man, brought back the wedge salad (with blue cheese dressing, which I hate) and suddenly iceberg was elevated back into the stratosphere.  Fortunately, Russian dressing had never gone out of style.  As that old song tells us, anything goes.  (Sorry for the ear worm.)

Fast forward to June of 2003. I've just had my entire digestive system renovated in the hope that I would finally lose a great deal of excess weight.  I am literally craving salad.  Because I cannot absorb most nutrients at this point, I can enjoy them with full-fat dressing and still lose weight.  Russian dressing, here I come!

Eleven and a half years later, I am 135 pounds down.  Kept the weight off, although I still have to make a conscious effort to do so.  As much as I love salad, it doesn't love me.  Try as I might, that delicious bite of iceberg and dressing is not going to stay down.  And that's all I am going to say about that.  Doesn't stop me from eating salads, though - I just have to confine myself to small amounts.  Very small amounts.

If you want to serve a wedge to your family and friends, buy a whole head of iceberg lettuce at the grocery.  Turn it to look at the core.  If it is darkened or rusty in appearance, keep searching.  When you are ready to serve, rinse the head, pat dry, and using a very sharp knife, cut it in half, right through the core.  Cut each half into 3 or 4 wedges.  Place the wedge on a plate, and add whatever extra vegetables you like - tomatoes, cut into wedges, or cherry or grape tomatoes, left whole; a few thin slices of bell pepper or cucumber ; a radish.  Don't overwhelm the salad with piles of accoutrements; this is, after all, all about the wedge.

Now, as to dressing.  There are so many really good bottled dressings on the market that it seems almost silly to make your own.  My two favorite brands are Ken's (on the shelf) and Marie's (in the refrigerated section of the produce aisle.)  I find ranch dressing insipid, but apparently the rest of the world likes it.  Hidden Valley is still the best choice.

And my grandmother?  She passed away in her sleep over the Thanksgiving weekend in 2000, about a month after her 93rd birthday.  She was far gone in the ravages of senile dementia, and had been for years.  I was the last person she remembered, and the last person she forgot.  Sometimes, just sometimes, I miss her.

Because this is a cooking blog, I hate to leave you without a real recipe, so here is one of my favorite salads.  It takes longer than a wedge to prepare, but it is really worth it.  Easy to pack up for an office lunch, great for a potluck. And even I can eat it!

For the dressing, I used Ken's Lite Northern Italian.  You can make your own vinaigrette, but why?  Just asking ...

1-10 oz. bag of Italian salad mix (romaine and red cabbage), finely chopped
1/3 bag of Angel Hair Cole Slaw, finely chopped
1 large or 4 baby cut carrots, freshly grated
4 red radishes, grated
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 small green or mixed colors of bell peppers, finely chopped (I used about 6 mini-sweet peppers)
1/3 of a large cucumber, seeded and patted dry, finely chopped
8 black olives, cut in quarters lengthwise
8 grape tomatoes, cut in quarters lengthwise
1-8oz. container Cedar's brand Fresh Chick Pea Salad, or 1-7.75 oz. can chick peas, drained and roughly chopped

Thinly sliced Italian cold cuts, chopped - I used hot calabrese, pepper salami and hot capocollo, but you can use whatever you like.  I think I used a total of about 10 thin slices
shredded extra sharp Cheddar cheese - to taste
shredded Asiago cheese - to taste.  Again, you can use any cheese you like; provolone is a natural with this, as is mozzarella

Place all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently.  Add the meats and cheeses and toss again.  No doubt you can already see where you might like to make substitutions or revise the amounts uses.  Go for it, this is a virtually no fail salad.

Now just before you are ready to eat, take your portion and place it in a deep bowl.  Drizzle on just enough dressing to moisten the salad, and toss it gently.  Once you have dressed the salad, eat immediately.

Five o'clock World - Hungarian Onion Bread

Is it just me, or did the CDC really take the Zombie Apocalypse more seriously than Ebola?  How did we end up with an Ebola patient riding the New York City subway?  Why are doctors and nurses NOT following the rules?  Why did it take so long to establish the rules? 

Up every morning just to keep a job
I gotta fight my way through the hustling mob
Sounds of the city pounding in my brain
While another day goes down the drain (yeah yeah)

Right now I am very glad that I haven't taken the subway since 2002. Sending prayers to all my New York peeps.  This is no joke.

But its a five o'clock world when the whistle blows
No one owns a piece of my time
And theres a five o'clock me inside my clothes
Thinking that the world looks fine, yeah
(yodeling)

Fine enough to bake bread?  Because we are running low, and there's no desire to move out of my comfort zone to drive to Publix.  Well, yes - with the move to Kissimmee, I not only don't take the subway anymore, I don't even have to take my car if I'm feeling energetic enough for a short walk to the office.  Since I always take my car (who walks to work in Florida?) I am definitely home early enough to throw a few things into the bread machine.

There are few things as comforting to the senses as freshly-baked bread, and while kneading the dough by hand is a wonderful therapeutic experience, it is generally not something one commits to at the end of a busy workday.  As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew it was the one for tonight - anything with "Hungarian" in the title always piques my interest.

Hungarian Onion Bread

These amounts are for a machine with a large capacity, however, it only takes 3 cups of flour and would probably work in a medium capacity machine as well.  Add these to the machine in the order given, unless your model gives other instructions as to when to add liquid or yeast.

3/4 cup water, warm from the tap

2 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 generous teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 generous teaspoon Hungarian paprika, sweet or half sweet

1 teaspoon dried dill weed

3 cups bread flour

1 packet Rapid Rise Yeast

After the flour is added, make a well, careful not to break through to the liquid below, and add the yeast.  Set your machine for Basic (or White) and start the machine.  After it has kneaded for a few minutes, check the dough.  If it is dry or crumbly, drizzle in a small amount of additional water, let it knead a few more minutes and check again for dryness.  The dough should form a well-rounded ball with a mostly smooth exterior, but it is by no means a "wet" dough, so work any additional water in slowly.  One that is done, you can walk away and the machine will do the rest of the work.

Remove the bread pan to a rack and let it cool upright for 5 minutes, then turn out the bread and let it finish cooling on the rack.  The loaf turned out fairly short, and I was sure it was going to be doughy inside.  But, on the contrary, it sliced beautifully and had obviously baked up perfectly.

This toasts up nicely, and works for breakfast or any other meal.  I sliced it on the thin side, toasted and buttered it.  Delicious.  The flavors of the onion and spices are very subtle, but we liked it like that.

Comments?  Suggestions?  Post them here, we like feedback!

Grecian Formula #16,000 - Greek Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Olives

For the first time since last tax season, I was totally on my own on a Saturday.  Robert and Cory headed out early morning to drive to Bradenton to participate in an all-day martial arts clinic.  So what did I do with all this freedom?

I spent the whole day cooking and cleaning up after my cooking and washing my hands more often than Lady Macbeth because I cannot stand to have my hands dirty from cooking.

And I had a fan-frack-tastic time!  Except when I got the club-hand while breading the Scotch eggs.  Hated that.  But loved when the boys got home, and the dishwasher was humming while I sat on my couch, in my spot, blogging and watching Doctor Who.  It's not the most exciting life, but it's mine and I like it.

This was the weekend I prepped the Scotch eggs and the stuffed cabbage but I still needed something chicken for the week.  There was a recipe for a Greek marinade that had caught my interest, a package of chicken thighs in the refrigerator, and a single baking potato.  So I made it up as I went along, and it made a very nice dinner.

Greek Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Tomatoes and Olives

6 skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat

Greek Marinade:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 small garlic cloves, put through a garlic press 

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoon parsley flakes (dried parsley)

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 large Russet baking potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch by 1/2 inch pieces

Handful each of: pitted Kalamata olives and pimento-stuffed green olives

Handful of grape tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise

Whisk the marinade ingredients together and pour into a gallon zip top plastic bag.  Add the chicken, seal well, and turn the bag so that all of the chicken gets covered with the marinade.  Place the bag in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the potatoes, olives, and tomatoes in an 8 x 12 baking dish (yes, of course I use the aluminum tins).  Remove the chicken from the bag and place on top of the potato mixture in the baking dish.  The chicken will be covered in marinade and herbs, which is what you want.  Drizzle any remaining marinade in the bag over the potato mixture.  Bake for an hour, and remove the dish from the oven.  With tongs, carefully remove the chicken to a platter.  Spoon some of the juices in the baking dish over the chicken.  Cover and set aside.

Raise the oven heat to 425 degrees.  Gently toss the potato mixture with the remaining juices in the baking dish.  If you wish, sprinkle on a little salt, pepper, and sweet paprika.  Place back in the oven for 15 minutes.  Turn over the potato pieces, season if you wish, and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.  Place the chicken back on top of the potato mixture and drizzle any chicken juices collected on the platter over the whole dish.

The Greek marinade made the chicken so tender and delicious!  I'm sure it would also work beautifully with fish or pork.

Sometime in the Morning - Granola-Topped Breakfast Muffins

 Sometime this morning, I developed an unusual ear worm, the obscure "Randy Scouse Git" by the Monkees.  Besides the fact that the lyrics make no sense, this particular ear worm drew attention to another annoying, but inevitable fact - that I am a lady of mature years.  Sigh.  In my head I am still 18 years old, while in the mirror - well, I try not to look in the mirror too often.  Ear worms, however, have no such mercy, and can evoke age-old memories.  In 1967, the year "Randy Scouse Git" was released, the Monkees were in their second season on TV, and I was between my freshman and sophomore years in high school, finally finished with the year-long planning leading up to my brother's delightfully overblown bar mitzvah, where I wore the worst dress ever. Adolescence was not just creeping up on me, but smacking me repeatedly upside the head.  

Being now of mature years, I occasionally try to adopt a healthy life style, which explains the bag of granola in my desk drawer at work.  Fiber, you know.  I eat dry cereal without milk (gag if you must) and carry this bag between car and office.  It's quite good, with raisins, chopped dates, and pecans.  In one of my adult ADD moments, I kept staring at it until it occurred to me these would be a fine addition to breakfast muffins.  So I shlepped the bag home to work out a muffin recipe that would successfully incorporate my granola.

One small problem, however - I have no luck with muffins.  I can bake almost anything, and when I was younger I even decorated cakes, but muffins are my Waterloo.  They alway seem to come out too small, too dense, and too boring.  But if I could teach myself to make really good spaetzle at the age of 61, I could give muffins one more try.  Or so I reasoned.

I have a couple of muffin cookbooks in the house, but they have generally led me down the path of muffin failure, so I took to the internet, using search terms like "granola topped muffins" and "fluffy muffin recipes."  Within 10 minutes, I was suffering from cognitive overload.  I skimmed about a dozen recipes like I was briefing a case for my Federal IncomeTax Law class (fast and dirty) and came up with this recipe.  I was quite pleased with the light, even crumb of the interior, the attractive muffin top, and of course, the taste.  Oh, and the moistness.  Amazing.  Almost as amazing as the spaetzle.

Granola-Topped Breakfast Muffins

3/4 cup cake flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon each of salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon1 extra large egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
2/3 cup applesauce (I used Musselman's chunky, because that's what was open in my refrigerator)1 cup of your favorite granola (I used Post's Great Grains Cereal with Raisins, Dates, and Pecans)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 6 of the wells of a standard muffin pan, including the top, and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Combine well, using a small whisk.  Make a well in the center and set aside.

In a 1-cup glass measuring cup, use the small whisk to beat the egg till smooth.  Add the oil and the applesauce and use the whisk to combine them all.  I also used the whisk to mash or break up the apple chunks.

Pour the liquid ingredients into the well in the flour mixture, and using a rubber spatula, gently combine wet and dry, just until the white flour is no longer visible.  Don't worry about lumps in the batter, they are normal and desirable in muffins.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan wells.  The batter will fill 5 to 6 cups, depending on the depth of the well.  Fill close to the top of each cup.   Now with a lavish hand, sprinkle granola over the top of each muffin.  Place the pan into the preheated oven and bake for 18 minutes, watching the granola so it doesn't burn.

Remove the muffin pan from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 5 minutes.  While cooling, carefully brush the excess granola from around the edges of each muffin.  Then, with the tip of a sharp little knife, remove the muffins from the pan and place them on the rack to finish cooling.

These are rather good with a little butter.  Or a lot of butter.  Or Temp-Tee whipped cream cheese.  Eat over a plate, because granola will fall.  These are going to make a really good (and nominally healthy!) breakfast.

The Happy Hangover - Sausage and Peppers Linguine Dinner

I woke up with what seemed to be a hangover.  Since I rarely drink, that was unexpected and extraordinarily annoying.  And painful.  And that was the end of my plans to get some food shopping done.  Which did not stop me from cooking today.  I guess that makes it a happy hangover.

I wanted a hearty pasta sauce to serve over spaghetti, and while I was missing some crucial ingredients for a traditional meat sauce or a bolognese, my freezer came through.  Like most home cooks, I always have jarred pasta sauce in the pantry.  My freezer may have a few things others don't - sliced beef liver, tasso ham, squid and calamari - but I also had the obligatory frozen vegetables plus a half package of Italian sausage links.

Spending the day at home, nursing a headache while working ever-so-slowly on my recipe collection, did not stop me from throwing together a rich and delicious spaghetti sauce.  

The recipe collection project is going better than expected.  It has already taken me about 2 months to sort through and organize the papers, and then there was a lot of photocopying to replace clippings from a 1984 Bon Appetit and the backs of pasta boxes.  I am at the point now of putting the recipes into clear plastic sheet protectors and from there into 3 ring binders.  That blue notebook contains all of my recipes for appetizers, plus a section for sauces, dressings, marinades and the like.  Today I've been working on salads, vegetables, and soups, and hope to have them tucked into a green notebook before too long.

Tonight's dinner involves a crockpot, which you may have guessed from my description of a sitting-on-the-couch sort of day.  The 4 quart is a perfect size.  It is literally the only pot you are going to need.

Sausage and Peppers Linguine Dinner

Olive Oil

3 Italian sausages, frozen (hot or sweet)

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 - 24 oz. jar marinara pasta sauce (I used Classico Marinara with Plum Tomatoes and Olive Oil) 

1/2 cup each red wine and water (put into the sauce jar, cover and shake to get any sauce on the sides of the jar)

Italian seasoning blend

kosher salt

black pepper

granulated garlic

pinch or more of sugar

1 - 14 oz. bag frozen pepper and onion blend

about 6 oz. of linguine pasta, broken in half

another 1/2 cup of water

In the crockpot, place the frozen sausages and garlic and a drizzle of olive oil.  Season with the Italian seasoning blend to taste. Cover and cook on the High setting for 30 to 45 minutes.  Turn the sausage and cook for another 30 minutes.  Add the marinara, 1/2 cup water and the wine, cover, and let cook for another hour.  Taste and adjust the seasoning, using the salt, pepper, and granulated garlic along with the Italian blend. 

Remove the sausage and set aside on a cutting board to cool slightly.  Add the frozen peppers and onions, cover.  While the sauce is reheating, chop up the sausage in very small pieces.  Add the sausage back to the sauce and let cook for another two hours.  Now add the linguine and the last 1/2 cup of water.  Stir to separate the linguine and submerge all pasta in the liquid.  Cook for another 20 minutes, stirring half way through.

Serve immediately.

Did you enjoy this recipe?  Make any changes to improve it?  Let me know by posting something in the Comments section.  Thanks!

#TBT - Hola! It's an Easy Paella

As promised - such a good dish for a casual dinner for friends. 

You will need a rectangular electric frying pan with a domed cover.  So by now you may have guessed that in addition to being the Aluminum Tin Queen, I am also Queen of the Electric Appliances.

Spices, Condiments, Oils:

kosher salt

black pepper

granulated garlic

Hungarian sweet pepper

1/4 teaspoon saffron

2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce (e.g. Tabasco, Texas Pete, Crystal)

Vegetables, Produce:

1 large or 2 medium yellow onions, chopped

1 medium or 2 small green peppers, chopped

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

Off the Shelf:

7 oz. chorizo (Goya or Tropical Brand), halved, casing removed, sliced into 1/4 inch half moons

1 1/2 cups uncooked converted rice (Uncle Ben's)

1-12 oz. bottle beer, poured into a 4-cup glass measuring cup

1-15 oz. can green peas (trust me), liquid drained into the beer

1-14 oz. can quartered artichoke hearts, liquid drained into the beer

1-6 1/2 oz. jar Fancy Pimientos, drained, patted dry, cut into pieces

15 or more small manzanilla olives (these are little green olives stuffed with pimiento)

Out of the Refrigerator:

6 chicken drumsticks

1 dozen littleneck clams

1/2 pound mussels

1/2 pound peeled rock shrimp (if these are unavailable, use more peeled white shrimp)

1/2 pound peeled white shrimp (medium or large, whatever is on sale)

Sprinkle chicken with some salt, black pepper, paprika and garlic.  Heat olive oil in frying pan at 325 degrees, and brown chicken on all sides.  Remove to a dish and hold. (This is where I use one of those aluminum trays, about 9x13.)  Next cook the chorizo for just a minute, and with a slotted spoon, remove it to the dish with the chicken.  Next cook both shrimp just until barely pink, remove them and hold in a separate bowl.  Do not overcook the shrimp.  Seriously.

Add the onions, green peppers, and chopped garlic to the pan; season with salt, pepper, paprika and granulated garlic.  I also like to sprinkle a very small amount of regular sugar over the onions for flavor and caramelization. Cook until onion is tender, not brown.  Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil in the pan.  Add enough water to the beer to make 3 1/2 cups liquid.  Add the hot pepper sauce to the liquid, then pour it all into the pan, stirring up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add the bouillon cubes and the saffron and stir.  Stir the cooked chorizo into the rice, and then place the chicken on top.  Cover the pan with the domed lid, making sure the little steam outlet is closed.  Lower the heat to simmer, and cook 25 - 30 minutes until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is done.  You will want to check on the rice and stir it about halfway through the cooking to make sure it is not sticking.

Uncover, remove the chicken, and stir the rice.  Add the green peas, the artichoke heart quarters, pimiento pieces, olives, and cooked shrimp and stir gently. Arrange the mussels, clams, and chicken on top of the rice.  Cover and cook another 10 minutes or until the clams and mussels are open.  Discard any that don't open.  Serve everyone a little bit of each type of protein, and pile that awesome rice high on each plate.  Eat with gusto, or at least with garlic bread.

From Fish Bait to Fine Dining - Mussels in Wine Sauce

Back in the early sixties, I spent several summers at the then-ubiquitous Jewish sleepaway camps of the New York Catskills.  We swam, we played a lot of volleyball, practiced shooting hoops, rode horses, and went fishing.  For bait, we gathered mussels from around the shallow shores of Lake Anawana, smashed the black shells, and retrieved the yucky interiors.  I caught the most beautiful fish with those sad bivalves.  Of course we never got to eat the fish we caught, as they were always thrown back for yet another day.

The mussels, though ... it seems that somewhere along the way from fish sticks to chilean sea bass, I also discovered something that European cooks have known for a long time.  Mussels make good eats, can be farmed and are sustainable, and are a lot more reasonable in price than scallops, oysters, or even clams.

This is my favorite way to eat them.  Hot from the pan, with the most delectable juices to sop up with bread.  I also love them cold from the fridge the next day.  If you have ever eaten mussels on the half shell at a Chinese buffet, then you know they are delicious when cold.  These are even better, because of the garlicky, herby sauce they've been resting in overnight.  Either way, you will be glad you tried them. 

This is my other favorite way to eat them, as part of a paella, and I will be publishing that recipe as part of Throwback Thursday #TBT later this week.  Besides tasting wonderful, they really add to the visual appeal. Thursday, I promise.

Back to the mussels in wine sauce - first, a little trick:  rinse the fresh mussels in a colander.  If any are open, and won't close when tapped with a spoon, throw it away, it's dead, Jim.  Place the mussels in a deep pot with a lid, add water to cover.  Stir in a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt, and fill the pot with ice cubes.  Cover, place in the fridge, and leave overnight or for as many hours as you can before cooking.  When ready to cook, dump into a colander and rinse with some cold water.  Shake off the excess water.  Debeard if necessary, then cook as usual.  This little soak seems to keep the mussels plump and tender when cooked.

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (I like the curly kind.  That's the kind of hairpin I am.)
4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
salt, pepper, sugar

2 1/2  pounds fresh mussels, prepared as above
1 cup dry white wine

In a deep saucepan, heat the butter and oil together, then add the garlic, onion, parsley, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.  Heat gently for 10 minutes.  Add the mussels and the wine.  Cover the saucepan and turn up the heat until it boils.  Simmer for 8 minutes, until the mussels open.  If any of the mussels have not opened up, throw them out.

Sometimes, I take half of a red bell pepper, cut it into strips, and add it to the onions and garlic.  I also like to chop up some more fresh parsley and scatter it over the top before serving.

Hot or cold, these are delicious.  Enjoy.

Love the blog?  Hate the recipe?  Post a comment!

Ode to a Crockpot - Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage

I recently read an Op Ed piece in the New York Times, where the writer expressed her feelings about the societal expectation of preparing daily home-cooked meals for children.  She was indignant, offended, and darn near angry.  After all, coming home after a long day at work doesn't leave time to whip up a pot roast, especially when the children have after school activities, homework, baths, and all that jazz.  She recognized that somewhere in that time period between the end of the school day and bedtime, the kids had to eat dinner, but expressed her longing for the days when the First Lady was not keeping pizza off the school lunch menus, and it was okay to do your dinner food shopping in the drive-thru at McDonald's.  The writer also expressed her not-inconsiderable feminist frustration that here we are in the 21st century, and mothers, i.e. females, were expected to cook for their spawn.

As the late President Richard Nixon would state, let me say this about that:  first of all, I'm a feminist - a real feminist, someone who faced blatant gender discrimination in the seventies, when I first started working, and had to push hard to make progress, failed in the face of a male-dominated industry, and then applied to law school to try to level the playing field.  I've been ready for Hillary for a long time, and furious that countries like India, Israel, and Great Britain have been led by powerful women executives, while we have not.  

Next, Michelle Obama needs to get out of the school cafeteria.  There is nothing wrong with pizza on Wednesdays or fried chicken on Monday.  It's all about balance and moderation. (Sometimes I still dream about those English muffin pizzas on the Wednesday lunch menu at Lawrence High School.) Third, I am firmly opposed to children having too many activities that eat up all their (as well as their parent's) spare time after school and every weekend.  Pick two, and let the kids have time to be kids. 

Fourth is that you don't have to cook every night.  True, my grandmother (she-who-raised-me) cooked a three course meal every night, but she was another generation, a stay-at-home wife and mother, and besides, the kitchen was always closed on the weekends.  I don't cook every night, in fact, I almost never cook during the week, because I've always been a working mother.  My schedule is the opposite of my grandmother's - I do all my major food shopping and cooking on the weekend, pack everything up in those ubiquitous aluminum pans that my cousin Steve Schneider likes to tease me about, and load up the refrigerator with enough food to feed my family for at least a week.  My son, now an adult, likes to eat late, so long after his dad and I are done with dinner, he pulls a goodly number of those tin pans out of the fridge, and fills up a plate with whatever combination of cooked comestibles strikes his fancy, and - are you ready for it? - he reheats it in the microwave.  

Admittedly, I think spending at least one of my days off from work frying artichoke hearts and basting chickens is a big treat, but I got the sense that the op ed author would rather scratch out her eyeballs with a fork.  For her and other parents who either don't like to cook, don't have the time or the talent to cook, don't have another parent in the home who is willing to pick up part of the cooking responsibility, and who can't afford decent take-out every night, there is, of course, always the last, best hope for a delicious and easy hot meal (and the reason for today's post)- the crockpot.  The crockpot is my go-to device on those occasions when I do plan to cook during the week, as well as one of the appliances I rely on during my weekend cooking marathons.  

This, my friends, is a crockpot, AKA a slow cooker.  This little beauty and I made our acquaintance in the fall of 1976, and we've been together ever since.  She is so old - like me - that her inner crock is not removable.  I think she is about 4 quarts, an adequate size for chili and soup, but not large enough for a couple of racks of baby back ribs or a nice big pot roast.  Until recently, I also had a round 5 quart cooker with a removable crock, but after almost as many years of faithful service, it passed on to that great appliance junk yard in the sky.  I am in the market for a replacement, and also checking out some 8 quart crocks, in case I ever feel the need to feed the population of a small city.  In the meantime, I rely most frequently on this 6 quart oval, which has two crocks, one of which is divided into two compartments.  Very nice when I want to serve cocktail meatballs AND little smokies, or two kinds of soup.

That is a lovely piece of stuffed veal breast in the crock, and by the time you read this, I will have posted that recipe.  For today, however, I am using both crockpots to create a relatively easy version of my grandmother's stuffed cabbage.  It can be prepared in stages, if you prefer, and I'll show how using the crockpot takes the stress out of assembling all of the components.  

To me, the biggest stress factor has always been the cabbage.  Either I have to deal with a huge pot of boiling water, trying to remove the rock-hard core of the cabbage so I can dip it in and out of the water to loosen the leaves (imagine cutting yourself and scalding yourself at the same time) or I have to plan three days ahead and put the cabbage in the freeze for at least overnight, and then let it defrost in the refrigerator and hope the leaves are soft enough to remove, stuff, and roll.

Instead, I took a nice big head of cabbage, placed it core-side down into my 6 quart crockpot, first cutting off about half an inch across the bottom so it fit under the lid.  I then added water about a third of a way up the sides, covered the crockpot, and cooked the cabbage head on low for 6 hours. When it's done, carefully move the cabbage to a large bowl, core-side up, and let it cool down enough to handle.  With a long thin knife, cut out the core and begin to carefully remove the leaves, placing them on paper towels to drain.  You will need 12 large yellow leaves, but do not discard the remaining cabbage just yet.

Here is my grandmother's recipe for stuffed cabbage, adapted for the crockpot:

1 large head of cabbage, cooked in the crockpot to yield at least 12 large leaves

For the filling:
2 pounds ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked long-grain converted rice (Uncle Ben's)
about 1/4 cup grated onion (grate the onion right into the mixing bowl)
1 extra large egg
granulated garlic and onion powder, to taste
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine the filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix together by hand.  Divide the filling into 12 equal portions, shaped like logs.

For the sauce:
2 large Vidalia onions, chopped into large pieces
canola or olive oil
2 cans of Campbell's condensed tomato soup
3 soup cans water
1-8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 sauce can water
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
kosher salt, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic to taste
3-4 tablespoons sugar
granulated citric acid (sour salt)


At the same time you start the cabbage, spray or oil the inside of a 4 quart crock, add the onions, drizzle on the oil, cover and cook for 6 hours on low.  Stir occasionally, and watch those onions caramelize without spattering oil all over the top of your stove.  When the onions are done, add all of the remaining sauce ingredients except for the citric acid.  Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.  After the first hour, taste the sauce and adjust your seasoning, including sweetness.  Then add about 1/2 teaspoon of the citric acid, cook the sauce another half hour, then taste again.  You want the perfect balance of sweet to sour.  Just keep in mind that the citric acid should be used sparingly, and take your time in achieving this balance.

Take a cabbage leaf and with a sharp knife, carefully shave off the thick part of the rib.  Repeat for all of the leaves.  This will make it easier for them to be rolled.  Then place one portion of meat on each leaf, and roll it up like a burrito or an eggroll. Set the finished rolls aside.

Rinse out the 6 quart crockpot.  Ladle some of the sauce on the bottom of the crock.  Break up some of the remaining cabbage into smaller pieces and place on top of the sauce.  Add a single layer of cabbage rolls, placing them seam-side down.  Ladle on enough sauce to almost cover them, then place the remaining cabbage rolls on top, crosswise from the first layer.  I fit 5 rolls on the first layer and 7 on the second.  Use some more of the broken up cabbage to tuck in between the rolls so that they fit snuggly.  

Finally, top with the rest of the sauce and more of the broken up cabbage pieces.  Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or until the meat filling registers 165 degrees and the cabbage is very tender. I set my crockpot to cook for 5 hours, after which it automatically switched to the "keep warm" setting.  When I woke up this morning, it had been on "keep warm" for 2 hours, and was perfect.  My house smelled so good, I almost ate stuffed cabbage for breakfast!

Serve the stuffed cabbage directly from the crockpot or carefully move to a baking dish for later use.

Cooked stuffed cabbage reheats well and also freezes well. Just remember to place a piece of wax paper between the food and aluminum foil, if you are going to use the foil to cover the pan.  This recipe serves 12 as an appetizer, or 4-6 as an entree.

Try it, you'll like it - then leave a comment.  Love some feedback!