Comfort food – think all the ingredients of cabbage rolls, but in a casserole.

A post from Carolyn. You’ll likely find a bunch of recipes out there for cabbage roll casseroles. I looked at about 15 maybe before deciding on one, but then I tweaked it some. First, I substituted Impossible burger meat instead of ground beef. You can use beef, or ground chicken or turkey too. In a casserole like this, I doubt anyone could tell the difference!

There’s another recipe here on my blog that’s a similar concoction, Unstuffed Sweet & Sour Cabbage, posted waaay back when – in 2008. My goodness, how time flies. I also have made a similar mixture into a soup. But I prefer the sweet/sour aspect of this recipe and my 2008 one.

First a chopped up an onion and sizzled that a bit in a big frying pan with a bit of oil. Then garlic, some celery (not in the original recipe), then the beef substitute. It cooks up just like ground beef, looking like raw, with redness, then it cooks out the red. Then a big can of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste are added. Paprika and thyme were sprinkled in. I also added some half-sharp paprika too. Since most of you won’t have that (you can buy it at Penzey’s), just add a little jot of Sriracha to the mixture. I added some beef soup base (not much) to give it a bit more beefy flavor, though you could use vegetable soup base just as easily. I added a little bit of caraway seed, ground sage, celery seed too. Those weren’t in the original recipe either.

Meanwhile I cooked up 2/3 cup of basmati rice (long grain) and set it aside. Once the sauce came to a boil I simmered it for about 20 minutes to meld the flavors. I poured it out into a big bowl. Then I chopped up a big green cabbage. Some recipes leave the cabbage in wedges, but I liked the idea of layering the cabbage and the “meat” sauce, so I cut it into about 1″ squares, approximately. That got sautéed a bit in oil and water (in the original pot), then steamed until mostly cooked. One recipe cautioned that the baking of  the casserole doesn’t cook the cabbage any further, so it needs to be fully cooked before composing the casserole.

Into a big 9×13 pan it went – half of the cabbage – then half the “meat”, then the remaining cabbage and remaining “meat.” I also sprinkled on some fresh dill in between the layers and some more on top when it was served.

This makes a generous quantity, and it’s very filling. I ate one portion and then squared out  more portions and put them in freezer containers for another day. Always happy for that occurrence. I used some plastic wrap to mold (pressed directly on) the top of the food itself, then put the plastic lid on top. I didn’t want it to grow ice crystals, so hope that will be a good solution. My cousin Gary is coming to visit over Thanksgiving, so this will make a nice dinner for us one night.

What’s GOOD: loved the ease of making this – it’ll serve at least 8-10 people. I liked that the whole casserole had just 2 cups of cooked rice in it (since I try to limit carbs). Loved the flavors, the sweet (from the tomatoes) and the sour (from the little bit of cider vinegar added at the end). You might ask – why did she put in celery? Because of the flavor – celery adds a nice addition to flavors. It probably isn’t in cabbage rolls. I try to add more veggies wherever I can.

What’s NOT: nothing really. It made a mound of dirty dishes, but it wasn’t all that bad. I miss my dear hubby who used to wash all the dishes for me – that was our deal – I cooked – he cleaned up.

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Just look at that deep, dark color. I’d never made chili this way. Read on.

A post from Carolyn. We had a few days of cooler weather, a harbinger of fall, here in SoCal, and my taste buds turned to winter weather foods. First I craved chili, so I decided to try a new recipe. I have a deep respect for the work that the folks at Cook’s Illustrated do, and sure enough, I had a recipe to try. They called it “Best Ground Beef Chili.”

Right off the top, I’ll tell you, this isn’t a 1-2-3 done kind of chili. It requires a few steps and about 2 hours in a low oven too. But oh, my goodness, is this ever good. The dried ancho chiles are the key ingredient in this version. Well, there are a couple of other oddball ingredients in this too, but the ancho chiles are certainly the first and foremost. They are stemmed, seeded, and cut or torn into chunky pieces. They go into a dry Dutch oven and are toasted. You’d think they’re already toasted with the color of them, but they’re not – they’re simply dried chiles. The picture at right shows the ancho pieces as they toast away in the dry Dutch oven. Do watch the pot, though, and make sure they don’t begin to smoke. If they do, turn down the heat – but stir them a lot as they toast. You cannot tell they are getting toasted, just trust the recipe.

Meanwhile, I mixed up the lean ground beef with 2 T of water and a bit of baking soda. Say what, I asked? Why? Well, doing that helps the beef retain its moisture as it cooks and helps the beef to not shed all of its juices. What an idea! That bowl was set aside to rest while I began the other steps. Onion was sautéed in the Dutch oven (same one I used for the chiles). The toasted chiles went into a food processor along with a whole bunch of dried spices and herbs. That got whizzed up into a fine dust and was added to the onion. A large can of whole tomatoes was also pureed (I guess you could buy already pureed tomatoes if you’d rather). They say the whole tomatoes have better flavor; I suppose that’s why you whiz them up yourself. The ground beef was added to the Dutch oven, the spices and the tomatoes. Plus a few other minor ingredients like chipotle chiles in adobo, a can of pinto beans, a tetch of sugar and a couple cups of water. That was brought up to a boil, lid affixed, and it went into a 275° oven for 1 1/2 hours (or up to 2).

Once out of the oven, the mixture needs to get stirred as the fat rises to the top. Stir it in to get more flavor. The chili is so SO dark colored. Those toasted chiles really did their job of coloring the entire pot full. You also add 2 T of cider vinegar. What that does for the chili I don’t know – I couldn’t really taste it. Guess it gave it a bit of tang, perhaps? The recipe recommends serving it over rice and/or tortilla chips. I did neither as I didn’t want the carbs. A serving is about 1 to 1 1/4 cups – it’s rich, so a little goes a long ways. All the toppings give texture too. Grated cheese, avocado, red onion, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, lime wedges, chopped cilantro – any and all of those go with it.

What’s GOOD: everything about this chili is stellar. Deep, dark flavor from those ancho chiles. The chili is just slightly warm (go easy on the chipotle if you’re sensitive to heat). Notice, there is NO chili powder in this chili. Loved it from the first to the last slurp. A definite keeper. Thanks to Cook’s Illustrated.

What’s NOT: nothing other than it takes a few hours to prepare and more cooking prep than some recipes. But you’ll be rewarded at the end for all your hard work.

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What do you think about tri-tip? Like it? Not? Too gristly? Flavor? 

A post from Carolyn.  I’ve not ever been a big fan of tri-tip. Too tough, usually. The flavor was always good – good, strong, beefy flavor; but the texture was chewy; usually too chewy for my taste. I mean, I love-me a good ribeye. That’s my fav. But I was feeding a crowd and served grilled Italian sausage and this tri-tip. My friend Dianne fixed this beef a few weeks ago when she invited Taylor and me to dinner, and I really liked it. It happened that the slices I had contained next to no fat or gristle. Not so much when I made it myself (above). But the flavor was great. I liked the marinade. The tri-tip happened to be on sale at one of my local markets . . . now I suppose I could have gotten one that wasn’t trimmed as well . . . I don’t know.

You do need to trim the meat of visible fat and gristle. And there’s a piece of silver skin on one side that also needs to be removed. That takes a bit of hand labor. But worth the effort. Marinate the meat for 24 hours if time permits. This recipe came from an ancient Sunset Magazine and is still available online. Dianne had a copy of the faded page from the magazine as she’s been making this for a bunch of years.

As I type this, I’m serving it again this week to a different gathering – my granddaughter’s nursing school graduation party. I’m expecting 18 people – some family and a bunch of my friends who have gotten to know (and love) Taylor since she’s lived with me. It’s been hot-hot here in our neck of the woods, so we may be eating inside (I don’t know where I’ll seat 18 people – it’ll take some ingenuity). I’m doing another coil of sausage (see cooked sausage coil at left), this tri-tip and also a full slab of slow-roasted salmon with a garlic vinaigrette on top. Then with tons of sides and salads. And daughter Sara is bringing a cheesecake (lemon strawberry is what Taylor requested). A few people are bringing something to help out.

So I read, tri-tip isn’t a cut of meat available in all areas of our country. A lot here in California. But in other places, they’ve never heard of it. It’s from the bottom sirloin and has a triangular shape with a long tapered end, hence tri – – tip(s). Most people dry roast it but it can also be marinated and grilled like a steak. That’s what we did. My son barbecued the meat for me as I was busy in the kitchen. He also grilled a complete round (coil) of Italian sausage with Mozzarella cheese in it. SO SO good. We have a good Italian restaurant in Newport Beach (Sabatino’s) that has a butcher department attached to the restaurant. The coil was $42 – probably about 2 1/2 pounds. Not sure, I didn’t weigh it.

Back to this tri-tip. It’s marinated in a very simple solution – reduced sodium soy sauce, dried oregano, garlic, a jot of liquid smoke, pepper and a bunch of fresh cilantro. But first, you cut some long 1/2″ deep slits in the roast so the marinade can get into the crevices. Next time I’ll poke it all over with a fork, too. Into a plastic bag it’ll go, and several times over the 24 hours turn the bag over and over. There really isn’t much marinade, so you need to continue to flip it over in the frig numerous times. Let is sit out for 30 minutes or so, then it goes onto a medium-high grill for about 10 minutes per side, or until it gets to 125°F in the center, to get that meat a lovely medium-rare. It needs to rest for about 5 minutes (foil-covered) then you slice it SUPER-THIN across the grain. If people prefer more well done, the tapered end will be more well cooked. I served it with an ancho chili dip/sauce (posting in a few days).

What’s GOOD: Good, beefy flavor, needs marinating so don’t skimp on the 24-hour time. Cut into super-thin slices, it’s a very nice steak type entrée. Some people prefer a more chewy beef texture – this is it. Love the flavor from the marinade. The meat would like a sauce to go with it.

What’s NOT: making time for the marinating is about it. Don’t expect this to taste like ribeye, though, because it’s far from it. If you don’t live in California you might have trouble getting the cut of meat – you’d have to ask a butcher to cut it.

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I do love my Instant Pot. This meal came together in a flash.

A post from Carolyn. As it turned out, we were invited out for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. But I’d already bought a corned beef – might I just say, a small corned beef at Trader Joe’s was close to $25. And that great big piece of meat becomes a small little bit of meat when it’s done cooking. That’s always the case with brisket, however.

Beef has become a treat anytime with prices like that. Even ground beef is pricey. But anyway, I needed to cook the corned beef. I waited a couple of weeks. Researched a few recipes online and decided on this one. I had Savoy cabbage, carrots and onions. I don’t eat potatoes hardly at all, and can’t say that we missed them. However, I’d have eaten them if I’d added them to the pot!

I made a bed of onions and garlic in the Instant Pot, then added in the rinsed corned beef on top. You can use beef broth or water, then seal and cook under pressure for 70 minutes. Some recipes say 90 minutes, but others said 70. Mine was a smaller brisket so I went with 70. The very tender corned beef was removed and set aside, covered with foil. The carrots and cabbage were added back into the Instant Pot (with all the cooking water) and pressure cooked for 2 minutes. Yes, two minutes. So easy and quick. Onto the platter everything went and I put out grainy mustard and horseradish to augment the corned beef. Altogether delicious.

What’s GOOD: how quick and easy this meal was to make from beginning to end. A 70-minute cooking time in the Instant Pot might make it hard to do for a weeknight if you’re a working family, but it was sure easy in every other way. Veggies were perfect after two minutes under pressure.

What’s NOT: really nothing – not very big servings, but then, we didn’t need a lot.

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This is a post from Sara. FAST & FLAVORFUL.

These days I am without the hustle and bustle of chicks at home as we are officially Empty Nesters.  But I am amazed at how little time I have to make dinner.  So I find myself searching for new quick and healthy recipes.  This is a recipe I found online that is SUPER easy.  I mean 20 mins start to finish easy!  And so tasty.  I was looking for something to do with the ground beef I’d bought that wasn’t tacos, or hamburgers.  And this recipe fit the bill perfectly!  It is so flavorful with a hint of heat.  I added the steamed cauliflower to satisfy my need for veggies.  You could add any type of cooked veggie, frozen would work easily too.  This also made excellent leftovers for lunch the next day.

Starting with the rice since it usually takes 20 mins.  Then I cut and cleaned the fresh cauliflower, dropped it into the steamer to cook.  I began browning the beef and garlic in a shallow pan.  While that was cooking, I mixed the sauce ingredients.  When the beef has no more pink, I added the sauce and let it cook on low for a few mins.  Then I fluffed the rice and was ready to assemble.

I used a bowl, layering the rice, beef then cauliflower.  I topped it with sliced scallions.  My husband enjoyed this dish with a bit of siracha to kick up the spice and a nice IPA (well, not with the leftovers at work!)

This will be a repeat in my rotation for sure!  I imagine one could substitute ground turkey or chicken for the beef, but you may need to increase the spices to give it more flavor.

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The most succulent corned beef I’ve ever had. Bar none.

On St. Paddy’s Day (actually it was the day before – they were celebrating early), my son and his family invited me to their home for the day and evening. I’d been thinking about having a traditional corned beef dinner, but with being just me-myself-and-I, how could I eat up several pounds of corned beef? Yes, I could freeze some, but I don’t know about you, but I’m never quite so happy with leftovers once they’ve been frozen. So when they invited me, I jumped. A few days ago I shared the recipe for Colcannon that I made for the dinner.

Karen made this braised corned beef that was just off-the-charts. It was the most tasty and tender corned beef I’ve ever had. She bought 5 pounds of corned beef (larger than most grocery store cuts) and there were 4 of us for dinner, and maybe smaller portion leftovers for the 3 of them for another night. If you buy a smaller corned beef, it will still need the same number of hours of braising, you’ll just have less of it. As you no doubt know, corned beef shrinks a lot once cooked.

She’s been using this same recipe for several years, and she says it’s SO easy. She found the recipe at allrecipes.com. What’s different about it? Well, most recipes I’ve ever made, you simmer the beef for maybe 2-2 1/2 hours max. This recipe IS different. First Karen slathered both sides of the beef with HP sauce. You probably could use A-1, but HP is the British version. Once slathered, she browned it first on the stovetop in a little bit of vegetable oil, then put it into a big roasting pan on a rack, and covered the top with yellow onions and slivered garlic. Water was added to the pot and she covered the pot with foil to seal it really well. A note of caution: when browning the meat, wear an apron and also if possible put newspaper down on the floor, as the meat throws off a lot of spatter. Enough that their dog, Shelby, slipped in the grease and fell in it (I expect there was a bit of dog-licking-floor action going on after that). So, pay attention to that part.

The tight foil-sealed roasting pan then went into a 275°F oven for just about 6 hours. I put 5 hours on the photo, but it was actually 6 hours. And you do not want to pull it out to “check on it.” If you do, it loses all that head of steam that’s been slowly tenderizing the meat. So do NOT open the foil covered pan at all during that time. If you do, add about another hour of baking time.

Once out of the oven, Karen put it on a big cutting board (see picture at top). You can see all the HP sauce browned into the top (picture at left). Brisket contains a goodly amount of water, and plenty of fat, so you can see there was about a scant cup of liquid in the bottom of the pan. I was surprised at the addition of just one tablespoon of water – but Karen assured me the recipe is correct. She thinks the onions also provide some liquid.

What’s GOOD: oh my. So succulent and juicy. SOO very tender. The most tender corned beef I’ve ever had. This will be my new go-to recipe.

What’s NOT: only that you need to plan ahead as it requires 6 hours of baking time, plus the 25-30 minutes of browning first.

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Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Listen up. You just gotta make this. I can’t praise this enough. If you like steak, this is your lucky day. The recipe was demonstrated on Milk Street, and Jim Hirsch, one of the producers, went to Argentina and his job, with the film crew, was to find out what makes Argentinian steak so special. Certainly steak is the signature dish of Argentina. They raise a LOT of beef cattle in the country. My granddaughter, Sabrina, spent 5 months in Argentina (not exactly a happy experience, I’m sorry to say, even though it was through her university college exchange program). But she told me she had steak similar to this when she was there.

Normally, in Argentina, steak is grilled outside, on a grill that has an adjustable grate level – in other words, you can lower it to be close to the coals, or way up high (more like 10-12 inches), away from the wood coals. Most restaurants make this steak with a 2-hour grilling. Can you imagine? Likely they do that to have a very precise control over the temperature.

Once the Milk Street crew returned to Boston, they began trying to recreate this steak (using American/different equipment) – and the chimichurri sauce. Speaking of the sauce, you may be familiar with green chimichurri sauce (that’s all I’d ever had prior to making this). This red sauce is a strange combination of things – 1/4 cup sweet paprika, 1/4 cup red pepper flakes (yes, really), and 1/4 cup dried oregano, and lastly 3/4 cup of neutral oil. Added later, garlic and balsamic vinegar. If you’ve ever watched Chris Kimball (he’s the guy who started Cook’s Illustrated, but was ousted some years ago and started Milk Street) you know that he does not like spicy heat. Not that he’s into bland food, but heat bothers his palate. So when they were making this in the test kitchen, when he was asked to add 1/4 CUP of red pepper flakes, he said oh-no, no, I won’t be able to eat this. The chef pleaded with him to follow the recipe and he might be surprised. And indeed he was, and so was I.

At left is the photo of the beautiful New York strip steak, 2” thick, with the rub on it (having rested in the frig for 24 hours), on a rack, before it went into the oven. One of these steaks will serve at least 2 people, maybe even 3 people.

There are a few steps to making this:

1. Make a rub of black pepper, freshly grated nutmeg (lots of it) and sugar. Put it on the 2” thick steak.

2. Place the steak on a rack, open, in the refrigerator, for 24 hours.

3. Put the steak in a 250°F oven for about 45 minutes. Remove it and let it rest for 30 minutes.

4. Make the sauce.

5. Grill the steak in a searing hot pan on the stove (or do this on your outdoor grill) to caramelize the two sides, then let it rest for 10 minutes. Get the rest of the meal ready.

6. Slice the steak across the grain, in 1/4” thick slices, plate it and drizzle the sauce on the ends and offer more sauce at the table.

The sauce takes no time, really, to make, but there are steps to making it also. In a skillet you combine the oil, paprika, red chili flakes and the oregano, and cook it over very low heat (never allowing it to boil) for 5-7 minutes. Then you add the garlic, and let it cool. Once cool, you add the balsamic vinegar and salt. The photo at right is before it even cooked – so you can see the ingredients.

When Chris Kimball tasted the sauce, he first barely touched his bite of steak with the oily part of the sauce, as he was not thinking he could eat it. He was surprised, and my friend Linda and I (when we made it) were also amazed that our mouths weren’t burning up. The guesswork is that the addition of 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar somehow tempers the spicy, fiery heat of 1/4 cup of red pepper flakes.

The only thing I’ll say is that you need a meat thermometer for this recipe – I eat my steak medium-rare, and you remove the steak from the oven when it reaches 110°F (about 10-15 degrees below that magic medium-rare temp). I did that, but during the resting time, the temp went up nearly 10 degrees, and once I seared it, it went up even more. We got it out of the pan at about 128°F, which is a few degrees higher than I wanted. So watch it carefully.

What’s GOOD: I absolutely LOVE-LOVED this steak and the sauce. Definitely well enough to make it again. You do need to plan ahead 24 hours, and make sure you have a whole pod of nutmeg for each steak. You do not taste nutmeg in the rub when eating it. It’s uncanny there could be so much nutmeg on the rub and you wouldn’t taste it in the finished steak (although I was able to taste it when I ate the leftovers, cold). And the sauce – oh my goodness. So good. Very easy – make it the day ahead to save time if you’d like. It’s also uncanny there is so much red pepper in the sauce and I could eat it. I won’t say I ate copious quantities, but I certainly ate some with every bite, and went back for more.

What’s NOT: only that the steak is expensive (do buy a good one, though I did choose choice, not prime beef); however, one steak will feed 2 people, maybe 3. You do have to visit a butcher, as the steak must be 2” thick. I don’t know of any grocery store that has pre-cut 2” steaks. The nearly one pound steak cost me $29. The recipe is for feeding 4, so twice that amount. And you do need to plan ahead, as I mentioned, so the steak can sit in the frig for 24 hours.

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Dig out your spices in multiple types and heat.

Today I’m sharing a recipe from my neighbor, Scott. His wife, Josee, has been my salvation this last year, as she has gone shopping for me to various places, but of late, it’s been weekly trips to Costco, since I wasn’t willing to go there during the pandemic – except once. Periodically I make something that has a big quantity and I’ve shared it with their family of four. I’m happy to do it as a thank  you for all the various trips Josee has made for me.

Now that I’m past the 14-day hold after the 2nd vaccine, I’m “free.” Happy days. No fear of eating out, outside still, though. Don’t have to wear masks in small groups. As I write this I haven’t had a chance yet to hug my kids and grandkids, but I will!

So, Josee brought over a plastic bag of chili for me – Scott had made it. He’s the weekend “chef” – he loves to barbecue –  and I think he’s a very accomplished home cook. He and I have had a few conversations about cooking and food in various contexts. Anyway, I managed to get two meals out of the baggie of chili Josee brought me, and OH, was it ever good.

Scott said it’s Guy Fieri’s recipe, so I was able to go online and print that out easily enough. Know from the get-go that you need to read the ingredient list carefully – you might not have everything on that list. So plan ahead, and of course, always with stew-type or soup type foods, it’s better the next day. Scott made beef Bourguignon a week or so ago and it was outstanding.

Since I didn’t make this recipe myself, I can’t really give you much info, other than what Scott told me. He said follow the recipe and do your prep ahead so you don’t miss anything. If you’re sensitive to heat, reduce the amount of cayenne, perhaps use half-sharp or mild paprika. Do note, the title of the recipe is Dragon’s Breath, so that should give you a clue about the fiery heat. It was fine for me – I can tolerate medium-heat. This is a great recipe. I’d definitely make it myself and yes, I would use the finely chopped up chuck roast, just because it adds a lot of flavor. If you have the bone to go with it, I’d put it in the pot too to add even more flavor. If you look at the online recipe, Guy Fieri always serves this with French Fries. I’m not much of a French Fry person (although hot ones from McDonald’s put in front of me would be eaten!).

Scott added fewer beans (their family is trying to reduce carbs too), but there were some in there.

What’s GOOD: as you know, for me it’s all about the end result – the flavor. The texture. And this scored on all counts.

What’s NOT: only that it takes hours to simmer and you might have to purchase a few ingredients if you don’t already have them in your pantry.

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Comfort food galore. Has the weather begun to cool for you? This casserole should be in your future.

Having a bit of ground beef and ground pork on hand, I needed to find a use for it, other than meatloaf or meatballs. When I spotted this old-old recipe I’ve had in my to-try file for a long time, I decided to lighten it up a bit by using riced cauliflower instead of potatoes. You don’t have to do that if you don’t care about the carbs. What you do need to know is that this casserole is spot-on fabulous. The original came from Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, way back in 1984. But, I didn’t stick to the recipe exactly – mostly, but not verbatim.

First you cook some onions, then add garlic, then lastly a few spices (curry powder, obviously, plus ground cumin and ground coriander). Some tomatoes were added (I used fresh but you can use canned) and some chicken broth. That simmered for just a short time to blend the flavors.

Meanwhile, I cooked the cauliflower rice in an open pan so it wouldn’t get too wet and soggy. A tiny bit of butter was added, some salt and pepper, then I used my stick blender to mush it well – it didn’t need much of that – and I added in a little bit of frozen peas (I think you need them for color). The hot meat mixture went into a large ceramic pie plate (I made a half recipe), then the mashed cauliflower goes on top. I veered off just a bit by adding some grated Fontina cheese to the top. Oh-so-good.

You can bake the casserole right then, which will require nothing more than a bit of a broil to brown the top a little bit. I made it in the morning, chilled it, then baked it for about 45 minutes in my toaster oven, then turned on the broil element and browned the top with the cheese on it. The photo above, left, is the finished casserole.

It’s good to let it sit for at least 5 minutes, because it’s way too hot to eat. That was my dinner – since there were veggies on the top (the cauliflower rice, pureed) I had a full meal with my serving. But, I went back for seconds it was so darned good.

What’s GOOD: well, I love Shepherd’s Pie in any way, shape or form. This one, though, with the curry flavors, was exceptional. And how did the cauliflower go as far as a stand-in for potatoes? Well, it wasn’t JUST like potatoes, but it was close enough. It gave me the illusion anyway. As I write this I’ve had it twice, and there are at least 2 more servings in the casserole. I’ll probably freeze one portion. Remember, though, I halved the recipe. SO good.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever. Delicious on all levels.

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This is definitely a savory dish – no pudding as we know it – it’s made with ground beef, ground pork and a lot of cabbage. And then there’s a luscious little drizzle of a sauce that starts with jam or preserves.

Back when my DH (dear hubby Dave) was alive, I cooked a regular dinner every night, unless we went out, or unless we had sufficient leftovers. Now, 6+ years on, my routine is changed significantly. About once I week I fix a traditional dinner with a meat, a veg and maybe a salad. Most evenings now, I make a big green salad with lots of raw veggies in it, with just a speck of some protein (chicken, tuna or eggs). On one of the weekend evenings, I often will fix that more traditional dinner, though. And I think back, fondly, that my DH rarely asked I cook anything in particular  – he was happy with whatever I wanted to make, bless him! Occasionally he’d ask if maybe we could barbecue a steak, as he wanted them more frequently than I thought we should. So, obviously, it was left to the cook in the house as to “what shall we have for dinner?” Most frequently my weekend meal is some kind of salmon since it’s so good for us, and I love it. The rest of the time, well, I leave it to my cravings, which are a kind of whimsical thing. I looked it up:

Often, the craving is for foods high in sugar and fats, which can make maintaining a healthful diet difficult. Food cravings are caused by the regions of the brain that are responsible for memory, pleasure, and reward. An imbalance of hormones, such as leptin and serotonin, can also cause food cravings. – from a medical website

In this instance, I don’t think it was that I was craving sugar or fat, so what does that say? What I really wanted was a casserole of some kind. And casseroles usually have carbs. That may have been my desire, yet I try really hard to eat very little carbohydrates. I still do – fruit are, and even some veggies have carbs. It’s the obvious carbs I steer clear from, like potatoes, rice, pasta, beans, bread, corn and peas. Then there’s the sugar carbs – baked goods and desserts.

Last week I ordered a food delivery from Amazon/Whole Foods. In the order I’d asked for a pound of organic ground pork that I was going to stick in the freezer – probably to make a fall style dish, maybe meatballs in a month or so. I didn’t know what. So when they delivered the food, it was ground beef, not ground pork. Sigh. Then my neighbor made a trip to Trader Joe’s and she found ground pork there. Rather than freezing both chunks of meat, I decided to fix something with them. So you’ll find this recipe, and probably another one shortly with the second half of the meat.

Looking up recipes in my to-try repertoire, I found a bunch (many meatball oriented) including this dish. It was probably the cabbage that sucked me in. Meatloaf is something I do crave now and then – I’d like nothing better than to have my tried and true favorite one, Sweet and Sour Meatloaf. I wrote up that recipe during the first year I had this blog, 2007. But it contains quite a bit of sugar in the tomato sauced topping, and I try to steer away from those kinds of recipes too, as best I can. Although I could easily substitute monkfruit brown sugar in lieu of the regular stuff and see if I liked it. And use cauliflower mashed potatoes. Maybe I will do that sometime soon as well. Recently I watched a Rachel Ray show and was intrigued with her Sicilian Meatballs. They are calling my name too.

Meanwhile, back to this dish . . . sorry, that was a whole lot of trivia and not getting to this recipe. The explanation about this dish (I had to look it up online) is that kal in Swedish means cabbage. Someone wrote that if you’d written it as Col-pudding, lots of English/Irish speakers would know cabbage (from colcannon, potatoes and cabbage). The pudding part is so misleading. We think pudding must be sweet, but to the Swedes, I guess it’s not. It has to do with minced meat, and a savory pudding means meatloaf.

First you cook the cabbage in butter and a bit of molasses. In Sweden I think they’d use Lyle’s golden syrup, but most westerners would use molasses. I have some Lyle’s, but didn’t want to open the jar, so I used the molasses on the shelf. It doesn’t need much. It helps the cabbage caramelize and gives it a lovely lightly sweetened taste. It took awhile, probably 15-20 minutes, to get the cabbage cooked down and slightly caramelized. The molasses gives it the dark brown color.

Meanwhile you mix up the meatloaf part with raw onion, salt, pepper, cream and about a third of the cooked cabbage (chopped up finely). No egg in this one. It also had some bread crumbs (I used panko because that’s all I keep on hand). I halved the recipe below and I think I’ll have 3-4 more servings of it, so I used a smaller casserole dish. The meat was spread into the bottom, then the caramelized cabbage is spread on top and leveled a bit. You pour on a little bit of broth on top. It’s been way too hot to turn on my main oven lately, so I baked it in my toaster oven (it has lots of functions, so I used bake at first) and then at the end I turned on the broil function to crisp up the cabbage a little bit. Hence the finished dish (up a few paragraphs) looks slightly burned, but it’s not. Trust me on that!

While the meat is baking, you mix up the sauce. Lingonberry jam is what’s called for, but I didn’t have any, but I did have blueberry preserves, so they had to suffice. It’s heated up with some butter, red wine vinegar, and then a moderate amount (to taste) of Worcestershire sauce. Someone else who made this recipe substituted raspberry jam for the lingonberries. I know I could buy some if I made a trip to Ikea. It’s about 15 miles away – too far, plus I’m not shopping in stores.

What’s GOOD: altogether delicious. It definitely satisfied my cravings for a casserole. The meat was very light and tasty, and the cabbage is certainly a great variation on meatloaf. Then the sauce – oh yes, that part is really, really good. Yes, I’d make it again. I think I might make it in a bread pan next time – it might make for easier slicing and serving.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of, really. Very easy to make. Very filling.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recipe)

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