Sometimes I DO go back into my own archives and make things that are favorites, as we all do, right? I’ve said it before – when you write a food blog there is always a need to keep trying new recipes, not revisit old ones. I do that, but sometimes I just crave an oldie but goodie. I’ve been working on a project for the blog – I’m creating a new (and hopefully, better) index, so when you need to find a recipe here at Tasting Spoons, you’ll have an easier time of it. It’s a big project, though, since I have over 800-900 recipes at this point in time, and I’m only a few hours into creating this new index. It requires me to type in each and every recipe title I’ve ever posted here and then create the link so you can just click to go to the post. I’ll let you know when it’s available. Anyway, as I typed in the title of this recipe, I knew I needed to make this again soon.

Many years ago I used to make honest-to-goodness stuffed cabbage. But I found it so tedious to partly cook the cabbage leaves, make the filling, roll up and carefully layer the stuffed rolls into a baking pan. Then make a sauce. It was a couple of years ago that I read a recipe for this – made with pork and beef, no pre-cooking of the cabbage needed. No rolled up cabbage rolls to make. But, this has all the components of sweet and sour cabbage, in a delicious soup-bowl kind of presentation. A year or so later I made it using ground turkey and thought it tasted just as good as the beef/pork version. I used 3 pots – one to make the meat mixture – the turkey, tomato, dried cranberry mixture, one to make the mashed potatoes and my pressure cooker to cook the cabbage for exactly 6 minutes (the cabbage can be made the traditional way without the pressure cooker – just steam the cabbage in chicken broth in a separate pan, that’s all).

The dinner was cooked and on the table in about half an hour. Now, I did take one shortcut. My friend Joan told me recently that she was amazed to find Costco’s instant mashed potatoes are a real winner. To say that I was skeptical, is an understatement. I made instant mashed potatoes once, back in the 1970’s or so, and have never revisited them. Until now. I bought the big box of Costco’s “Honest Earth” brand (not Kirkland), called “Creamy Mash.” It’s made with 100% real potatoes (from Idaho), butter and sea salt, it says. The big box contains 14 packets, each one enough to serve about 4 –  6 people (I’d say it serves about 4-5 at the most. It takes no more than 5 minutes or so to heat the water (and butter), then you add a cup of cold milk (yes, really), stir in the dry packet, let it sit for 10 seconds and it’s done. It’s already salted. Extremely simple. And they’re really quite delicious. I’m impressed. They’ve finally figured out how to make this stuff. Next time I make them I’ll add about another tablespoon of milk or water to the mixture – once it sits it firms up quite quickly.

Anyway, the mashed potatoes aren’t the star of the dish anyway – they’re just a quick and easy side and it was extra delicious with some of the sauce.

The mashed potatoes are on the left and the cabbage is peeking out on the right. The meat mixture I used was ground turkey, onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, a little bit of brown sugar, a bit of red wine vinegar (that gives it the sweet/sour flavor) and dried cranberries. It has a little bit of oregano, caraway and fennel in it too. A wonderful combination. Comfort food with a capital C. And it’s even pretty enough you could serve it to guests, which I’m going to do in a few days. But, on this particular cold spring evening, this was a perfect dish to warm our tummies.

Link to the healthier ground turkey version.
Link to the original beef and pork version.

A year ago: Goat Cheese Pesto Appetizer
Two years ago: Andouille Sausage and Shrimp

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Regularly I buy chicken breasts and chicken thighs at Costco. They just make it so easy to buy them in those sealed pouches. Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts per pouch, or about 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs per pouch. Easy to defrost (I just submerge the bags in a big bowl of cold water for an hour or so). Also easy to freeze in the separated pouches – they slip into small spaces easily enough.

So anyway, with a package defrosted, I decided to use other things I had on hand to make dinner. First was a nice big shallot. Some garlic. Some lemon juice, and a little bit of sour cream. This came together so easily.
I have a can of Szeged Chicken Rub which is probably over the hill, since I’ve had it for more than a year. Mixed spices do tend to lose their flavor and pungency after awhile. But I’ve only used about 1/3 of the can, so I’ll hold onto it a little longer. This mixture has a variety of stuff in it like basil, paprika, salt, etc. I also add some more paprika to it. The last time we were in Budapest I bought a couple of foil pouches of good paprika (there is SUCH a difference between that and what we buy here marketed as paprika). This time I used some of the spicy paprika (it has some heat and is called “half sharp”), which gave the finished chicken dish a little zip. My DH loved it. But, if you don’t have this chicken rub available, just make up your own – be sure to use some paprika, though to give the chicken and sauce some lovely color.

I dipped the boneless, skinless thighs in the herb mixture and sautéed them in a tiny bit of grapeseed oil (I’m using grapeseed oil mostly now as it allows for a hotter pan without burning, called a higher “flash point”) on both sides. Then I pushed the chicken onto one side of the pan and added the minced shallot and cooked that briefly, until translucent. Then I added the garlic and just cooked that for about 30 seconds max. Some vermouth went in, some fresh lemon juice, then a bit of light sour cream. Be sure you don’t boil this sauce, though, as the sour cream will separate. I very gently simmered it, added the lemon zest, then covered it for about 5 minutes. Done. Ideally serve some kind of bland carb (rice or potatoes) to soak up the wonderful sauce. If you want more sauce, it’s easy enough to increase the quantity.

You could easily make this with chicken breasts, if you’d prefer – pound the breasts between two pieces of plastic wrap until they’re an even thickness (about 1/4 inch). Cook those a very brief time and make the sauce as indicated.

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A year ago: Filet Mignon with Mushroom Port Sauce
Three years ago: Bobotie (a really delicious South African ground beef casserole – a recipe given to me by my friend Joan H, who was born in South Africa)

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Ah .  .  . I’m finally back in the kitchen. It’s SO wonderful to feel good after so many days of a bad cold. Of not being able to taste. Or to be able to breathe, hardly. Or to swallow without pain. I just lost eight days of my life. Although, I did completely empty my Tivo recordings.

One of them was an Ina Garten Barefoot Contessa segment on Parmesan chicken. So it was the first thing I wanted to make. And in the interim, I’d received an email from someone at Frieda’s Produce. There are a few perks of being a food blogger – once in awhile I’m approached by a company, asking if I’d like to sample their products. The wholesaler has offered specialty produce to grocery stores for decades. Frieda Caplan actually introduced kiwi to California, years ago.

Perhaps the marketing person had read my blog and knew I was already a big fan of lemons, period. Meyer lemons in particular. That my favorite ice cream is made with Meyer lemon juice and zest. Or that I adore lemon juice in nearly anything! In any case, it took me about 30 nanoseconds to say yes. They kindly asked if I liked the product, would I mention the company on my blog. Sure thing! If you’re interested in knowing more about Freida’s I’ve included a paragraph at the bottom. You may be able to find Friedas products at your local grocery store (here in Southern California they’re available at Ralphs, Albertson’s, Bristol Farms, Lucky, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Vons, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s, among many others). If you want to find out where to buy Freida’s products in your area, go to this section of Frieda’s website and input your state to see. She markets to all U.S. states and Canada.

Back to the recipe. On nights when you might need a quick chicken throw-together dinner, this could fill the bill in a snap. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are pounded out thinly, dipped in a seasoned flour, then egg, then in a bread crumb and Parmesan mixture before being lightly sautéed in a bit of olive oil and butter. While it’s cooking (not long – you’d best have made the dressing ahead) you chop up a nice little salad – Ina did hers with lovely light and dark field greens like arugula and mache – I had only Romaine on hand. Ina used an extra-simple lemon juice and olive oil combo with just salt and pepper. I prefer my own lemon-juice based dressing that also contains just a bit of blue cheese in it. If you want to use Ina’s version, by all means do. I just like the added dimension and layer of flavor.

About Frieda’s: Obviously one very smart cookie, Frieda Caplan began selling produce at the Los Angeles Produce Market in 1962. She brought a variety of more unusual products to her produce stand over the years, many that were unknown in the U.S. at the time. She introduced kiwis, shallots, cherimoyas, those small doughnut-shaped peaches, sugar snap peas and habanero peppers, among others. Obviously she began distributing produce further and further away, not just at the humble produce stand in LA! I heard her interviewed on local radio many years ago and began seeking out her products – when I could find them. Frieda’s Produce is still a family-run company, (she’s Chairman of the Board) although her two daughters manage the firm now. A great success story for a woman in the 1960’s to enter the then male-dominated produce sector. Good for Frieda, I say!

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A year ago: Make-Ahead Coffeecake (yes, really, make the batter the night before, bake in the AM)
Two years ago: Chicken a l’Orange (can’t say that this was a particular favorite for me)
Three years ago: Coconut Banana Bread (and low-fat to boot – delicious)

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That’s sliced pot roast in the foreground, laid partly on pasta, and the sort-of red sauce that got whizzed up in the food processor after cooking the meat in the pressure cooker.

I’m on a kitchen mission. A mission to work more diligently to clean out my freezer. I not only have a huge full freezer in my kitchen, but I have a second lower-drawer freezer in the refrigerator/freezer in our garage. That latter freezer holds mostly meat. And it holds a LOT. Enough that, were we to have a catastrophe of major proportions, I think we could live (with a generator, mind you, keeping the meat frozen) for at least 3 months without buying any meat. At a guess, 3 months. Veggies – well that’s a different matter. I have some canned stuff and a few frozen bags, but mostly my freezer is full of meat products, at least 5 pounds of different kinds of nuts, a few oddball things like frozen limeade, squeezed lemon juice from our Meyer lemon trees, chutneys of a few varieties, and some ordinary things like chili, soup (lots), bread, bacon, sausage that we have for breakfast most days, a few cookies, one dessert I made a couple of weeks ago, and some chipotle chiles.

My DH, darling that he is, often tells people how much meat we have in our reserve freezer, and that all he must buy is a Coleman stove and we’d be in business. We could set up a local soup kitchen. But we’d need that stove first, which we haven’t purchased. We should. All part of earthquake or emergency preparedness. We don’t have a generator, either. So, the next best thing is to start eating up the meat.

Therefore, I defrosted a 3-pound chunk of boneless chuck roast a few days ago. It was nicely sealed up in plastic (I have one of those FoodSaver things that seals foods of all kinds so they don’t get freezer burn). My guess is that there are other people out there like me – who really know how to pack a freezer. Right? We’re almost to the point that our kitchen freezer door must be opened carefully – like Fibber McGee’s closet, for fear something will fall out and break your toe. Most of you readers are too young to remember Fibber McGee and Molly, a long-running radio program (1935 – 1959), where one of the long-standing jokes was about somebody inadvertently opening the hall closet to a long, noisy crash of stuff. I vaguely remember the program because my parents loved the show. Once we got a television (about 1946, when I was 5) we didn’t listen to much radio anymore. But the joke about the closet lives on and it always ended with Fibber’s comment: I’ve gotta clean out that closet one of these days. My freezer, therefore, is my Fibber McGee’s closet!

The last few days I’ve been more than a bit under the weather. But I’d defrosted this roast before I got my cough/cold thing I have, so on day 3 of my cold I dug out my Fagor Duo Stainless-Steel 6-Quart Pressure Cooker and fired it up. Referring to a recipe in one of my 3 pressure cooker cookbooks, I settled on an Italian style roast because I knew my DH would enjoy having just a little bit of pasta on the side. We don’t eat much pasta because Dave’s a diabetic, but once in awhile we celebrate and always savor every bite!

The pot roast took about 20 minutes of prep (browning the meat, cutting up all the veggies and cooking them briefly), and about 1 1/4 hours to cook it all under pressure. Then I removed the meat and tented it with foil while I prepared the sauce. All of the stuff left in the pan, the veggies (except the fat I was able to spoon off the top) went into my food processor and I whizzed it up to a smooth puree. I tasted it for seasonings, then poured it out over the sliced beef and the pasta. With a green salad, that was a complete dinner.

Bottom line: it was good. Certainly not as good as my tried-and-true French Pot Roast a la Mode that I’ve used for years. That takes innumerable hours to make and bake. But since I was in sort of a hurry, it was very good. My DH loved it – really loved it. And it was on the table in about 2 hours.

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A year ago: Stacked Chicken Enchiladas
Two years ago: A list of travel websites
Three years ago: Chocolate Scones (fantastic!)

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This couldn’t be easier. Truly. Chop up some broccoli, put it on a Silpat-lined baking sheet, drizzle with some olive oil and toss it around with your hands, slice some fresh garlic, pop it in a hot oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Drizzle with lime zest and juice and serve. Broccoli, when roasted, takes on this delicious nutty flavor and light texture. Because the oven heat draws out a lot of the moisture in the broccoli, it’s light and almost fluffy. A minor warning, though – be sure you take it out when it’s done. If it goes much further in the oven, you’ll have burned crumbles. Not even edible that way!

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Oh, EASY. So EASY. Love these kinds of dishes. As with many families, on some nights (for us, Thursdays, choir practice night) I need to get dinner on the table in a timely manner. And I never seem to get started with making something until I’m under the gun for time. I’d defrosted some boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grabbed a recipe in my to-try arsenal and it was on the table in about 45 minutes. The recipe came from Homesick Texan, a blog I read regularly.

I made a couple of adaptations – I used chicken breasts instead of drumsticks – and I didn’t add the cayenne since I thought the chipotle gave the chicken enough heat already. Oh, and I didn’t add any additional salt, since mayo, I think, has ample. The blogger reminded her readers that even if you don’t like mayo, you  never taste it in the dish as it cooks off. All it does is keep in the moisture.

Top picture is the chicken just out of the oven. The mayo bathes the chicken, but it drains off, leaving the chipotle and other flavorings on top of the chicken. Having baked for 35 minutes, I sliced into the chicken, in the below picture, it was dripping in moisture. Perfectly cooked. I served this with roasted broccoli (which went in the oven along with the chicken) and a sliced avocado with a cilantro dressing. Delicious. I’ll be making this again.

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Three years ago: Carrot-Ginger Slaw

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We have some really nice tilapia fish fillets in the freezer and since I’m still craving Indian food, I looked at my two Indian cookbooks and riffed a recipe from one to make this fish. May I just tell you that it’s extremely low calorie (163 calories without the rice). There is not a speck of fat in it except what’s native to the ingredients. I served it with some of the Saffron Basmati Rice dish I made a few weeks ago and had in the freezer. I shouldn’t have used this rice, as it has some lovely, subtle flavors in it that got lost with the powerful taste of the fish and condiments. But that’s okay. Sure looks pretty, doesn’t it?

This took about 20 minutes to make, start to finish. (Well, as long as you have some rice on hand – I heated the rice in the microwave, then placed the fish on top to serve.) The marinade isn’t anything difficult (cumin, garlic, red chili flakes, salt, lime juice) and you just set it aside, on the fish, for a few minutes while you’re preparing the garnishes. You broil the fish (on one side only – the thin tilapia fillets cooked through in about 5 minutes, maybe 6), then place it atop rice and add the garnishes. Then I sprinkled it with some tandoori spices I have in my spice pantry – it gave the dish a really bright, fresh flavor. The fresh (delicious) tomatoes were great. I buy only the on-the-vine type which have better flavor for winter tomatoes. Add some green onions, cilantro, the spices, and you’re done! I’d intended to make a side dish, but we were in a rush to get to choir practice, so the above was our dinner. No salad, no veggies. Just a little red wine and it was very satisfying. I liked this a lot. It’s nice to have some easy recipes that can be put together in less than half an hour!

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A year ago: lemon ginger muffins
Two years ago: Turkey Meatballs
Three years ago: Gingerbread Pudding Cake

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Ages ago I went to a cooking class where this recipe was presented. I’d have never thought to combine melon with prosciutto. It was delicious! You do want to combine two different colors of melon, and you do need fresh mint. Then you add in slivers of prosciutto (from a small, 4-ounce package), crack fresh pepper all over it, sprinkle mint on top, and you’re done.

Diane Phillips said you can make up everything ahead – just keep all items separate, then combine them just before serving. Cinchy easy, really. Very refreshing. The salt in the prosciutto adds a nice counterpoint to the fresh melon.

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A  year ago: GF Pear Crisp
Two years ago: Shrimp and Shellfish Chowder

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This probably looks really complicated. It’s not. It’s easy, actually, although you do have to mix up and bake the cheesecake in a springform pan. The toppings are ready-made pestos (sun dried tomato and the regular basil types) with some nuts (those are hazelnuts you see, pine nuts would be fine). The ingredients in the cheesecake are readily available.

It can be served on a platter and guests can use a small knife to spread the mixture onto crackers, or it can be served as a first course. No one in my circle of friends does a sit-down first course, so I’d opt for the self-serve version. The crackers you see here at the Trader Joe’s pita bites. They’re awfully good, and perfect for this dish.

The cheesecake is cream cheese, ricotta, goat cheese, eggs and sour cream. That’s absolutely IT. It’s baked for about 25 minutes, and we had it served to us warm, at the cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter.

The other nice thing about this appetizer is that it can be made a day ahead. I always like to find things that are make-ahead, don’t you? You bake, cool, and chill, then pull it out an hour before serving and add the toppings. If you don’t like pesto, use tapenade, or even grilled bell peppers and pine nuts.

If you’d like to do something different, drizzle the top with a little bit of honey. The cheesecake has a very light texture – it’s not like a dessert cheesecake at all. Do try this one.

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A year ago: Yellow Crookneck Casserole
Two years ago: Schnecken Rolls

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I know, I know. Most people don’t like Brussels sprouts. But I do, my DH does, and this is such a simple and delicious way to serve them. If you don’t like cooked cabbage, well, then there may be no hope for you. Just skip this recipe.

What this is, is EASY. You halve the Brussels, then cut into thinner yet slices, cook them in a bit of olive oil, add water and butter and cook for just a very few minutes. Then you add in some toasted pine nuts. See? I said it’s easy. And quick. Well, unless you need to toast pine nuts first – it’s faster to do them in a small dry frying pan (nonstick), but you’ve got to watch them very, very carefully. Once they’ve warmed up in the pan, they can go from normal raw to burned in a matter of about 15 seconds or less. This recipe came from Phillis Carey.

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A year ago: Cranberries – everything you’ve always wanted to know about them
Three years ago: Gulliver’s Creamed Corn

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