Showing posts with label skillet meals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skillet meals. Show all posts
One meal my children used to really enjoy when they were growing up was cabbage and noodles. It was something I had learned how to make when I was in my high school Home Economics class.
It was something we all loved and we didn't care what kind of noodles we used. Spaghetti, egg, whatever. We all gobbled it up. We are all real cabbage lovers, in any way shape or form!
The recipe I am sharing with you today is one I found on a site called Barefeet in the Kitchen. I have a few of Mary's cookbooks and her recipes are excellent.
I adapted it to make a much smaller amount, for only two people and also added European measurements for my British friends and family. Even at only two servings it was quite generous, but maybe I am becoming a much smaller eater.
They do say that happens as you get older.
Its a very easy all-in-one skillet supper, with meat, starch and vegetable. Kielbasa, cabbage, potatoes, onions and garlic.
I picked up a piece of Kielbasa at my local supermarket, but I am thinking you could use any kind of smoked meat. Ham, bacon, whatever. All would work well.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE KIELBASA CABBAGE POTATO SKILLET
Its simple really. Good wholesome ingredients. Its the simple things which give us the most pleasure.
- 1/2 pound potatoes (230g) (any variety) peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS oil
- 1/2 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 fat clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/2 pound (230g) Kielbasa, peeled and sliced thin
- 1/4 small head of cabbage, sliced into ribbons (about 2 cups)
I used a couple or russet potatoes I had in my potato/onion cupboard. I only needed 2 medium potatoes. I had a medium sized onion, which was starting to turn, but I peeled off the bad layers and the inside was still perfect and so I used that.
I did buy a chunk of kielbasa at the supermarket, but you could use ham or whatever. Smoked sausage, etc. In the UK there is a smoked sausage you can buy called Mattessons. That is what I would use over there.
The only cabbage I had was one of those hard white bullet cabbages. Its all that seems to be available here where I live.
Oh how I am going to miss savoy cabbages with their bright crinkly leaves. The January King cabbage, sweetheart cabbage, spring cabbage . . .
But then again, there is much in the UK that I miss food wise. It had the best produce and meat, etc. available that I have ever eaten. I was spoiled for choice really.
To be honest I was not overly fond of the Kielbasa I bought today. I found it lacking in flavor. I would not buy it again. I found myself wishing I had made this when I had some ham left from Easter.
Oh well, as they say . . . live and learn!
HOW TO MAKE KIELBASA CABBAGE POTATO SKILLET
This is super easy and super quick to make. Everything pretty much cooks in the one skillet. The potatoes are pre-cooked in the microwave, but I am thinking that if you have leftover cooked potatoes, they would also work very well.
Place the chopped potatoes into a small casserole dish. Season with some salt and black pepper. Toss to coat. Cover tightly and microwave on high for about 3 minutes. Stir, recover and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so or until they are fork tender.
Heat the oil in a medium/large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and once it is hot, add the onions. Sauté for a few minutes until the onion is beginning to soften and caramelize slightly.
Add the sausage and the garlic. Cook, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes. Add the potatoes and fold together. Add a bit more oil if need be. Spread out across the pan.
Cook for two to 3 minutes until the potatoes are beginning to brown.
Add the cabbage along with 2 TBS of water. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for a further 2 minutes until the cabbage is crispy tender. Fold everything together.
Taste and add seasoning as required. Serve hot and enjoy!
If your family is also fond of cabbage I have quite a few recipes on here that you might all enjoy!
FRIED CABBAGE WITH BACON & ONIONS - Exactly what it says. Shredded cabbage fried up in a skillet along with some bacon and onions. Delicious!
CABBAGE CHEESE & MUSTARD GRATIN - Another dish sized for two. Tender wedges of cabbage slathered in a creamy rich sauce baked with a buttery crumb topping.
CABBAGE WITH PANCETTA & CREAM - Cabbage and bacon are a marriage made in heaven . . . add some cream and you have bliss. Perfect side dish for roast chicken and potatoes.
CABBAGE ROLLS - Everyone's favorite. Tender little bundles of ground meat, wrapped in cabbage leaves and baked in a delicious tomato sauce. These are always the first to disappear on a buffet table!
.JPG "Kielbasa Cabbage Potato Skillet")
And there you have it, a quick and easy midweek supper built just for two. Not hard to make. Goes together in a jiffy and is quite delicious. Enjoy!!
Kielbasa Cabbage Potato Skillet
Yield: 2
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
Smokey sausage, crispy tender cabbage, onion and potato combine in this quick and easy supper dish. Sized just for two but easily doubled to feed more.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound potatoes (230g) (any variety) peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS oil
- 1/2 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 fat clove garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/2 pound (230g) Kielbasa, peeled and sliced thin
- 1/4 small head of cabbage, sliced into ribbons (about 2 cups)
Instructions
- Place the chopped potatoes into a small casserole dish. Season with some salt and black pepper. Toss to coat. Cover tightly and microwave on high for about 3 minutes. Stir, recover and cook for an additional 3 minutes or so or until they are fork tender.
- Heat the oil in a medium/large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and once it is hot, add the onions. Sauté for a few minutes until the onion is beginning to soften and caramelize slightly.
- Add the sausage and the garlic. Cook, stirring frequently for about 3 minutes. Add the potatoes and fold together. Add a bit more oil if need be. Spread out across the pan.
- Cook for two to 3 minutes until the potatoes are beginning to brown.
- Add the cabbage along with 2 TBS of water. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for a further 2 minutes until the cabbage is crispy tender. Fold everything together.
- Taste and add seasoning as required.
One thing which I am really going to miss here in Canada is the beautiful fish that I had access to in the UK. I am sure that I will be able to source some somewhere, but so far haven't really been able to.
I used to get my fish in the UK from an online fish monger and their products were excellent. I was always really happy with what I received.
I was spoilt for choice when it came right down to it. I truly was. Salmon, Cod, Halibut, shell fish, etc. Everything I ever received was truly beautiful!
I did find some frozen cod loins in the Superstore the other day. Two in a package, the photograph on the outside looked promising, and I am happy to say that what was inside was not in the least bit disappointing.
They were lovely and thick and wild sourced, which is what I look for when it comes to fish. Wild sourced fish is superior in flavor to farmed.
I have been waiting for just the right moment to cook it and today was the day. It was raining cats and dogs outside. The remnants of that hurricane which is blowing through. We are really blessed in the Valley I live in. We don't really get much in the way of extreme weather.
This recipe today is for a delicious Lemon Butter Cod, with Asparagus and Orzo pasta. It is a lovely recipe, all cooked in one pan. No fuss no muss and perfectly sized for two people.
The cod loins were individually wrapped and frozen in a small sealed bag, which is perfect for thawing out your fish. I just took the bag of fish and popped it into a pan of cold water and within an hour had a perfectly thawed piece of fish.
One thing to note when you are cooking fish, especially nice fish like this, is that there are two sides. I know, duh. Hear me out.
One side is called the presentation side, or the side that you will want to place right side up on the serving plate.
This is the best looking side of the fish, the other side will not be quite as attractive, or be flat, etc. The domed side is usually the presentation side.
You will need to dust your fish with some seasoning and salt and pepper before browning it to perfection in a bit of light olive oil over medium high heat.
You can add the fish as soon as the oil starts to shimmer. Be careful that the oil is not too hot or the fish will over cook on the outside but still be raw on the insides.
Three minutes on both sides, for fish that is about 1 inch thick, is the perfect amount of time needed to cook the fish to perfection. You will end up with tender, moist fish that flakes beautifully and is not dry in the least.
Take the fish out and keep it warm under a sheet of foil on a plate while you cook the remainder of the recipe.
Fresh slices of lemon are added to the pan along with some butter and browned quickly on both sides, before removing them to sit with the fish.
This helps to flavor the remainder of the dish and also provides for a delicious garnish with the finished dish.
Next you will be adding cuts of asparagus, some garlic and dry orzo pasta to the pan. Cooking and stirring until the garlic gets really fragrant and the orzo begins to brown.
Finally some chicken stock and a bit of lemon juice is added. The mixture should be cooked at a slow boil, stirring frequently, until the orzo is al dente.
It will take about 10 minutes altogether.
At the end of that time you can add the fish back to the pan along with the lemon and any accumulated juices.
It only needs to heat through. A final dusting of dill weed and your dinner is served!
It truly is delicious. I love all in one meals like this where everything cooks all in one pan. Only one pan to wash up.
Food doesn't get much better than this. You can serve extra lemon with this for squeezing over top if you wish, and if you are really lucky and have fresh dill, you can simply garnish it with a few springs of the fresh dill.
I am a person who really loved cod and haddock, well any mild flavored white fish really. I do like salmon also, but to a lesser degree.
Some of my favorite fish recipes are:
Gremolata Baked Cod - Oven baked cod loins with a crisp gemolata breadcrumb topping. Quick, easy and delicious.
Pan Fried Cod - my favorite. Cod loins pan fried in butter with some fresh sprigs of thyme.
Lemon and Garlic Butter Baked Cod - This involves seasoning the fish and popping it into a baking dish. You can butter the baking dish if you wish, but I never do. Spooning a simple lemon, olive oil and garlic sauce over top, dotting it with cold buter nd a few lemon slices and then baking it to perfection.
Cod Fillets with Chili and Lime - moist, flaky and beautifully flavored. Quick and easy too. But the again most fish cooks very quickly.
So there you have it, fish for Friday with a beautiful all-in-one dish of cod, asparagus and orzo pasta. All beautiful flavored with lemon and garlic.
Fish for Friday never tasted so good!
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Lemon Butter Cod
Yield: 2
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 30 Min
This simple dish of pan fried cod with lemon, asparagus and orzo pasta is perfectly delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 TBS light olive oil
- 2 (6 ounce) wild cod loin fillets
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 TBS all purpose flour
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 small lemon sliced
- 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and grated
- 8 spears of asparagus, washed, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup (60g) of uncooked orzo pasta
- 1 1/3 cups (320ml) chicken stock
- 1/2 TBS lemon juice
- dried dill weed to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. Season the fish all over and dust with the flour.
- Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the fish, presentation side down. Cook for three minutes. Carefully turn over and brown on the other side, another 3 to 4 minutes.
- Remove from the pan to a place, lightly tent and keep warm.
- Add the butter to the skillet and then add the lemon slices as soon as it begins to foam. Brown the lemon for one minute each on both sides. Remove from the pan to the plate with the fish and keep warm.
- Add the garlic, asparagus cuts, and orzo to the pan drippings. Cook, stirring until the garlic is very fragrant and the orzo begins to brown. Add the chicken stock and lemon juice.
- Increase the heat to high and cook, stirring occasionally until the orzo is just al dente, about 10 minutes.
- Return the fish to the pan, along with the lemon slices and any collected juices. Heat through. Sprinkle with some dill weed and serve immediately.
Skillet Turkey Alfredo. I really love skillet meals like this delicious one pan pasta dish which makes great use of leftovers and store cupboard ingredients.
I love these type of dishes for several reasons. One, they help me to use up my leftovers in a really delicious way. Secondly, I almost always have everything I need to make them in my cupboards, larder or refrigerator.
Thirdly, I love that they are no fuss and no muss. Everything cooks in the same pan, even the pasta.
They are so easy to throw together and are usually very quickly cooked as well. They are also really easy to reduce, or small-batch into recipes which feed only one or two people, which is exactly what I did today.
Not only that, but they are usually quite adaptable. For instance you can use either cooked turkey in this dish, or you can also use cooked chicken, or even cubed cooked ham. All are equally delicious!
I had cooked a turkey breast at the weekend and wanted to use it up and this was the perfect way to do just that! Perfectly cooked pasta, plenty of turkey, a creamy sauce, some pasta and one of your five a day. You can't beat it.
Oh and lets not forget the bacon! Doesn't everything with bacon taste better? I dare say it does. I have yet to find a food that doesn't go with, or taste better with bacon!
I always have bacon in my freezer. Sometimes I will cook the whole package and then freeze it, ready to take cooked slices out to use in recipes, sandwiches, etc. Or other times I will just freeze the bacon in individual slices.
How I do this is I take each slice of bacon and coil it into a roll and place it onto a baking sheet. I pop it into the freezer and once it is frozen solid, I transfer all of the rolls into a thick freezer bag. They do not stick together in the bag and are very easily chopped from frozen.
Have you ever tried to chop bacon that isn't frozen or cooked? VERY difficult. I promise you if you do this, you will have a problem chopping it no more!
It took me no time at all today to chop and cook my bacon for this recipe. No time at all.
I love recipes where the pasta cooks right in the sauce. They are so easy and you don't have to dirty up an extra pan cooking the pasta. They always cook to perfection and having absorbed some of the cooking liquor, the pasta always tastes great!
I have used fusilli here, but you can use penne, or any other similar type of pasta in the same quantity. It cooks right in the sauce. You only need to cook it to al dente, well actually about a minute short of al dente.
Most good pastas will tell you on the bag the required amount of time to cook their product to al dente. Mine was Garofalo Fusilli, and it said 11 minutes to al dente, so I cooked it for 10.
The pasta cooks in the mixture of cream and stock, along with some onions and garlic. This gives it a really nice flavor.
Once the pasta has cooked, it is time to add the turkey, cooked bacon, some frozen peas and some cheese into the mix.
Then you heat the dish through for a further two to three minutes. Long enough to melt the cheese, heat everything through, thaw the peas, etc. You will have pasta perfection.
The sauce may seem a little bit loose, but don't worry, it thickens up nicely upon standing.
Do try to grate your own cheese for this dish. Use a good Parmesan. Not the stuff in the green tube or pre-grated cheese. They add things to those products to help them flow easier.
This can mess with the integrity of your dish. They can give a granular result which you won't find very appealing.
Also be very judicious when adding salt to the dish. Bacon is a salty ingredient, so is Parmesan cheese. You may not need much salt if any.
Plenty of pepper is okay though. I do so love plenty of pepper.
I adore frozen peas. I only ever buy the petit/baby frozen peas. They are always perfect. I find that when you buy the larger peas you can often get starchy or wooden textured peas in the mix and I hate that.
I am not a huge fan of peas that come from the tin, or that are old and woody textured. When we were children my mother found a dead cricket in the bottom of a can of peas once. That put me off of eating tinned peas altogether.
I thought I hated peas until I tasted frozen ones at a Girl Guide Banquet once. The armed forces base I lived on had put on a turkey dinner for the mothers and daughters and there was frozen peas on the plate.
I remember being quite amazed at how bright green and delicious they were. They converted me back to liking peas. Well, at least frozen baby peas at any rate! (Yes, I am a bit fussy I know! But I like what I like!)
I really hope that you will be encouraged to try this quick, easy and delicious one pan meal for two and soon! I think you will find it really tasty and it is sure to become a firm favorite in your repertoire.
If you are wanting to feed more than two, simply double the ingredients to serve 4, triple to serve 6. The cook timings will stay the same.
A nice salad is excellent on the side of this and I would never turn down a slice of garlic bread or crusty bread is offered one! Leftovers never tasted so good!! Bon Appetit!
Skillet Turkey Alfredo
Yield: 2
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 17 Mininactive time: 5 MinTotal time: 27 Min
Meals such as this simple, quick skillet meal are my favorites. Everything cooks all together in one pan. No fuss, no muss. You can substitute the cooked turkey for cooked chicken or ham. This is delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 slices of bacon chopped
- 1/2 small onion, peeled and diced
- 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 cup (240ml) chicken stock
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 3 ounces (85g/3/4 cup) pasta, uncooked (penne or fusilli work great)
- pinch each salt and black pepper
- 1/2 pound (230g) cooked turkey, ham or chicken, cubed
- 1/2 cup (75g) frozen peas, unthawed
- 1/3 cup (54g) grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Heat a medium skillet with a lid over moderate heat. Add the bacon. Cook, stirring frequently, until crisp. Remove and drain off all but 1/2 TBS of the fat.
- Add the onion to the fat in the pan, and cook, stirring frequently, until golden. Add the crushed garlic and cook for about 30 seconds longer.
- Stir in the stock, cream and pasta. Bring to the boil, then reduce to low, cover and simmer until the pasta is just barely al dente according to the package directions. (Mine was Garafalo Fusilli and it took 10 minutes.)
- Stir in the turkey, cooked bacon, frozen peas and cheese. Combine well. Cook for a further2 to 3 minutes to heat through and melt the cheese.
- Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes. The sauce should thicken upon standing. Serve hot to two very appreciative people!
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