Showing posts sorted by date for query cabbage. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query cabbage. Sort by relevance Show all posts
I am on a quest now to lower the fat, salt and carbohydrates of what we are eating, and to that end I cooked a delicious chicken dish for us the other day that I had adapted from a cookery book entitled "The Ultimate Diabetes Cookbook" from Diabetic Living.
Garlic Cashew Chicken is a lovely melange of crisp and colourful vegetables, flavourful chicken strips, with a nicely spiced sauce, and brown rice . . . and plenty of garlic. Yum!
I cut the recipe in half and it worked very well. I only used two small sized chicken breasts, which I sliced into strips crosswise and then browned in a non-stick pan I had sprayed first with low fat Fry Light Avocado Cooking Spray. We don't get Pam cooking spray over her so . . .
After that you take the chicken out and you stir fry the vegetables . . . onions, carrots, bok choy, green peppers, garlic. . . one serving of this provides you with a full serving of vegetables.
I didn't have bok choy so I just used sliced cabbage and it worked well. You make a simple sauce using chicken stock, hoisin sauce, freshly grated gingerroot, cornflour, and red pepper flakes. This sauce has lotsa lotsa flavour. It is really tasty. I love hoisin sauce.
You stir the chicken back into the sauce and vegetable mix along with some cooked brown rice and then the whole thing gets poured into a casserole dish, tightly covered and baked.
Then you uncover it and sprinkle the top with cashew nuts and chow mein noodles. We cannot get the fried chow mein noodles over here (and its a good thing too because I could eat them like potato chips and they are not that good for you.) So I just used some cashew nuts. Banged back in the oven to toast the nuts . . .
And with a final sprinkle of sliced spring onions, this went down a real treat. I did serve Todd some additional brown rice on the side of his because he is not needing to watch his carbs and can use the extra calories. One of our neighbors brought him a piece of their wedding cake last evening as well, so he was one very happy camper.
*Cashew Garlic Chicken*
Makes 6 servings
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Spray a 2 litre/2 QT baking dish with low fat cooking spray and set aside.
Whisk together the chicken stock, hoisin sauce, fresh ginger, cornflour, red pepper and black pepper. Set aside.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until bubbling and the chicken is no longer pink inside. Sprinkle with the cashew nuts and chow mein noodles (if using). Return to the oven for a further 4 to 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with the sliced spring onions and serve.
This really was delicious. Don't let the long list of ingredients put you off. Once you get them all assembled the dish goes together really quickly. I was able to enjoy the extra serving today. I made something suitable for Todd to eat, so he wasn't left out and I got to enjoy another healthy meal. I'd call that a bonus! I hope you will try it. I think you will really enjoy it, and maybe even more so in knowing that you are eating quite healthy as well. At 340cal per serving and 40g of carbs (and even less if you leave out the chowmein noodles) this is a winner/winner chicken dinner! Bon Appetit!
One thing I love most about Winter is that we get to enjoy lovely homemade soups with abandon. There is no time like the present to be enjoying these beautiful forms of sustenance!
Everything I know about making soup, I learned from my mother. She made beautiful soups. As a family we loved her soups and one of the first things we always looked forward after we grew up and went home for a visit, was a hot bowl of one of her homemade soups.
Mum never skimmed the fat from her soups. She always told us those little beads of fat floating on top were the vitamins. I do skim the fat, but I always smile while I am doing it, thinking of all the vitamins . . . .
One of my favourite memories is from when I was living on my own after my divorce. I had a rented room in someone else's house. It was January and I had come down with the "man" flu . . . horrible, soul wrenching, energy draining flu.
I was in bed for several days, not caring if I was dead or alive. There came a knock on the door one day and there stood my mother with a lovely container of her homemade chicken soup. Nectar of the Gods. And filled with vitamins, no doubt! 😉 But when you're sick . . . who cares.
A good homemade soup is one of the most beautiful examples of love you can share with someone you care about . . .it is indeed soup for the soul.
This version I am showing you today starts with a delicious homemade stock which is made from the carcass of a roasted chicken. I always freeze my roast chicken carcasses specifically for the purpose of making soups.
You don't always feel like making the soup right away, so freezing them makes good sense. I just pop them into an empty bread bag, tie it shut and pop it into the freezer.
I also cut up my own chickens to use in dishes and save the backs and necks, also for the purpose of making flavourful stocks. All get frozen for future use.
Breasts in one container, legs in another, wings in another, and backs & necks. Its a cheaper way of having chicken portions to hand, and just makes economic sense to me.
For this delicious soup I combined my own homemade stock, pearl barley, grated parsnips, and cabbage with perfectly delicious results. You can use ready made stock as well if you want.
You will still end up with a fabulously tasty soup. Perfect for these cold winter days and for whatever ails you.
*Roast Chicken Soup with Barley, Parsnips and Cabbage*
Serves 4
a generous sprig of thyme
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley
140g pearl barley (3/4 cup)
Put the chicken stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add
the spring of thyme, parsley and pearl barley and reduce to a simmer.
Cover and cook for about forty five minutes. Add the vegetables,bring
to the boil again and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for a further 15 to
20 minutes, until all of the vegetables and the barley are very soft.
Add the chicken and heat through. Season to taste with salt and black
pepper, squeeze the lemon juice over top and serve.
You can make your own chicken broth quite easily with the carcass of your leftover roast chicken. Homemade is always better than ready made in my opinion.
*Roast Chicken Broth*
Makes 3 to 4 litres (2 to 3 quarts)
1 tsp sea salt
a handful of fresh parsley sprigs, and other soft herbs such at thyme, oregano, savoury, sage or marjoram
Any leftovers can also be frozen, ready to haul out at the first sign of a sniffle. Almost as good as a mother's hug when you are feeling a bit under the weather. Bon Appetit!
For the whole week before Christmas I was craving cabbage rolls, and not just any cabbage rolls, but the ones that my ex BIL used to get at a German Butcher's he frequented in Windsor, Ontario.
They were probably the best cabbage rolls I have ever eaten. I am also mighty fond of the M&M ones . . . but I have to admit my homemade ones are also very, very good!
It is an old, old recipe which I have been making for many, many years and always the first thing to disappear at a buffet table.
Last week when I was craving the ones from Windsor however and the M&M ones, I got to thinking to myself, and we all know what happens then.
I decided to adapt my own recipe to what I felt the difference was between theirs and mine.
And I have to say I was well pleased with the end result! It was a simple change really . . . I decided to use pork sausage meat instead of beef.
That's it. And they were very, very close to what I was craving . . . very close.
My mother used to make cabbage rolls when I was growing up, but hers were very different than mine. She did not use any rice at all, and she only covered them with a tin of chopped tomatoes, there was no sauce per se.
She also added peeled potatoes an carrots to the pot. They were pretty good. I was never fond of the meat part, but I did like the cabbage.
My father was never fond of the cabbage. We had a deal between us. I gave him the meat from mine, and he gave me his cabbage. We both felt like winners.
My mother also cooked hers entirely on top of the stove, in her old Wearever aluminum dutch oven. I do mine totally in the oven.
Generally speaking I like to use a white cabbage, or ordinary cabbage . . . Nothing fancy here. No Savoy or any other kind. Just ordinary cabbage.
This time I tried a sweetheart cabbage, which is just like a white cabbage except it has fewer leaves, looser leaves and they are rather elongated. It worked very well. I was quite pleased with the results.
The sauce for mine is a really simple sauce. Passata (tomato sauce), lemon juice and brown sugar. I used the Cirio Passata, again because it is my favourite kind, with a lovely rich tomato flavour.
There is nothing there except for sieved tomatoes. Thick and rich, never bitter or sharp, quite pleasant . . . you can almost taste that Italian sunshine.
I have to say I totally ADORED them made with sausage meat. TOTALLY! These were soooooo tasty.
I made them on the eve of Christmas Eve, meaning the night before Christmas Eve.
The recipe makes exactly one dozen cabbage rolls. We each had two and then I froze the remainder in 4 roll lots to take out later on this winter on a day when I am over busy or feel like treating myself.
I don't know what is normal to serve with cabbage rolls, but I served them with rice and some peas and carrots. It really was a fabulous dinner.
I think it is safe to say I will be making my cabbage rolls with sausage meat from now on!
*Cabbage Rolls*
Makes 12
Makes 12
This is an adaptation of our favourite cabbage roll recipe. Delicious, moist and meaty with a fabulous sweet and sour sauce. These always go down a real treat. I often double and triple the recipe when I take them to pot luck suppers. I always bring home an empty dish.
1 pound extra lean sausage meat
55g raw long grain rice (1/4 cup)
1 medium free range egg, beaten with a fork
1 medium onion, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12 wilted cabbage leaves, thick veins trimmed to thin
1 medium free range egg, beaten with a fork
1 medium onion, peeled and grated
1 small carrot, peeled and grated
1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
12 wilted cabbage leaves, thick veins trimmed to thin
For the sauce:
100g soft light brown sugar, (1/2 cup packed)
60ml fresh lemon juice (1/4 cup)
240ml tomato passata (1 cup tomato sauce)
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/gas mark 5.
Place
the meat into a bowl and mix together with the rice, egg, onion,
carrot, garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Shape into 12 equal
sized ovals. Place each oval at the wide end of a wilted cabbage
leaf. Roll up, tucking in the sides to completely encase the meat.
Place, folded side down, into a greased baking dish. Mix together the
brown sugar, lemon juice and tomato sauce. Pour this sauce over the
rolls. Cover tightly with a lid.
Place the casserole into the heated oven and bake for 1 hour. Uncover
at the end of that time and bake for 20 minutes longer. Serve hot.
These were as close to perfect as any cabbage roll could be. I don't know why people think that making cabbage rolls is really fiddly. It isn't really. Well, not for me anyways.
I hope you will try these and make them with sausage meat when you do! I think you will agree with me when I say these are Da Bomb! Bon Appetit!
Today was a really busy day. I made the filling for my Christmas Tortiere, and the pastry, filled and baked them. I did my cabbage rolls as well (more on them at a later date), tidied the house for Christmas, made sure all the laundry was done, hung and drying in the spare room, and I am E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D! Whew! I need a break and what better way to enjoy a breakd than sitting down to a tasty slice of cake!
It uses a quantity of mincemeat . . . I use homemade, but you might want could use store brand if you wanted to. I like my homemade because it is filled with lovely bits of apricot and prunes . . . I love a cake with apricots and prunes in it don't you?
This is the type of cake our grandmother's would have baked. Over here it might have been served in late afternoon for tea, with some bread and butter, maybe some jam, and steaming hot cups of tea! I can just picture it now.
Everyone sitting around the table munching away and chattering about the day they have just had. This is one of those cakes that just gets better with each day that passes. I dare say it would even be quite tasty thinly sliced and buttered . . .
Its a great way to use up the last of that mincemeat languishing away in the back of the refrigerator if you will . . . but if you are like me, you always keep a jar or two of mincemat in the cupboard because its not just for Christmas you know . . .
Buttery, dense and deliciously moist, stogged full of bits of fruit and lightly spiced, this cake pleases on many levels!
When I sat down with this I felt a bit like Goldilocks when she sat down in the last chair and uttered with a smile . . . this is JUST right!
*Quick Fruited Tea Cake*
Makes 1 9-inch round cake
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter and line a 9 inch round cake tin with baking paper. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the mincemeat. Beat in the eggs, a bit at a time, until all are combined. Sift together the flour and spices. Fold this mixture thoroughly into the creamed mixture. It will be fairly thick. Spread into the prepared cake tin.
Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and the top springs back lightly. It might even be slightly cracked on top, and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Let sit in the cake tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Break out the tea pot!
I know you probably have about a bazillion other things you are baking at the moment, but do make note of this for future reference. It is a cake you will not want to miss out on! Bon Appetit and Happy Holidays!
Thankfully I was always a good cook and quite adept at creating something very delicious out of not a lot! Tasty dishes such as this stone soup I am showing you today . . .
There
was a method to my madness . . . while they might not have gotten
excited about a bowl of cabbage soup, calling it Stone Soup immediately
made them want to tuck in!
I
am sure you are familiar with the story of the beggar who went to a poor village looking for a place to sleep and a bite to eat. The villagers were very suspicious however and were not that eager to help, but being as canny and smart as he was, he inspired them into helping him create a delicious stone soup that the whole village shared together at the end of the story. You can find the story here.
Its a wonderful story with a great moral to it, teaching children that if we can work together on things, then amazing things will begin to happen!
Things like delicious pots of soup that started with not a lot more than half a cabbage, an onion, a tin of tomatoes, some water and a vegetable stock pot.
Of course there are a few seasonings involved as well, which are never a problem in my house because I always have a well stocked herb drawer.
With a bit of crusty bread on the side this soup goes down a real treat! We have always loved it. It takes the humble cabbage and lifts it up into something quite, quite magnificent!
*Stone Soup*
Serves 4 generously
There was another meal that my children used to gobble up that I called Monkey in the Middle, which was simply stewed meat in the middle of a plate, surrounded by a ring of corn and then a ring of rice. The children loved that. It was simple and delicious and made all the more so for its name. Funny how that goes! Bon Appetit!
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