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
Easy traditional Irish Champ is the perfect recipe to enjoy during the month of March when we will be celebrating the wearing of the green, Saint Patrick's Day! The Irish love their potatoes and there is no end to the ways they love to enjoy them.
Champ and Colcannon are two of the most favourite ways and are both very similar. Champ is a potato/spring onion dish, whereas Colcannon has cooked cabbage in it as well as the onions. I love, LOVE them both!
I have seen Champ done with sauteed leeks and spring onions, but this version of Champ I am sharing today uses only spring onions (scallions.) It is delicious either way.
Oddly enough, in the old days, champ used to be made with stinging nettles. They were a plant which grew abundantly in most places and which was free for the picking. Make sure you wear gloves if you do try to pick and use them because they do sting and will blister your skin and hands.
Normally Dock leaves grown near nettles, so you can swipe one of those over the sting to take it away. Interestingly enough when nettles are cooked, this removes the sting, so there is no worry with eating them.
This begs an answer to the question . . . Just who was it that decided that something which stung the skin could be safely eaten??? Yes . . . I do have a curious mind.
Over the years, Spring Onions, or scallions as they are also known, have become the standard to use in the making of champ. I just think it is a fabulously tasty dish. We really do love it!
Everyone in my immediate family has had our DNA done now and we have discovered a healthy amount of Irish DNA in our family tree (with the exception of our dad who is 91% French). This gives us all the more reason to celebrate our Irish roots this year!
Mashed potatoes with warm milk, spring onions and butter beaten into
them. It's so tasty. The Irish know how to do potatoes and do them
well!
You can use leftover boiled potatoes to make this quite easily. Just reheat the potatoes in an amount of whole milk. Once heated through, mash and add the remaining ingredients. Easy Peasy.
Today I started from scratch.
For this you will want to use a floury type of potato, like a Russet or Maris Piper, King Edward. You do NOT want a new potato or waxy potato. They do NOT mash well. Trust me on this.
Once you have the right kind of potato, everything else is a doddle. Simply peel the potatoes, cut into chunks, and cook them in some lightly salted boiling water.
You will need to cook them until they are fork tender, but not falling apart in the water. Take care not to overcook them. It should take roughly 15 - 20 minutes depending on the size of your potato chunks.
Once they are cooked you will need to drain them very well and then return them to the pot. I like to let them sit in the heat of the pot over the residual heat of the burner to finish drying them out, with a clean tea towel thrown over top of the pan.
This allows the steam to be released without it being dropped back into the pan, whilst still keeping he potatoes heated.
I always warm the milk when I am doing mash of any kind. It doesn't take long to do it in the microwave. Just heat it on high for about a minute. I add the spring onions to the milk before heating it.
This helps to take any sharp flavour away from the onion and makes them just right for stirring into the mashed potatoes. It also helps to infuse the flavor of the onion into the milk beautifully. A quantity of butter is also stirred in, plus some salt and pepper. You can use white or black pepper.
The Irish used to serve this in a big bowl, hot from the stove.
A big knob of
butter would be melting into the middle of it so that the family could dip their
pieces of bread into the butter and scoop up some potatoes to eat with
it at the same time.
It sounds all warm and cosy to me, although nowadays with Covid, perhaps not a wise thing to do.
I tend to serve it as a side dish these days. It goes with just about everything. Lamb is especially nice. Grilled Chops, or some roasted lamb would be lovely.
Today we had it with grilled and glazed bangers/sausages. If you can get real Irish ones so much the better!!
In working with the green theme, I served some steamed green beans on the side. It was a really lovely meal. Really lovely.
I will always regret that during my stay in the UK, I never did get to visit Ireland, and it was so close too. I have heard that it is a beautiful country with too many shades of green in its landscape to count.
The closest I ever got was enjoying the company of a few Irishmen on the train back from London one time. Those Irish sure have the gift of the gab, especially when they've been enjoying a Guinness or two or three. Very pleasant folk to be sure!
Irish Champ
Yield: 4
prep time: 5 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 30 Min
An old Irish Dish, consisting of fluffy white mashed potatoes infused with plenty of butter, milk and spring onions.
Ingredients
- 1 kg (2 1/4 pounds) floury potatoes, peeled and halved
- 225ml whole milk (1 cup)
- 1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced (6 to 8 scallions)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 50g (2 ounces) butter
- a knob of butter to serve
Instructions
- Place the potatoes into a large pot and fill with enough cold water to cover. Lightly salt the water, bring to the boil and cook until fork tender, about 20 minutes.
- Drain the tender potatoes well. Return them to the pot and shake over the residual heat of the burner to dry them out. Place a clean tea towel over top to absorbe any access moisture.
- Place the milk into a large glass measuring cup along with the spring onions. Heat gently in the microwave for about 1 minute.
- Mash the potatoes well with the butter until smooth. Stir in the milk and spring onions to combine well together. Season with salt and white pepper.
- Pile into a bowl and top with a knob of butter. Serve immediately.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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We sure have been having some bitterly cold weather this past week. I believe it was -10 out there this morning. I have not experienced temperatures such as this in over 20 years! This is the kind of cold that really makes you appreciate Winter soups and stews.
Food that warms your belly and soul! There is nothing like a hot bowl of soup to do just that and this Winter Vegetable Soup is one of my favourites! And not the least because of the dumplings!
There is nothing more comforting on a cold winter's day than a traditional boiled dinner! This is something which has been very much a Maritime, Eastern Canada and New England tradition for many years.
It may seem a bit old fashioned, but there is a great comfort to be had in the simple cooking of thse very humble ingredients. This is full meal in a pot that has been pleasing families for many years.
Cabbage. Cabbage has to be one of my absolute favorite vegetables and never more so than when it is cut into thick wedges and roasted. There is something about roasting cabbage that really brings out its very best qualities.
I have been making this stuffed cabbage roll recipe which I am sharing with you today for years, and years and years. In my opinion it is the absolute best, and I don't make that boast lightly.
The original recipe came from a community cookbook put out by my church ladies's guild back in the early 1980's. I really love community cookbooks. People tend to put into them their very best recipes and tried and trues.
Not all of the recipes will be to everyone's taste. Taste is subjective after all.You can be pretty sure that all of the recipes will be the donater's best and most favourite recipes however.
This makes community cookbooks a wise choice when it comes to finding economical, family friendly and delicious recipes. At least that has been my experience.
My mother used to make cabbage rolls often when I was growing up. They were one of my father's favourite things. My father loved anything with hamburger in it. Mom would always make a HUGE pot of them, with enough to freeze for another time.
She did not use rice in hers. Her meat mixture was more like a meatloaf mixture and she would roll it up in the leaves of cabbage, putting them into a very large saucepan. Over that she would pour a few cans of stewed tomatoes.
She also added peeled potatoes and peeled carrots, cut into chunks. I have never seen anyone else make cabbage rolls in this way. When they were done, there was a full meal prepared. No need to add anything else.
I was not fond of the meat filling, I confess, but I did really love the cabbage, carrots and potatoes. My father really loved the meat, but was not fond of the cabbage. I would trade him my meat for his cabbage. Nobody felt cheated in the least.
This recipe is worlds apart from my mother's recipe. First of all the rolls are baked, not simmered on top of the stove and there are no vegetables added. Just the rolls. I also don't use canned tomatoes, preferring instead to make a sauce from a few simple ingredients. Just tastier, in my opinion.
My meat mixture does include rice, unlike hers. I always use raw rice and you needn't worry about it cooking. It does every time and perfectly.
The meat filling also includes some special seasonings aside from salt and pepper. Grated onion, garlic, and carrot to keep things moist. I also add an egg to hold everything together along with a quantity of chopped streaky bacon.
You would be surprised at how much flavour the bacon lends to the mixture. Its not enough to overpower the meat, but it does give a nice smoky flavour. If you want you can put it through a meat grinder. Raw bacon can be rather difficult to chop.
I also like to use a good dry cure streaky bacon. There is less water in dry cured bacon.
I always use a large white/green cabbage, never a savoy cabbage. I think it has the best flavor and texture for this use.
I use a large one because the leaves are much larger and are the perfect size to completely wrap and enclose the meat filling. I also wilt them first in some boiling water for ease of wrapping.
If you trim the thick vein in each leaf you will find that it is much easier to fold the leaves. Just take a sharp knife and pare it down so that it is the same thickness as the rest of the leaf.
Mom never wilted her cabbage first, but it really does make rolling them a lot easier. You can save the inside of the cabbage for other things. Don't worry it will all get used.
The star of this wonderful cabbage roll recipe has always been the sauce. It is incredibly delicious. So delicious that I often double it because we love it so much.
It uses a canned tomato sauce, fresh lemon juice and brown sugar. If you are in the UK, tomato sauce is NOT ketchup! It is what you call Passatta. Seived tomatoes, but a bit thinner. You can add a bit of water to thin it out if you want but it should be fine just as it is.
Make sure you use fresh lemon juice. It has a much better flavour than lemon juice made from concentrate and is not so acidic. It adds a lovely punch to the sauce.
In my younger years I used to always make a big pan of these if we were invited to a pot luck lunch or supper. I always came home with an empty pan and many requests for the recipe. They really are that good!
I like to serve them with some steamed rice on the side and a vegetable if I can. You can serve them with whatever you wish to use and which you enjoy eating with them. Boiled potatoes are also very nice.
These really are the BEST cabbage rolls and worth every ounce of effort to make. You can double or triple the recipe with ease and you may want to do just that as they do freeze very well and it never hurts to have something like these in the freezer that you can just pull out.
You can pay upwards of $20 in the store for a large pan of ready made frozen cabbage rolls, whereas it will only cost you a fraction of that to make your own at home and they really do taste so much better!
This is the season for comfort foods such as these. Why not bake up some comfort for your family today! They will be ever so pleased and grateful that you did! Trust me on this!
Best Cabbage Rolls
Yield: 4 (12 rolls)
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 1 H & 20 Mtotal time: 1 H & 35 M
This is 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.
Ingredients
For the rolls:
- 1 pound (455g) extra lean minced beef
- 1/4 cup (55g)raw long grain rice
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 1 medium onion, peeled and grated
- 1 carrot, peeled and grated
- 1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound ( 225g) smoked streaky bacon, minced (dry cure if possible)
- 12 wilted cabbage leaves, thick veins trimmed to thin
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup (240ml) tomato sauce (passata)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a shallow baking dish large enough to hold your rolls. Set aside.
- Place the meat into a bowl and mix together with the raw rice, egg, onion, carrot, garlic, salt, pepper and bacon. Mix well together. 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 or a thick sheet of aluminimum foil.
- 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 with your favourite sides.
notes:
I often double the sauce as it is so delicious. Simply multiply all of the sauce ingredients by 2.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Fish for Friday here with the Ultimate Fish Finger Sandwich. Fish fingers are something we all probably keep in our freezer. They can get really boring however, and we may often find ourselves wishing that we had a fish finger recipe to help to save us from that boredom!
If you like fish you are going to love this delicious, spicy Fish Finger Sandwich. It blows the fish sandwich from most of those fast food places totally out of the water.
In fact I might even so go far as to say that once you taste one of these delicious sandwiches, you will never settle for one of those fish sandwich again!
Cowboy Casserole. Such a simple name, but wow, what fabulous flavours. This recipe I am sharing with you today is one I have adapted from a cookerybook entitled the Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook.
I bought it second hand from Amazon. Most of the time their second hand books are quite reasonable and in fairly decent shape. My heart breaks when I think of the cookbook collection I had to leave behind in the UK. All of my Dorie Greenspan books, etc. I will hopefully gradually be able to build the collection back up again in time. We will see.
One thing which appealed about this recipe is the fact that it seemed relatively simple to make and did not require a lot of ingredients. My sister had taken a pound of ground beef from the freezer. I made several suggestions as to what we could make with it.
Most received a nay. This recipe did tempt them however, and I got the go-ahead. Whew! You can use ready made Bisquick for this or you could make your own baking mix to use in this. I always made my own baking mix when I was in the UK. You can get that recipe here.
You could also make a homemade biscuit dough of a dropping consistency to drop over top of the casserole. I have included some instructions on how to do that in the recipe.
All work well. All are delicious, although I do have to say I am a bit partial to the homemade biscuit dough. It is probably because of the butter. 😋 Butter makes everything tastier.
I am not sure why it is called Cowboy Casserole. Probably because of the ground beef and the baked beans. Surely cowboy types of foods. Many a cowboy has been sustained by ground beef and baked beans when out on the range.
My sister buys organic grass-fed beef. She buys it at a local farm market, frozen in one pound packages. When I was in the UK I bought ground steak from my local butcher.
In any case you want to use a good quality of ground beef here. You want it fairly lean. I think if I was living on my own I would just grind up my own steak for this.
I cannot stand cheap ground beef. Not only do you end up pouring half of it away in fat, which is a huge colossal waste of money, but it stinks when you are cooking it.
There is no economy in buying cheap ground meat. The fat content is far too high for one thing. And you are paying for all of that fat. Fat which you will not be eating.
Or at least that you shouldn't be eating, not if you care for your arteries anyways. A small amount of fat is okay, but I would never use beef that had any more than 5 % fat in it. This is just my way of thinking and how I like to do things.
But then again ground beef has never really been a favourite of mine and not something I would eat at all when I was growing up. And I am really not fond of it mixed with other things, as in casseroles. Its a texture thing.
You know what they say . . . . there's naught so queer as folk. And some of us are a bit weirder than others! We are all different and I like to celebrate our differences as much as I can!
Life would be incredibly boring were we all the same! Now back to the casserole.
You need a tin of baked beans for this, and some prepared BBQ sauce. You could make your own BBQ sauce if you wanted to. For this recipe you would need tomato ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestshire sauce, dry mustard powder and some seasoning.
I would start with 1/2 cup (120g) of the ketchup and add 1 TBS each of the brown sugar and cider vinegar. 1 tsp of dry mustard powder, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce and then salt and black pepper to your taste.
If you have it you could add liquid smoke to really give it that campfire taste.
We used an ordinary can of original baked beans. (Bush's) In the UK you could use Heinz or any other brand. I think in something like this the brand of baked beans doesn't really matter that much overall.
I did find that the mixture was a bit too thick and so I added a bit of boiling water to thin it out a bit and it could have been a bit thinner still I think. You judge accordingly.
You don't want it too thin and you don't want it too thick. I would also be tempted to add an additional half a can of beans, but then I really like baked beans.
You could really amp it up by adding some chopped onion, green chillies and garlic when you are frying the ground beef. That would give it it a bit of delicious heat, but it is up to you!
As you can see it was fairly thick. The biscuit dough absorbs some of the liquid, so don't be afraid to make your beef mixture a bit thinner!
Its really delicious however, so don't mess with the flavours too much. They don't do salt at all in this house so I only added some ground black pepper. And to be honest you really didn't need any salt.
I've never been one to add a lot of salt to things anyways, but I often do add a tiny bit to things. Its all a matter of taste and what you are used to. Using less salt never hurt anyone.
And in fact its much better for you to use less.
We actually used a Tex Mex mix of cheese to sprinkle on top that we had leftover from some natchos we had made around New Years. It was a tiny bit spicy so that worked well with the rest of the flavours.
I would normally use a good strong cheddar cheese. The stronger the flavour of your cheese, the less you need to use. Its a fact.
Anyways, I think this was enjoyed. I had no complaints really and I did enjoy it myself. I served it with some homemade coleslaw. I do make good coleslaw if I don't say so myself.
You can find my coleslaw recipe here. Creamy Coleslaw. Its my favourite. I don't always add the cucumber. Yesterday it was only cabbage, carrots and some scallion/spring onion. BBQ always goes well with coleslaw.
I hope you will want to give this a go. I highly recommend it for a fabulously tasty, family friendly, mid-week supper entree!
Cowboy Casserole
Yield: 6
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 35 Min
Quick, easy and incredibly delicious. This tasty casserole uses only a few ingredients, cooks quickly and is a real family pleaser.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (453g) extra lean ground beef
- 1 can (16 oz/453g) baked beans
- 1/2 cup (120g) BBQ sauce
- 2 cups (240g)Original Bisquick
- 2/3 cup (160ml) milk
- 1 TBS softened butter
- 1/2 cup (40g) grated cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven o 425*F/220*C/ gas mark 7. Have ready a 2 litre/Qt casserole dish. No need to butter it.
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Crumble in the ground beef. Scramble fry the beef for 5 to 7 minutes until browned and no longer pink. Drain if needed.
- Add the BBQ sauce and baked beans, stirring everything thoroughly together. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Keep warm.
- Stir together the baking mix, softened butter and milk.
- Pour the beef mixture into the baking dish. Smooth over and then drop the baking mix over top by spoonfuls to cover.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 18 to 22 minutes until the biscuit topping is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the cheese. Return to the oven for about 3 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.
- Serve hot.
notes:
You can make your own biscuit mixture from scratch to drop on top very easily. Whisk together 2 cups (280g) all purpose flour with 4 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Cut in 1/2 cup (120g) butter until crumbly. Stir in 3/4 cup (180ml) milk until you have a soft droppable dough. Proceed as above. You may need more milk to get the right consistency.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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