Smoked Sausage and Cabbage

Name: Smoked Sausage and Cabbage
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 1 pound of smokd sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces; 6 cups coarsely chopped white cabbage (1 small head); 1 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges; 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced; 1 tsp brown sugar; 1/4 tsp caraway seeds (optional); 1/4 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Monday, 7 December 2020

Even though this year most people's Christmas's are going to be on a much smaller scale, a lot of us will be looking for quick and easy meals to prepare for our family bubble's in the run up to the holidays. Simple dishes like this Smoked Sausage and Cabbage fit the bill perfectly!

Dishes that go together quickly and easily and that use simple every day ingredients. Recipes that are not a lot of work for anyone! Recipes that are delicious and that the family will enjoy. Recipes without a lot of faffing about!

Today's recipe comes from one of my sister's cookbooks. It is called the Irish Cooking Bible, more than 120 delicious recipes from pub fare to country classics. There are a lot of good recipes in this book. I have already mentally flagged quite a few of them to try at some point!

I love this book so much that I ordered a used copy for myself. I hardly ever buy new books. You can quite often get used copies in very good shape for a fraction of the cost of the new ones. We can all appreciate being able to save a few pennies when we can these days!

Sometimes these used books are available in almost new condition. Often they are available as "very good" condition. I usually pick those. So far I have been very lucky. Most come from non-smoking environments and can even be ex-library copies, so well cared for.

I have only ever been disapointed once. I received a book that someone had gone to great lengths to very carefully remove the pages of all the best recipes from. They used a razor blade. Unless you looked very closely you wouldn't have noticed.

I might not have noticed but one of the recipes I had really wanted and had specifically purchased the book for, the roast chicken, was one of the missing pages. Shame on them.

There are some very unscrupulous people about I have to say. I am glad that I am not one of them!

This recipe really appealed to me for several reasons. One, I love smoked sausage. I also love cabbage, in any way, shape or form!

Two I loved the simplicity of it and its easy of preparation. Other than seasonings, there are really only four simple ingredients.

Smoked Sausage. Cabbage. Garlic. Onion. All four are ingredients that I almost always have readily available to me in my kitchen. Well, the cabbage, onion and garlic at any rate.

One might have to go out and shop for the smoked sausage. I used Schneiders Original Recipe Smoked Sausage. There were about 8 sausages in the pack. I used four and froze four for a future date!

Smoked sausage is quite different than hotdogs. A hotdog is usually made from a smooth textured paste-like filling which is encased in a fragile skin.

Sausages are normally filled with a ground more composite type of meat filling, with texture and they are encased in a thicker skin. Usually a skin which will snap a bit when you eat them.

Whilst hotdogs (frankfurters) are always smoked, a sausage can be either smoked or plain. I enjoy them both ways. Today, for this purpose, you need the smoked.

Smoked sausage, really good smoked sausage, was one of the things I missed when I was in the UK. You could get all kinds of polish sausage, but I was never quite sure which was the best one to use for something like this.

While they are not something which should form a regular part of your diet, they are something which can be very enjoyable from time to time. Both sausages and hotdogs. And yes, I do know what goes into a hotdog.

And some sausages for that matter! I always try to buy only quality, known types of either one. You do get what you pay for in a case such as this. If you don't want to pay a bit more, you get cheap and nasty.

I am not fond of cheap and nasty and would rather pay more to get a quality product. Of course I do understand that not all people have that option.

But while I can, I will. Its as simple as that.

There are many kinds of cabbage available to us these days. I recommend using the hard white cabbage or a winter king cabbage. You want one which will hold its shape well when it is cooked, and not go to mush in the longer cook time.

A savoy or Chinese cabbage would go to mush, and be quite unpalatable. These are more suited to quick cooking methods and do not take very long to cook at all.

I cut my cabbage into 1-inch chunks which worked perfectly for this purpose. It cooked evenly and was beautiful with the smoked sausage. I did not have to add any oil to the pan as the sausage had rendered out just enough to cook the cabbage in.

When Dan got home from work, the first thing he said was, "What smells so good!" High accolade indeed! We served it with potatoes, which we had simply boiled. They were perfect together. I am thinking a nice crusty rye bread would also go well, and perhaps some mustard on the side.

This was a MOST enjoyable meal! The simple things in life really do bring us the most joy.

Smoked Sausage and Cabbage

Yield: 4

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 10 Mincook time: 20 Mininactive time: 5 Mintotal time: 35 Min

A delicious supper dish that uses simple ingredients, and goes together very easily. We enjoyed with some boiled potatoes

Ingredients

1 pound of smokd sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 cups coarsely chopped white cabbage (1 small head)
1 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Add the sausage to a large skillet. Cook and stir over medium high heat for about 3 minutes, until nicely browned. Scoop out and set aside.
Add the cabbage, onion, garlic, sugar, caraway seeds (if using), salt and black pepper to the pan drippings. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion begins to brown. (about 5 minutes)
Add the sausage. Cover the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let stand for five minutes. Serve hot.

Did you make this recipe?

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Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies

Sunday, 6 December 2020

I freely confess that I am a bit of a cookie monster at heart. I do love cakes and pies, but I think cookies are one of my favourite things of all. So much so that I daren't have them in the house too often.

For fear of going overboard with the tasting. When my children were growing up I ate far too many of the first ones coming out of the oven. I could not help myself. They just got in my mouth and before I knew it I would have munched back half a dozen or so.

Yes, I am totally lacking in self control. And yes, it shows. My hips don't lie. Albeit in a far different way than the intent of that same song sung by Shakira!

One of my favourite cookies, aside from chocolate chip, has to be peanut butter cookies. I am a nut (no pun intended) for peanut butter cookies!

My favourite store boughts are Nutter Butters, and Pirate Cookies. Both because of the peanut butter flavours. I also like Maple Leaf Cookies, but they are a close second to anything peanut butter.

Homemade are always infinitedly better than store bought however. My children always had homemade cookies when they were growing up.

She didn't have time for baking. Until my sister and I got old enough to do it, there was only store bought cookies in our house, except for at Christmas time.

I was very lucky in that I was able to stay home with my children when they were growing up. I always had a plate or tin of fresh baked something awaiting them when they got home from school. Nobody complained.

These Peanut Butter Cookies turn out very much like Molasses Crinkle cookies. They are crisp and sport those same wrinkles and crinkles in them.

They are also coated in sugar prior to baking. They puff right up and then sink, which creates those lovely, tasty wrinkles.

Or course they are lovely just as is. Singularly. Enjoyed with a cold glass of milk.

But you know me, I like to add things. I like to stretch the taste boundaries. I think double cookies are great. Filled cookies. Twice the cookie, twice the fun.

Crisp and delicious and sandwiched together with some lush frosting. In this case a lush peanut butter frosting.

Creamy and delicious. And generous as well. What's the point in filling your cookies if you can't notic the filling?

What's the point indeed. If you are going to go to all the trouble of making a cookie and then an icing, and if you are going to fill them with the icing . . .

Why not be generous! What's the point in skimping. In for a penny, in for a pound has always been my motto!

So what if it squishes out a tiny bit when you bit into them. Isn't that half the pleasure of having a frosting filled cookie?

And why have double stuff in the middle unless its going to ooze out. That way you get to lick around the edges like an ice cream cone.

In this case a crisp, sugary crusted buttery peanut butter cookie. Have I tempted you yet?

Just look a that creamy filling. Knowing it is rich with peanut butter flavour makes me hungry all over again. I am using all of my willpower to try not to go over to the cupboard and get one out right now.

I found myself wondering yesterday how these would be with an added layer of raspberry jam. I resisted the impulse, but it really did tempt me to want to try it.

Peanut butter and jam is a quintessential pairing of great taste. At least to North Americans. The British don't get it. They think we're crazy.

Perhaps a bit, but what a wonderful way to go. Thinking on this it reminds me of these Peanut Butter and Jam cookies I used to make a long time ago. I haven't made them in ages.

They had a dollop of jam baked into the centres prior to baking. A peanut butter drizzle icing graced the top of the finished and cooled cookies. They had the wow factor for sure.

These do too however. Especially when fresh and served with ice cold glasses of milk. Cookies and milk. Another quintessential pairing that I love.

I really hope that you will be inspired to want to bake these lush cookies. I think you will come to love them every bit as much as I do, especially if you like the flavours of peanut butter. Peanut Butter Crinkle Cookies, filled with peanut butter buttercream.

As Martha would say, they're a good thing. A VERY good thing!