Tag: stuffed

Casseroles · Czech Heritage and Dishes · Meats

Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage

cathysmahaLeave a comment

Cabbage must be a part of my Czech/Slovak DNA because I love cabbage and sauerkraut. Cabbage rolls are so delicious, but I don’t have the desire to make the rolls, just enjoy the savory ingredients. This recipe was just what I was looking for. Even my 3-year-old granddaughter likes it. She must have inherited that piece of my DNA as well!

I made half of a recipe and used half ground pork and half ground beef, no veal.

Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage

INGREDIENTS:
  • 1 cup uncooked white rice (or any rice of your choice)
  • 2 pounds green cabbage, cleaned, cored and cut into two-inch chunks
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 ounces raw bacon diced
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons tart red wine such as Merlot
  • 1 pound lean ground beef (90/10)
  • ½ pound ground pork
  • ½ pound ground veal (if you can’t get ground veal, increase ground pork to one pound)
  • 3 cups tomato juice (or for a more intense flavor, use V-8)
  • 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon dry thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup drained sauerkraut
DIRECTIONS:
  1. Cook rice according to package directions. Try to time the rice so that it finishes cooking as the preparation of the dish nears the end. If rice is finishes too soon, fluff and leave at room temperature to cool.
  2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch cabbage chunks for five minutes. Drain, cool and set aside.
  3. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, place olive oil and bacon and cook until bacon is almost browned, about 4 minutes. Increase heat to medium high and add onions and sauté for three minutes. Add garlic and sauté for one more minute. Add red wine and deglaze the pan.
  4. Move the cooked onion mixture to the edges of the pan and place all three meats into the center. Keep moving the meat around to brown and slowly work in onion mixture until the meat is fully browned.
  5. Add tomato juice, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, thyme, paprika, salt and pepper. Reduce to medium and simmer for five minutes.
  6. Add in sauerkraut, cooked rice and cooked cabbage. Bring back up to heat and simmer for five more minutes.
  7. Adjust seasoning and serve.

Recipe from Afamilyfeast.com

New Favorite · New Traditions · Vegetables

Roasted Stuffed Kobacha Squash (or Pumpkin)

cathysmahaLeave a comment

Stuffed pumpkin (or in my case Kobacha Squash) was a novel idea I heard about from friends. I found this wonderful recipe and adapted it to use the Kobacha squash I’d recently purchased from Trader Joe’s.

It was a fun, and delicious, experiment and one I’ll try again, shaking it up with different ingredients. This is a great way to use leftover pumpkins from Halloween or Thanksgiving. A new tradition perhaps.

IMG_7582

ROASTED STUFFED KOBACHA (OR PUMPKIN)

1 pumpkin (I used Kobacha squash), about 3 pounds
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmenthal, cheddar, shredded
2-4 garlic cloves (to taste) coarsely chopped
4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped
About 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1/3 cup heavy cream
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

  • Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  • Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment, or find a Dutch oven with a diameter that’s just a tiny bit larger than your pumpkin. If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it might stick to the casserole, so you’ll have to serve it from the pot—which is an appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a baking sheet, you can present it freestanding, but maneuvering a heavy stuffed pumpkin with a softened shell isn’t so easy. However, since I love the way the unencumbered pumpkin looks in the center of the table, I’ve always taken my chances with the baked-on-a-sheet method, and so far, I’ve been lucky. (Note: I baked my squash in a round Pyrex casserole lined with parchment paper)

IMG_7561

  • Using a very sturdy knife—and caution—cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween Jack-o-Lantern). It’s easiest to work your knife around the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle. You want to cut off enough of the top to make it easy for you to work inside the pumpkin. Clear away the seeds and strings from the cap and from inside the pumpkin. Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet or in the pot.
  • Toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper—you probably have enough salt from the bacon and cheese, but taste to be sure—and pack the mix into the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be well filled—you might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little—you don’t want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want them nicely moistened. (It’s hard to go wrong here.)

IMG_7567

  • Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours—check after 90 minutes—or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.
  • When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, very carefully—it’s heavy, hot, and wobbly—bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you’ll bring to the table.

IMG_7579

  • You have a choice—you can either spoon out portions of the filling, making sure to get a generous amount of pumpkin into the spoonful, or you can dig into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pull the pumpkin meat into the filling, and then mix everything up. I’m a fan of the pull-and-mix option. Served in hearty portions followed by a salad, the pumpkin is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in generous spoonfuls, it’s just right alongside the Thanksgiving turkey.
  • It’s really best to eat this as soon as it’s ready. However, if you’ve got leftovers, you can scoop them out of the pumpkin, mix them up, cover, and chill them; reheat them the next day.

Recipe Adapted from Epicurious.com

Family · My Roots · New Traditions

Stuffed Green Peppers with Quinoa…a new twist on an old favorite!

cathysmaha1 Comment

Memories of stuffed peppers in my Mother’s kitchen are sketchy, probably because I wasn’t fond of vegetables as a kid.  My taste buds have matured with age, and I love almost all vegetables.

I decided I would experiment with stuffed peppers and loved this recipe, substituting quinoa for the rice.  The result was a protein rich, yummy AND healthy dish.   When I made this recipe I only had three green peppers on hand, so I made a small meatloaf with the remaining meat mixture.  Fabulous!  This will also be a new meatloaf recipe to add to my collection.

Mini Meatloaf

STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS WITH QUINOA

6 medium green peppers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 can (1 lb. 3 oz.) crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 egg
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 pounds lean ground chuck
1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Precook quinoa according to package directions.
  • Slice off tops of green peppers and remove seeds and ribs. Rinse peppers. Chop the edible portion of the tops and set aside. Place peppers in a large pot of boiling salt water and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from water, drain, and cool slightly.

  • Heat olive oil in medium size skillet; add chopped onion, celery, and pepper and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.

  • In a large bowl, beat the egg together with the Worcestershire sauce. Add ground chuck, quinoa, and 1 cup of tomato mixture and mix well.
    5. Stuff peppers with meat mixture and place in greased casserole. Pour remaining tomato mixture over the top.

  • Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.