Winter Cabbage Soup

This soup tastes nothing like its name sounds. I had a lot of cabbage in the fridge from making minestrone recently, but I didn't want a cabbage diet kind of soup, nor a brothy mush of stringy cabbage. My solution was pureeing the soup using this weird blender/food processor-like object found in the cupboards here; it's incredibly useful, a small bowl with a blade and a top with a small motor. The results were a creamy, hearty cabbage soup, sweet from tomatoes and spicy from a little red chili added at the end, perfect for a winter appetizer or light lunch.

You'll need:
3 small onions, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
8 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced
1c white wine
1/2 can whole tomatoes in juice
4c chicken or veggie stock
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of nutmeg
a teaspoon of hot chili powder
chopped parsley for garnish

Saute onions and shallots in olive oil; when golden brown (about 10 minutes), add garlic, sugar, nutmeg, and cabbage; saute until cabbage wilts, stirring frequently so garlic doesn't burn, about 10 minutes more.

Add white wine and boil down until reduced by more than half (you shouldn't be able to smell the alcohol anymore).

Add tomatoes and their juice and chicken or veggie stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 1 hour.

Puree in batches. Add chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Chicken & Veal Burgers

This was a surprisingly delicious combination of meat-- lean ground chicken breast and tasty ground veal. Jesse smothered his (above) in bacon & cheese, and stuffed the sandwich with avocado and hot sauce. I made mine (below) like last month's stuffed turkey burgers, but stuffed them with cheese (firecracker cheddar) and jalapeno slices, which I also put on top.


Into the 1/2lb chicken & 1/2lb veal went minced shallots, jalapeno, and garlic.


We ate these with simple baked sweet potato fries:


and a seriously good version of a basic cabbage salad. The secret ingredient...

kumquats!

Pork Stir Fry with Noodles

This is the same recipe as this post, but with broccoli added, served over some surprisingly delicious fresh chow mein-style noodles. When you make any noodle or pasta dish with sauce, under cook your noodles by about a minute, then finish cooking them in the sauce, so they soak up sauce and become flavorful. I think this stir fry is especially good with noodles because of all the tasty sauce the recipe makes.

Spicy-Sweet Pork Stir Fry with Cabbage and Mushrooms

I made this with pork, because I had a pork tenderloin lying around, but you could easily use sliced chicken breast or a tender cut of beef. Serve with steamed or brown rice.

You'll need:

1 pork tenderloin (they're usually about 1 lb)

Marinade/Sauce:
4T hoisin sauce
2T dark soy sauce
2T light soy sauce
2T rice vinegar
1T chili-garlic sauce (or Sriracha & 1t crushed garlic)
a splash of Mirin wine, if you have it
1t corn starch

1 onion, thinly sliced
shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/2 chinese cabbage, thinly sliced
1T grated ginger
5-6 cloves chopped garlic
1 sliced serrano chili
1/2c peanuts, partially crushed
2 green onions, sliced
1T grapeseed oil

Remove silver skin and any fat from pork. Slice into thin rounds-- this is easier to do if you freeze the pork for 30 minutes. Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl; taste and add more chili-garlic sauce if too sweet, or more Mirin or hoisin if too spicy. Add pork and marinate 15 minutes, while you cook the veggies.

Heat oil in non-stick skillet. Saute onions until golden brown; add mushrooms, and saute until browned. Add cabbage, ginger, garlic, and serrano chili. Stir to combine; cook until cabbage begins to wilt. Add pork and marinade; simmer, stirring, until pork is cooked through and tender. Remove from heat and stir in peanuts and green onions.

Boeuf Bourguignon with Carrot Crisps and Red Potatoes

NB: These pictures are terrible. I know that. I almost forgot to take pictures at all. I promise to work on my fuzziness...

This recipe is partially my dad's (it was the first thing he cooked for my mom, so it must be pretty good) and partially Julia Child's, because I just got my hands on Mastering the Art of French Cooking. My version has lots of onion and mushroom stewed down to a melty sauce, with the carrots baked on the side (instead of in the stew) for some texture.

You'll need (serves 6):

3lbs beef stewing meat
6 oz bacon (4 thick slices)
5 onions, thinly sliced
1lb button mushrooms, sliced
some flour
some oil
1 bottle red wine
maybe some beef stock, probably not
1T tomato paste
1t fresh thyme
2 crumbled bay leaves (yes, crumbled)
4 cloves garlic, minced to a paste

small red potatoes

This is very easy but a bit time consuming. Prep will take 1-2 hours; unattended cooking, about 3 hours. It's also best to make the night before-- the flavors really develop overnight.

Step One: The bacon

Slice bacon into lardons-- thin (1/4") strips, cut the short way.
Put bacon in 1 1/2 quarts water and bring to a simmer. Simmer 10 minutes.
Drain and dry bacon. Heat a Dutch oven (or any heavy, large pot with a close-fitting lid) and saute bacon in 1T oil over medium heat until it browns and fat is rendered.
Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside

Step Two: Brown the meat

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Rinse meat and dry very well. Salt, pepper, and dredge in flour (shake off excess flour).
Heat rendered fat until very hot. Brown meat on all sides in batches (Do not crowd the pot, or the meat will not brown. It will steam and turn a nasty shade of gray and remind you of mystery meat served in a cafeteria you never even had.). If necessary, add more oil.
Set browned meat aside, with the bacon.

Step Three: Brown the veggies

In the fat left in the pot (add more oil if necessary), saute onions with a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to medium-low so that the onions release their moisture and become coated in the fond (browned bits). When there's no more moisture (and the onions are caramel colored), add the mushrooms and saute until dark, about 10 minutes. The mushrooms should release moisture as well, so you shouldn't have to add any oil. Adding salt will coax the water out.

Step Four: The wine

Put the bacon and meat back into the pot and stir. Add salt, pepper, and 2T flour. Mix and place in oven, uncovered, 4 minutes. Mix again and return to oven, 4 minutes. Remove.
Lower oven temp to 325 degrees.
Return pot to stove; pour in 1 bottle wine. If this doesn't cover the meat, add beef stock until meat is almost submerged. Add tomato paste, thyme, garlic, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil; simmer until alcohol evaporates, about 5 minutes.

Step Five: Cook

Place covered pot in 325 degree oven. If the lid isn't a good fit, place a sheet of aluminum foil into between pot & lid. Cook (check every so often to make sure it's simmering gently) until meat is fork-tender, about 3 hours. About 30 minutes before it's done, mix in the potatoes (which you've scrubbed and cleaned, of course) and let them cook with the stew. Don't overcook them-- the cool thing here is the textural and visual contrast between the firm potatoes that remain white inside and the gooey unctuous brown meat and sauce.

Step Six: Eat!

This is best done the next day but is fine anytime. Mmmmmm.

Oven Caramelized Carrots

Peel carrots if they're not organic. Quarter lengthwise and toss in a bowl with 2T olive oil, 1t coarse salt, 1T pepper, 1t sugar, 1T fresh chopped thyme to coat. Bake on a baking sheet, in one layer, at 425 degrees until brown and caramelized, about 30 minutes.

Cabbage Salad

Thinly slice (julienne) savoy cabbage, savoy lettuce (the purple stuff), a bell pepper, a carrot, fresh mint, and anything else that's tasty and crunchy and colorful. Dress with a vinaigrette of 3T fresh lemon juice (one large juicy lemon), 2T dijon mustard, and enough olive oil to emulsify. Let sit, dressed, at least 1 hour until cabbage wilts slightly and flavor develops.

Duck Confit with Caramelized Onions and Cabbage

I wouldn't recommend buying much food at Costco (or much of anything, in fact, since I do advocate supporting your local grocery). They have some good cheeses (their Manchego is particularly delicious), but who needs that kind of quantity? The only thing I use regularly is the tall plastic sea salt grinder they sell for $3-4. But recently it was brought to my attention that they have started to carry Grimaud Farms duck confit-- two legs, ready to heat and eat, for only $7. That, my friends, is reason alone to go to Costco.


Duck confit is normally served with roasted potatoes (roasted in duck fat!) or in cassoulet. Here, I serve it with a cabbage-onion hash, which has a nice crunch to match the crispy duck skin and offsets the richness of the duck.

You'll need (serves 2):

1 package duck confit (2 legs)
5 savoy cabbage leaves, washed and sliced thinly-- the easiest way to do this is to stack the leaves, fold them lengthwise, then slice
1 onion, sliced
1T grapeseed or canola oil
1t red wine vinegar
chopped herbs optional-- I used tarragon & thyme because they were going bad in the fridge

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat oil in a cast iron skillet. Add onions and a good pinch of salt; saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add cabbage, salt and pepper; drizzle with red wine vinegar. Saute until cabbage just wilts, 2-3 minutes. Push onions and cabbage to the side and place legs skin side up in center of skillet.


Cook in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until crispy.


Finish under broiler for maximum crispiness. Remove duck. Toss cabbage with rendered duck fat and fresh chopped herbs, if using. Serve duck on bed of cabbage.