Cheesy Enchiladas with Tomatillo sauce

It all started when I was grocery shopping at Smart and Final, looking for a deal on Thanksgiving turkey, and found Queso Fresco Cacique for $1.28. Its a Mexican cheese made from milk that comes in a little round wheel. Its semi-firm so you can slice it or crumble it up. I figured it would be the start of a nice cheese enchilada or some stuffed chili peppers. I think I have a few peppers of some kind in the frig that had come in our SLO Veg box last week. I will have to look up their website to see exactly what kind of peppers they are. Ah, here is is: http://www.sloveg.com/eathealthy.cfm
"Fruit, Vegetable, Herb, and Juice List for 11/04/2013 - 11/08/2013 THIS WEEK'S TOTE INCLUDES:
New Specialty Item ~ 'Organic" Watercress, Red Leaf Lettuce, "Organic" Carrots, "Organic" Oregano, Golden Beets, Vine Ripened Tomatoes, Brussels Sprouts, Blue Lake Green Beans, Shanghai Bok Choy, Broccoli Crowns, Red Bell Peppers, Anaheim Peppers, Haas Avocado's, Sweet Oro Blanco Grapefruit, Black Beauty or Crimson Red Grapes"

I didn't find turkeys on sale yet at the first store, so I ended up at Food 4 Less, picking up some celery and carrots and potatoes to have on hand for our upcoming feast. I know its a little early, but those vegies keep for quite a while so I think I am okay. If I use up the potatoes in the next two weeks, I can always get some more. I am sure they will be giving them away in another week.

Anyway, back to the cheese. I wanted a green enchilada sauce for them. Tomatillo sauce, particularly. I almost bought some at the store, but then I saw the tomatillos! They were a bargain price of $1.38/lb. It was mid-afternoon, but I was sure I could make some fresh tomatillo sauce for the enchiladas by dinner time. When I got home I brought in my groceries and googled a recipe. This one from Melissa D'Arabian on the Food Network looked perfect!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/tomatillo-sauce-recipe/index.html

Quite possibly the most delicious sauce in the whole wide world is a fresh tomatillo green sauce made with roasted tomatillos, garlic, onions and peppers. Its a super simple sauce as well. I put a whole head of garlic and a quartered peeled onion on a baking sheet, along with four Anaheim green peppers and about a dozen tomatillos, husks off. I popped it into a 400° oven and forgot about it for 30 minutes while I prepared my rice pilaf, carrots and broccoli, and rolled up the cheese enchiladas. I had picked up one of those roasted whole chickens at the store as well, so this dinner was pulling together.

The tomatillos went right into the blender, followed by the other vegies after I had skinned them. The garlic was so done it just squeezed out of the pods like a paste. It all got pureed and seasoned with salt, pepper and lime juice. That's it! I gave Lee a spoonful to taste when he walked in the door. Oh yeah!

I had a pint jar of sauce left after I smothered the enchiladas in it

*****************************

Tomatillo Sauce

Ingredients

1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 Anaheim chile, seeded, deveined
1 white onion, quartered
*1/2 jalapeno chile, seeded, deveined
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for sprinkling
Juice from 1/2 lime

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the tomatillos, garlic, Anaheim chile, onions and jalapeno on a baking sheet. Toss the vegetables with the oil, salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables until the tomatillos turn a dark-green color and the onions golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Let the vegetables cool slightly. Peel the garlic and transfer all the ingredients to a blender. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the lime juice and sprinkle with more salt and pepper.

The tomatillo sauce can be made 1 day ahead, covered and chilled.

*Note: I didn't have a jalapeno pepper to put into the sauce today, and I think I prefer it without it. Super mild green sauce this way.

Dinner included cheese enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, rice pilaf, roasted chicken and steamed broccoli and carrots.

Asian Red Cabbage Coleslaw

Asian Red Cabbage Slaw: The final product ready for transporting to the barbecue.

I am seeing red this morning: red cabbage, red onion, red mixing bowl, red chopping board...all because I am making a cabbage slaw to take to a Memorial weekend barbecue.

Red cabbage came in our weekly delivery from SLO Veg and it was one huge head of cabbage! I opted to use red instead of green because I thought it would look more American. I should note here that the red cabbage and red onion are actually a shade of purple Sigh! I perused the Pinterest and found several variations, but the Asian version sounded just perfect to accompany the barbecue host's pork loin roast. I was actually going to host the barbecue, but then I got a better offer. I am no dummy. I also opted to make a batch of baked beans, al la Pioneer Woman style, but that is for another blog entry.

Anyway, back to the slaw: I had red cabbage, red onion, green onions, shredded carrots and that fennel bulb that I had been carving on for several days. Fennel is a pretty strong flavor, and a little can go a long way. But chopped up in a slaw would give it a nice fresh, interesting punch, I thought.

I began by assembling all the vegetables and the dressing ingredients. I had rice vinegar, lime juice, sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, coriander seeds and ground ginger. In a perfect world I would have fresh ginger and cilantro leaves, but this was the best I could do today. Besides, I get to use my mortar and pestle to smash the coriander seeds, so that would be fun. Oh holy senses, Batman, was it ever fragrant, too! 

I peeled off the outermost leaves of the cabbage and then proceeded to halve it with my Cutco santuko knife. Cutco offers two lengths and we got the shorter knife, but now I was wishing for the longer one because this one didn't reach all the way through this huge head of cabbage. (Birthday present hint!) I ended up taking out my old Viking butcher knife and finishing the job. Then I used the santuko to carefully slice a half head of cabbage, split into smaller wedges, into slaw. I got to use my big red Tupperware bowl, the one that comes out on holidays when preparing large batches of salads, whether it be green, red, potato, macaroni or pasta. Back in the day, I would bring my salad in that bowl and serve out of it, because we might have a crowd of 50-60 relatives to feed. But today we were going to a much smaller gathering, and I just needed to mixed my slaw without dumping it all over the countertop and then I put it into a smaller container for transporting. 

Next I mixed up the dressing: 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and lime juice, 2 teaspoons white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, smashed. I mixed this up, then added a bit more soy sauce and sugar, so probably 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 4 teaspoons sugar, total. I stirred it all up and poured it over the cabbage mixture, then sprinkled on some coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper and stirred it all up. The red bowl really was handy!

I think the salad turned out to be light, refreshing and pretty! I can't wait for dinner time!

ASIAN RED CABBAGE COLESLAW

Dressing:

3 Tbs rice vinegar,

2 Tbs soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp lime juice

4 tsp white sugar

1/2 tsp ground ginger (fresh grated ginger would be nicer)

1 tsp coriander seeds, smashed (fresh cilantro would be nice, too)

Slaw:

1/2 large head red cabbage, sliced

1/2 large red onion, chopped

2 green onions, diced

1/2 c carrots, shredded

1/4 c fennel, sliced and diced

Prepare vegetables and put into a large mixing bowl. Mix together dressing ingredients and pour over vegetables. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until serving time. 

Makes about 12-15 servings

Salsa Beans with Bell Peppers and Anaheim Chilies

We're having a big family potluck barbecue this weekend and I volunteered to make a batch of beans for the barbecue. It's pretty common our area to serve Santa Maria-style barbecued beef tri-tip, pinquito chili beans, and garlic french bread at a barbecue. You just can't beat good beef tri-tip cooked slow over an oak barbecue pit. 

One of my brothers-in-law, Don, used to make a good salsa bean recipe using Sun Vista canned pinto beans, Ortega tomato salsa and Italian stewed tomatoes. He was very brand-specific. He would add browned hamburger with onions and green bell peppers. He used a special seasoning salt blend that a friend of his concocted, and we always kept a supply of "Fiscalini's seasoning" on hand and used it for everything. Its kind of like Lawry's, but with more salt, pepper and granulated garlic.

Another brother-in-law, Gary, made the traditional Santa Maria-style pinqinto beans, using the small pintos, but that was a whole other batch of beans. He used dried pinquitos to start with, and it was an all day affair. http://americanfood.about.com/od/saladsandsidedishes/r/Santa_Maria_Beans.htm

I use to make my own version of the first kind of salsa chili beans in large quantities for all our family barbecues when my kids were growing up, but nowadays the dynamics of the family have changed and we don't have big family barbecues every weekend like we use too. The trick is, when making beans for a crowd they can't be too hot, but they need to have flavor. When I make beans these days, I can make smaller batches and experiment a lot.

I prefer making chili with black beans, because they have more fiber and I like the taste better than pinto beans. I will mix some black beans in with the pintos for this batch, mostly for color. Also, I recently acquired another local rancher's seasoning blend (Perozzi family), which is similar to Santa Maria-style seasoning, but a little heavier on the pepper and garlic. So this weekend I am going to make a batch of salsa beans, sans hamburger meat, and heavy on the onions and bell peppers, for our family picnic. I want to keep it vegetarian for the non-meat eaters in our clan. My audacious barbecue-master brother will be barbecuing enough beef and chicken to satisfy the meat lovers. He is barbecuing a whole top block, or "sirloin", for the big day, along with his specialty chicken thighs.

Anyway, I got my basic ingredients: Ranch-style pinto beans, black beans, and salsa. It's not Ortega salsa, but I couldn't find any of that. I don't have any Italian stewed tomatoes, either, so I plan to add a can of diced tomatoes and a big pinch of dried Italian seasoning. I began by dicing an onion and a bell pepper. I first tasted, then chopped up one of the other peppers that came in our SLO Veg box this week. I am not sure what kind of pepper it is, but its not a jalapeno or a serrano or a Fresno chili. I got a few of those, also, but they are not for this batch of beans. I think the ones I used are just called green chili peppers, or Anaheim chilies. Pretty mild, like the diced Ortega chilies in a can, which is what I used when I don't have fresh chilies. http://phoenix.about.com/od/foodanddrink/ss/chilepepper_8.htm?utm_term=types%20of%20green%20peppers&utm_content=p1-main-3-title&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=msn&utm_campaign=adid-5f316501-8c25-43a5-8e64-299d7923322f-0-ab_msb_ocode-5995

I pre-fried the onions and peppers until they were soft and slightly browned to bring out a lot of flavors. Then I simply open my cans of beans, drained off some of the liquid, and pour them into the crock pot. I will add diced tomatoes, some salsa and a tablespoon of tomato paste and stir it all together and let it cook low and slow until it is time to eat. Everyone always like these beans, and it can't get much easier.

My recipe is:

1 yellow onion, diced

1 Anaheim green chilies, diced

1 green bell pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 gallon pinto beans, UN-drained

(I used ranch-style today, because I like their sauce)

1 28-oz can black beans, drained

1 cup canned salsa

1 15-oz can diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon chili powder

1-2 teaspoons seasoning blend (I used Perozzi's private blend. You can use Lawry's  or Santa Maria-style seasoning)

Empty crock? Does that mean they liked it???

Crockpot Soup with Potatoes and Roasted Cauliflower

It's weird how some days I can spend so much time cooking, and other days I have no time at all and want something quick. We have pizza once a week just because, but the other six nights its something homemade, unless we get invited to someone elses place. If it's my brother CC, then we get some aged beef on the barbecue, and it's delicious! If it's at either of my daughters' place, we get a big green salad with something I probably made and brought over, like lasagna, because I don't want them have to go to any trouble or expense.

This vessel right here is my favorite cooking appliance

Made this the other night. Have about half leftover.

Anyway, today I am off work, and my husband is at work. Perfect day to clean house, right? Uh huh. So here I am, watching Hoda and Kathie Lee and blogging about food. I don't get another fresh vegetable box delivered from SLO Veg until Monday, so I am using what I have. A survey of the frig shows some leftover mashed potatoes, some butternut squash pasta (Taylor really loves it and will eat it today for his lunch, or breakfast, or brunch, or whatever you call it when someone wakes up and eats midday), and a half of a whole roasted cauliflower and three carrots. It was part a great fish and veggie dinner the other night, but just the hub and I were home, so there was a lot left. (Hardest part of meal planning is knowing for sure how many eaters I might have.) Hmmm...I could just throw the potatoes and the cauliflower into the crock pot and in three or four hours I will have Roasted Cauliflower and Potato soup, right? Right! 

I browse Pinterest for a few recipes and decide I am right on track. There a dozens of pins for cauliflower soup which must be all the rage right now. Most are substituting cauliflower for potatoes in hopes of have a slightly more healthy cream soup. But after talking with a dietician this week, my hub (who has been advised to monitor his blood sugar levels) and I learned that a carb is a carb is a carb. Blood sugars fluctuate more from carbs than anything else. Portion size is the key. A small potato is one carb serving. A giant potato equal three or four carb servings. One carbohydrate serving equals 15 grams of carbohydrates. She said everyone is different, so some people may tolerate one source of carbs better than the next person. She said just count your carbs--four servings allowed per meal, one for snacks. Beer counts as carbs. And cheese is a protein. Done. That was easy.

Literally just threw it all in the crock pot

So, back to the soup, where I have a big head start in using leftover roasted vegetables. I dumped in the container of potatoes, the half head of cauliflower, the three roasted carrots, some chopped red onion and two cloves of mashed garlic. Then I added two cups of chicken broth that I had stashed in the freezer. After looking at some other recipes, I might add some Dijon mustard and hot sauce for a little spike. I will blend it together with an immersion blender and stir in some shredded cheese until it all melts. I have some in the frig that is a mix of cheddar and Monterey jack cheese. I checked out my plastic storage containers, which all have measurements listed on them. The potato container is four cups. There is about 2 cups worth of cauliflower there. One half cup of cooked vegetables counts as one carb, so it all depends of how many cups of soup we consume. Two cups of soup is the whole meal, or one and a half cups of soup plus one beer. Its interchangeable. That's it. Soups on!

My soup was kind of chunky, but you can use an immersion blender to smooth it out if you like.

Here is the recipe I modeled from Aris Menu:

Roasted Cauliflower Soup 
http://arismenu.com/roasted-cauliflower-soup/

Ingredients

• 1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into small florets
• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 4 tbsp olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 3 cups mashed potatoes
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp honey dijon mustard 
• 3-4 dashes of your favorite hot sauce (I used McClintocks)
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese
• 
  

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Add cauliflower and garlic to a very large baking dish. Drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil and season with a generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Bake until browned and softened, about 30 minutes.
2. In a large pot, heat 1-2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Cook until tender and fragrant, about 7 minutes.
3. Add broth. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Stir in mashed potatoes.
4. Add cooked cauliflower and garlic scraping baking dish well into the pot. Add turmeric and curry powder, salt and pepper. Add mustard and hot sauce.
5. Puree using an immersion blender, high quality stand blender (will likely need to do in batches), or food processor (will also likely require multiple batches. Return to heat and stir in cheese. Add extra salt and pepper if desired. Serve immediately. Leftovers may be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week

Note: When Lee checked his blood sugar  2 hours after dinner, it was high. I might make this soup again without all the potatoes and see what the results will be.

Whole Dang Roasted Cauliflower

Posted on 1/21/15: I've got to make this Cauliflower recipe...tonight. I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and it has been haunting me!

http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/cauliflower-recipe-youve-never-seen/spicy-whole-roasted-cauliflower-recipe

I finally made that whole dang roasted cauliflower last week..and some carrots. I was going to make it with the pristine white head of cauliflower that came in our box one week ago. Then I procrastinated, forgot about it, and didn't make it until three or four days later. My cauliflower had a few brownish spots by that time, but it was just that, no mold, (sometimes they get black moldy spots if you don't use them soon enough) so I covered it with the sauce and it was glorious. See, the whole thing gets smeared with a spicy yogurt and roasted in the oven for 35-40 minutes, making a tasty golden yogurt crust on the cauliflower. I coated some fresh whole carrots with olive oil and sprinkled them with coarse sea salt and roasted them right alongside. Delish-e-o-so!

I found the roasted cauliflower recipe in Shape magazine, so eat it and it will make you fit and trim, got it? (Well, we try! I think they meant for us to actually try the exercises, too.) On this night, I paired the cauliflower with some pan-fried fresh swordfish, roasted carrots and mushroom quinoa. The fish was dipped in a seasoned flour and pan friend in butter and olive oil, then topped with a butter sauce consisting of the pan drippings, sea salt and pepper, grated lemon peel, lemon juice, chopped parsley and minced garlic. I swear I would have eaten the entire head of cauliflower, if not for all the other foods on my plate. Confession: I didn't finish all of my delicious shark...and the quinoa was another story. I had to toss out my thyme seasoning that I put into the quinoa dish, along with the entire dish, because I think the thyme went moldy. It sure tasted that way, anyhow. Yuck! Okay, let's go back to the cauliflower.

Spicy Whole Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 head cauliflower
• 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
• 1 lime, zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon chile powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a small baking sheet with vegetable oil. Set aside.
2. Trim the base of the cauliflower to remove any green leaves and the woody stem.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt with the lime zest and juice, chile powder, cumin, garlic powder, curry powder, salt and pepper.
4. Smear the cauliflower with the yogurt sauce.
5. Place the cauliflower on the prepared baking sheet and roast until the surface is dry and lightly browned, 30 to 40 minutes. The marinade will make a crust on the surface of the cauliflower.
6. Let the cauliflower cool for 10 minutes before cutting it into wedge.

You should really check out the link and look at the photo from the magazine, because mine do not do justice. Its really pretty. When you want to impress some dinner guests, this is what you should make. Here is the link, again.
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/healthy-recipes/cauliflower-recipe-youve-never-seen/spicy-whole-roasted-cauliflower-recipe

Sick Day Ramen Noodles

Laying in bed today with the cat, sick with a cold, and its my regular day off. I should be cleaning the house, doing laundry, reorganizing the closets, or something productive...I can't even have a productive cough today! Actually, I should be holding my four-week-old grandson and cooing at him, but I can't go see him...because I am sick.

Everybody is this house has had it, but I swore it wouldn't affect me! I tried. I took my vitamins, ate lots of oranges, and got fresh air, but they got me. My husband is actually sicker than I am. He went to the doctor earlier in the week and was told he was in the early stages of pneumonia. At least he got antibiotics for that. But he had to go in to work this week. At least I have the option of taking some sick days if I need them. Tomorrow is my "Monday", so I am holding out until later to see how I feel. That's what a "menial" clerical job with a government agency will do for you.

I am drinking chai tea, because I don't have any more ginger tea, and making ramen noodles dressed up with fresh vegetables: carrots, onions, celery, parsley and cilantro. Its my best effort to combat this cold. My trick is: I chop the vegetables and put them into the saucepan of boiling water and let them cook for a few minutes. Then I add the seasoning packet and the noodles, stir it around to break up the noodles, and put then lid on the pan and turn off the heat. Five minutes later, its perfect. I used the whole beef-flavored seasoning packet, too. If the preservatives in that don't kill this illness, I don't know what else will.

It looks pretty good, right? I actually really crave this sometimes. Salty noodles with some crunchy fresh vegetables. I should have added some turmeric for its health benefits! Dang, next time. I even found a recipe site for more insipiring ideas with ramen noodles: http://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/7-ways-with/7-easy-ramen-noodle-recipes#7-ways-with-ramen-noodles-intro

(Sorry its not a hyper-link or whatever you call it. I can't do that feature on my cell phone or tablet, and I am not getting out of bed to fire up the desktop to edit this post.)

Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls

Today I found a recipe for deconstructed cabbage rolls. http://www.giverecipe.com/unstuffed-cabbage-casserole.html The author is Turkish and she was trying for the flavors her Turkish grandmother created in cabbage rolls. One difference from what I am used to is she added dried mint to her meat mixture, so I might try that today. Unstuffed cabbage. I noticed a lot of times people eat the filling out of the rolls and leave the cabbage, so this way maybe with the cabbage incorporated more into the entire dish, it will be more palatable. Eat the cabbage, man! It's healthy!

SLO Veg came through with all the essentials for my Ukrainian cabbage rolls

As I am sure I have mentioned a thousand times, my Mom was an American-born Ukrainian, and her signature recipe was stuffed cabbage rolls, which she called "holopschi" (or holubsti). Its what she made for every church potluck, family picnic, or large gathering, because she could make one or two large pans full and tote it to wherever we were going. I remember church potlucks becoming a smorgasborg of cultural dishes, from the Filipino pot stickers, Italian spaghetti and meatballs, Greek dolmas, Irish potatoes and Polish perogies. Our town was a bit of a melting pot, and each lady would always bring her specialty--it was expected. "Our next potluck dinner will be __________". "Mary, are you going to bring your cabbage rolls?"

My new cookbook

My Mom's birthday was in February, and its the perfect time of year to celebrate her heritage in our family by having a Ukrainian-themed family potluck in her memory. My brother makes his version of cabbage rolls, spicing it up with sausage, while my sister likes to make borscht. I usually make sides and desserts. I have been trying different recipes that I find online, but this year I received a cookbook gift from a cousin in Philly, "Ukrainian Cuisine", by Bohdan Zahny, featuring a huge assortment of dishes from appetizers to desserts. It gives a good feel for the hearty type of foods the Ukrainians eat, with lots of pork, veal, fish, eggs, rice and millet, cabbage, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, carrots and potatoes. Sauces are creamy, using sour cream or mayonnaise and seasonings are basically salt, pepper, dill, parsley, and lemon. Sweeteners are usually honey or raisins and a lot of recipes call for Farmer's cheese, which I guess is similar to cottage cheese. 

Simple cabbage rolls

While the cookbook features over a dozen recipes for borscht and even more fillings for vareniky (filled dumplings similiar to perogies), I was disappointed to find only two recipes for stuffed cabbage rolls, and they were both very simply seasoned with salt, pepper and vinegar. My Mom didn't have a recipe; she tried to recreate the dish her mother had made so often when she was growing up in Philadelphia in the 1920-30s, where they lived amidst a Ukrainian population in their neighborhood. After moving across the country with my Dad, she didn't have anyone to ask, as the small West Coast town we lived in didn't have any Ukrainians other than my Mom that we knew about. Mom seasoned her filling with onion, garlic, oregano, dill or thyme. She cooked the ground beef first and then mixed it with the cooked rice, whereas a lot of recipes I see call for raw hamburger formed into little balls, then wrapped in cabbage and baked for a longer amount of time. She usually made her sauce with tomato soup mixed with sour cream, but I am sure my Grandmother didn't have Campbell's tomato soup back in the 1920s. Sometimes Mom added cheddar cheese to the top, but I don't think that is all that traditional. I have seen recipes with a brown gravy, slices of bacon, tangy tomato sauce spiked with lemon, or just bare, with maybe a squeeze of lemon. Here is another Holubsti recipe I found online that sounds more like what Mom made, except for she seasoned her's more: http://www.ukrainianclassickitchen.ca/index.php?topic=5815.0

Note: this site contains a variety of cabbage roll recipes, some meatless. This author is a Canadian Ukrainian, and she says recipes vary a lot by region, as it does in the Ukraine and surrounding countries. Makes sense.

I started by browning the ground beef and seasoning it with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. Then I added a mirepoix of onions, celery and carrots, along with some freshly minced garlic and let that all cook together to blend all those wonderful vegetable flavors with the meat. I added one can of diced tomatoes, one can tomato sauce, and one cup of chicken broth. Meanwhile, I had a pot of water boiling and blanched the cabbage for one minute, then chopped it up and stirred it in with the meat mixture. I added a little more salt-pepper-garlic seasoning, a tablespoon of dried oregano and a pinch of dried mint, and gave it a taste. Oh, lemon juice! I sliced one of my beautiful Femminello Italian lemons that came in yesterday's box delivered by SLO Veg, and squeezed the juice into the mixture.

So let's see: I have Turkish mint flavoring with Mexican oregano and Italian lemon. Nothing especially Ukrainian, but from the recipe I found in the Ukrainian Cuisine cookbook, those rolls seem so nondescript they need some influence. They don't even have any tomatoes, for crying out loud! There are plenty of other recipes to try in this cookbook, starting with the borscht. But that's a blog for another day. Or the archives, because I have blogged about it before. Whatever suits your fancy! Maybe I will research the dumplings some more. That could become my Ukrainian speciality! Even though my mother never made them that I can recall. One of my brother's comment last year, "I don't remember Mom ever making vareniky." True, that. Sigh!

When I tasted my mixture today, it was good. I guess I could have used dill instead of mint for a little more tradtional Ukrainian taste, but this was fresh and tangy and satisfying. I put it into a glass casserole dish and will heat it up later tonight for our dinner. Some rye bread rolls would sure be good to go along with this. My Mom loved her dark rye bread, for sure. I miss my Mom!

Deconstructed Cabbage Rolls

1 head green cabbage
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1/2 yellow onion
3 ribs celery, with leaves
3 carrots
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 tsp. Santa-Maria style seasoning blend
     (salt-pepper-granulated garlic)
2 cups cooked rice

15 oz. can diced tomatoes
6 oz. can tomato paste
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried dill (or mint, if you prefer)
1 cup chicken broth
juice of one lemon

1) Prep the vegetables: slice and chop the onion, celery and carrots. Minced the fresh garlic.
2) Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the cabbage for one minute. (I halved the cabbage so I could slice it up more easily after.) Let cool in a strainer, then quarter and slice into ribbons.
3) Put a swirl of olive oil in a saute pan and brown the ground beef on medium heat. Season with 1 tsp. Santa Maria-style seasoning. Add the mirepoix (onion, celery, carrots) and the minced garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the rice, tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, dill and chicken broth. Squeeze in the lemon juice. Add the chopped cabbage and cook for a few more minutes, adding more salt and pepper to taste.
4)Put some olive oil in the bottom of a glass casserole dish. Spread the meat and cabbage mixture in the dish. At this point, you could top it with some grated cheese or more tomato sauce with a little lemon juice mixed into it, or a sour cream and mushroom gravy sauce. Heat in the oven for 30 minutes.