My mom is the only person I know who makes cabbage rolls like this - sweet and sour. It's also a wonderful comfort food. If painstakingly dissecting a cabbage, then using the leaves to hand roll these treats isn't love, I don't know what is!
I find the process of peeling away the cabbage leaves, without ripping them, strangely meditative.
If your loved ones don't like raisins, brown sugar and lemon juice in their cabbage (Leon doesn't), just leave them out. You can add it to your serving at the last minute if you have to. I think this recipe, which includes onions in the beef, has some zing that I don't find in the halupkis made at local church picnics around Berwick and Bloomsburg, even without the raisins, sugar and lemon juice.
Ingredients:
1 large, loose head of cabbage.
2 TB oil
2 sliced onions
2 large cans of tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
3 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 pound ground beef
3 Tbs. rice, cooked al dente
4 Tbs. grated onion
1 egg
3 Tbs cold water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup seedless golden raisins
1. Cook the rice
2. Cook the cabbage. You can boil it for an hour. Or you can stick it in the microwave with a little water and steam it until leaves are soft enough to gently separate. Run it under cold water when you're done, either way.
3. Heat oil in a really LARGE pot. Lightly brown the sliced onions. Then add the tomatoes and mash them. Add 1/2 of the salt and pepper. Cook on low for 30 minutes.
4. While the tomatoes cook, mix the beef, rice, grated onion, egg and water. Roll the mixture into a ball and put in the curve of a cabbage leaf. Tuck in the sides around the meatball and then roll it up, like a burrito.
5. Place the rolls in the sauce. Cover and simmer for 1.5 hours.
6. Add the brown sugar, lemon juice and raisins to taste. Cook 30 minutes longer.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Mom's magnificent noodle kugel
My mom sometimes makes this sweet kugel recipe as a main course - heaven knows it has enough calories to be a whole meal. She got the recipe from my Great Aunt Lillian, whose photo oversees my kitchen. I find noodle kugel is also a great breakfast, even served cold! It's a great comfort food, reminded me of home. It's also easy and fairly fast to make.
I've added one tweak to it over the years - the cornflakes (or rice flakes) coating the top. I picked up this trick from Norman Mael, our synagogues premier chef. I find it prevents the top noodles from burning, plus gives the kugel a satisfying crunch. The only problem is if you can't serve it straight out of the oven. The corn flakes get soft over time. But it'll still be tasty!
Last time I served this was at our synagogue's pot luck Rosh Hashanah picnic at the Bloomsburg town boat launch. The day reaffirmed the benefits of living in a small town - particularly THIS small town.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration. An optional ceremony for it is a Tashlich service, which involves throwing bread into a body of water to symbolically throw away your sins. I thought having the potluck immediately afterward, in the picnic pavilion by the boat launch, would be a grand way to celebrate the holiday.
But I misremembered the number of picnic tables under the pavilion.
I thought there were four. There were only two - not enough for a congregation picnic. I discovered my error the day before, during a morning jog past the pavilion. It was too late to move locations. I didn't have a truck to haul the tables from the synagogue there, and they're tough to maneuver out of the basement anyway.
So Leon went to the town crew's building and told them my dilemma. And by the next morning, those wonderful people used heavy equipment to bring two more tables to the pavilion there. Yay, Bloomsburg!
Ingredients:
1 package of wide egg noodles, cooked al dente according to package directions.
Three eggs
1/2 C sugar
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1/2 pint sour cream (1 Cup)
1/4 pound cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small can of crushed pineapple
golden raisins to taste (I use at least a cup)
1.5 C crushed cornflakes (optional)
cinnamon to taste.
1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cook noodles al dente, according to the package directions.
2. Beat eggs well. Add 1/4 Cup sugar, the cottage cheese, the sour cream, the cream cheese, the vanilla and the crushed pineapple. Mix.
3. Add the egg mixture to the cooked noodles. Mix. Add the raisins.
4. Crush the corn flakes - I use a rolling pin. Mix with the rest of the sugar and the cinnamon until you like the taste. In a pinch - or if you misread the label - you can also use Special K rice flakes. Spread the corn flakes on top of your kugel.
If you don't use cornflakes, just mix the sugar and cinnamon and spread that over the top of the kugel.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
I've added one tweak to it over the years - the cornflakes (or rice flakes) coating the top. I picked up this trick from Norman Mael, our synagogues premier chef. I find it prevents the top noodles from burning, plus gives the kugel a satisfying crunch. The only problem is if you can't serve it straight out of the oven. The corn flakes get soft over time. But it'll still be tasty!
Last time I served this was at our synagogue's pot luck Rosh Hashanah picnic at the Bloomsburg town boat launch. The day reaffirmed the benefits of living in a small town - particularly THIS small town.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year celebration. An optional ceremony for it is a Tashlich service, which involves throwing bread into a body of water to symbolically throw away your sins. I thought having the potluck immediately afterward, in the picnic pavilion by the boat launch, would be a grand way to celebrate the holiday.
But I misremembered the number of picnic tables under the pavilion.
I thought there were four. There were only two - not enough for a congregation picnic. I discovered my error the day before, during a morning jog past the pavilion. It was too late to move locations. I didn't have a truck to haul the tables from the synagogue there, and they're tough to maneuver out of the basement anyway.
So Leon went to the town crew's building and told them my dilemma. And by the next morning, those wonderful people used heavy equipment to bring two more tables to the pavilion there. Yay, Bloomsburg!
Ingredients:
1 package of wide egg noodles, cooked al dente according to package directions.
Three eggs
1/2 C sugar
1/2 pound cottage cheese
1/2 pint sour cream (1 Cup)
1/4 pound cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small can of crushed pineapple
golden raisins to taste (I use at least a cup)
1.5 C crushed cornflakes (optional)
cinnamon to taste.
1. Butter a 9x13 inch baking pan. Cook noodles al dente, according to the package directions.
2. Beat eggs well. Add 1/4 Cup sugar, the cottage cheese, the sour cream, the cream cheese, the vanilla and the crushed pineapple. Mix.
3. Add the egg mixture to the cooked noodles. Mix. Add the raisins.
4. Crush the corn flakes - I use a rolling pin. Mix with the rest of the sugar and the cinnamon until you like the taste. In a pinch - or if you misread the label - you can also use Special K rice flakes. Spread the corn flakes on top of your kugel.
If you don't use cornflakes, just mix the sugar and cinnamon and spread that over the top of the kugel.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)