Old World Cabbage and Peppers

People ask me why I don't cook more food from my own ethnicity.  I'm Eastern European Jewish.  After growing up with borscht from a can and gefilte fish from a jar, I've become a little adverse to European Jewish food.  But, my wife and others have convinced me that I'm being silly.  I only remember the outrageously bad food, not the good stuff.  It'd be like my kids only remembering the spicy food I make and not the muffins, pancakes, cookies, waffles, mac&cheese or shrimp scampi.  I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say I'm being unfair to the memory of my grandmother, but perhaps I can take another look.

Someone remind me to post my recipe for "100 garlic chicken".

Cabbage with Green Peppers and Chicken Sausage
I chose to add chicken to this recipe, but it can be easily done as a vegetarian dish by simply leaving out the chicken.  Of course, true Jewish style would be to use schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) instead of olive oil.  But, hey, we've all got to die of something!  Apparently, we all die of heart disease.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs ground chicken
• 4 green peppers
• 1 head of white cabbage
• 1 large onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbs + 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp fennel seed
• 1tsp hot pepper flakes
• 1 tbs+1tsp caraway
• salt and pepper

Sausage Preparation
In a spice or coffee grinder toss in 1 tsp caraway, the fennel seed and the hot pepper flakes.  Grind to a powder.
Combine this, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp black pepper and 1 tsp garlic powder with the chicken
Using your hands, mix thoroughly
Clean your hands!

Directions
Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the chicken when hot
Brown, then remove, leaving some nice crunchy bits at the bottom
If there is not enough oil left, add some more
Slice the onions and peppers, mince the garlic and add these the skillet with some olive oil. 
Scrape the veggies against the bottom to loosen the crunchy bits.  If there's not enough liquid, deglaze the pan with some chicken broth or water.
Salt and pepper the veggies and cook until soft
Add in the remainder of the paprika and caraway and toss
Add the cabbage.  There will be a lot and it won't all fit.  That's okay, it will reduce in size.
Add enough water to the pan to cover the bottom with about 1/4 inch of water and increase the heat to high
Using tongs, if you have them, toss the cabbage with the onions and pepper.  This will help the cabbage cook and reduce
If you have cabbage that didn't fit in, add it as the cabbage in the pan reduces
Once all the cabbage is in the pan and softened, add the chicken sausage.  Make sure you get all the juice that have collected in the pan.
Adjust seasoning and serve over wide noodles.

Bourbon Chicken

When I have bell peppers to cook, one of my go-to recipes is this Bourbon Chicken.  It's healthy, filling and tastes amazing.  I love making it around my kids, because you can set the bourbon on fire and put on a good show!  Plus, it's easy and fast and only dirties one pan.

Bourbon Chicken
Ingredients

• 4 boneless chicken thighs, legs or breasts
• 3 bell peppers diced.  I use green because they're cheaper.
• 1 jalepeno or fresno pepper minced
• 1 onion diced
• 3 stalks celery diced
• 1/4 cup decent bourbon.  I like Bulliet and Knob Hill.
• 1 tbs corn starch
• 1 tbs flour
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbs paprika
• 1 tbs thyme
• 1 tsp rubbed or ground sage
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• salt and pepper
• vegetable oil

Directions
Combine the paprika, thyme, sage
Pour about half onto a plate, with the flour and 1 tsp salt, and reserve the other half
Dredge the chicken in the spice/flour mix
Heat 1 tbs veggie oil in a medium-hot pan and brown the chicken, both sides
Remove the chicken onto the plate

Add the peppers, onion, celery and another tsp of salt to the pan
Cook until soft
Add water and deglaze the pan.  You can use chicken broth here for extra flavor.

Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan
Add the bay leaf and 1/2 cup water and mix thoroughly
Turn on the stove's fan, reduce the flame to medium-low and  add the bourbon.
If you have kids to impress and a good fire extinguisher, you can set it on fire.
If it gets out of hand, dump some flour on it and call for pizza delivery


To make the sauce, combine the corn starch and sugar with 1/4 cup water
Mix thoroughly.  Work out all clumps.
Add it to the pan and return the heat to medium-high
Stir constantly until the sauce thickens.  If it thickens too much, add water.  Be careful not to burn it.  The sugar and the corn starch burn easily.

Serve over rice

Veggie Stew

I work for an organic produce delivery service.  Every week, our customers, of which I am one, get a box full of organic fruits and vegetables. Our boxes are very varied, and as a perk of working there I often to take home extra veggies.  At the end of the week I often have left-over vegetables. 

It's winter, and to me winter means stews.  Warm, filling but not heavy so you can eat it all night long while watching TV or curled up with a book.  I want warm, complex flavors and a thick broth.  I love making my soups!  Soups are one of the reasons I look forward to winter.

Pretty much all soups of mine start with a mire poix, which is celery, onions and carrots.  Plus,  I always use garlic.  Aside from the mire poix+garlic, the ingredients are all about what you have on hand.  Here's what I made last night.

Veggie Stew
Ingredients

• Mire Poix + Garlic
• 1 large onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 medium carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 2 small zucchini
• 4 small russet potatos
• 1 medium sweet potato
• The top half of a butternut squash
• 6 roman tomatoes
• 1 jalapeño pepper, diced
• Rubbed sage
• 3 bay leaves
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil

Preparation
I like rustic winter stews, so I cut the mire poix very roughly for this soup.
I don't like seeds floating around in my soup.  So, I removed the seeds from the zucchini, jalapeño pepper and tomatoes.  I also remove most of the pith of the pepper, because I don't want the soup to be too spicy.  I skinned the potatoes and squash and chopped into bite-sized pieces. 

Directions

• Soften the mire poix in a large pan with olive oil over high heat.  Try to get a little browning, but it's not important.  Salt and pepper liberally.
• Toss in the tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are soft and lose the raw, sour flavor.
• Add the sage and bay leaves and stir.
  
• Add the zucchini and toss until slightly softened.
• Add the potatoes and squash and stir.
• Cover with water.  You can use veggie broth, but I don't think it adds anything.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
• Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes and squash are soft. 

If the soup is too watery, you can thicken by adding a handful of left-over rice.  Or, you can add a cornstarch slurry (dissolve 1 tbs cornstarch in cold water) and mash a few of the potatoes.

If you don't have fresh tomatoes, canned tomato paste works excellently.  Add it after the mire poix is softened and cook it until the bottom of the pan is crusting up.  The longer you cook, the more it browns, the better it tastes.  Be careful not to burn it. 

If you want a smooth, thick soup, take a stick blender to it.  I can't find the one I have, but this one will work fine:  http://www.amazon.com/Proctor-Silex-59735-Immersion-Blender/dp/B00023XDJ0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1294010028&sr=8-4 .  Or, you can carefully pour it into a blender.  It's hot, don't let the liquid spew out when you turn it on!  Remember to remove the bay leaves first.

I added some smoked chicken from Wheat Ridge Poultry & Meat (29th and Depew in the Denver Highlands district).  I love their chicken!  It comes vacuum-sealed, so it stays well in the fridge.  And it makes the fridge smell awesome.

Waffles ala Liam

One of the things I love about the holidays is having time to spend at home with my kids and being able to cook with them in the morning.  It's a core belief of mine that every child should know how to cook at least breakfast and dinner by the time they enter high school.  The benefits are numerous.

• You spend good time with the kids
• They will tend to be more healthy because they know how to cook good food
• They will know how to feed themselves on a budget, thus will become less risk-adverse because they know the bottom isn't that bad.  You might as well start a company, because if you fail and have to eat on $10/week, you can still eat well. 
• They will always have a built-in stress relieving hobby.

I'm sure there are other advantages.

So, I cook waffles with my son, Liam.  While I cook, I babble on about how to make the waffles.  Sometimes he'll lose attention and wander off, and that's fine.

Cooking with Liam is kind of tough.  His hands aren't skilled enough to measure properly.  He's not strong enough to mash bananas or mix thick doughs.  Cooking breakfast with Liam is what drove me to perfect the "not-a-recipe pancakes" from last episode.  Waffles are basically the same recipe as pancakes, except waffles can stand more gluten, so I can let Liam mix it and still get a good product.

This requires a waffle maker.  I have this one. http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-WMR-CA-Round-Classic-Waffle/dp/B00006JKZN/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1293993974&sr=8-3 GoodWill usually has at least one, making this a great breakfast for someone on a tight budget. 

Waffles ala Liam
Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose white flour
• 2 over-ripe bananas (optional)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/4 cup coarse-grind whole grain corn meal
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 2 cups milk, spit into 1 and 1 cup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbs cinammon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• Salt

Preparation
Prepare the corn meal like in the last post.  1/4 cup corn meal to 1 cup milk, in a microwave-safe container.  Microwave at high for 3 minutes, stir and microwave for another minute.  Add some milk at the end to cool and loosen.

Heat the waffle iron.  I set mine on 4, your mileage may vary.

Directions
Stir the wet and dry ingredients separately.
In the big bowl, add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.  Add chocolate chips after everything else is combined.  In the medium-sized bowl, add the eggs, oil, sugar, salt, vanilla, bananas and milk.
Slowly beat in the corn meal.  Go real slow so you don't cook the eggs.
Pour the wet onto the dry and mix.  Try not to mix too much, but it's okay to be more vigorous than with muffins or pancakes.  Actually, a little gluten makes for a crisper waffle, so put a little muscle in it.
Dollop out onto the waffle iron.  It'll take some experimenting to get the right amount, but this should be enough batter to allow for some throw-aways.
Cook until the light turns green!