Stuffed Cabbage

Stuffed cabbage is one of those dishes not very many Americans are familiar with, unless you had an immigrant mother. Since mine came from Europe, specifically Germany, where it’s called Krautwickel (or cabbage wrap), it was often on the menu at my house.  Stuffed cabbage is fairly common to the cuisines of the Balkans, Central, Northern Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan and Iran as well as West Asia and Northern China. I think it’s a shame that many people are unfamiliar with it because it’s good!

As with most dishes, the sauces, fillings and ingredients vary by region. Meat fillings are traditional in Europe. Often beef, lamb or pork are seasoned with garlic, onion and spices. Grains such as rice or barley, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables are also commonly included as filling. Vegetarian versions are most often found in Egypt.

The way they are typically made, and as the name implies, cabbage leaves are stuffed with a filling and then baked or simmered in a covered pot and eaten warm, often accompanied by a sauce. The sauce varies widely by culture. In Sweden and sometimes in Finland, stuffed cabbage is served with
lingonberry jam. In Eastern Europe, tomato sauces or plain sour cream are typical.

I will have to ask my mother for her recipe. I’m fairly certain she used ground beef and I know there was rice in there and we definitely had a tomato sauce with it. But other than that, I am not exactly sure how she made the sauce and what seasonings she incorporated. So, I was interested in making it recently and decided to see what recipes I could find that intrigued me.

Stuffed cabbage is described to have entered Jewish cooking some 2,000 years ago. Recipes there also vary depending on region: Romanians and Northern Poles prefer a savory sauce while Galicia (Northern Spain, I looked it up) and the Ukraine favor sweet and sour sauces.

I figured I couldn’t go wrong with Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, so I pulled up her recipe. She uses a sweet and sour sauce that involves brown sugar and raisins that she says is typically Jewish.
Although I couldn’t imagine liking a sweet and sour sauce over cabbage and meat, I decided to make it anyway, and sure enough I was not a huge fan of it. But what I did like was the meat part. So the next time I made it, I modified it to not be sweet because here is where I think the savory version is better. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:
3 Tbsp. good quality olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onion
2 (28-oz) cans crushed tomatoes and their juice
4 cloves minced fresh garlic
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 large head Savoy or green cabbage

For the filling:
2-1/2 lbs ground meat (I used a combination of ground turkey and pork but you could use all ground beef if you like)
3 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 cup plain dried breadcrumbs (see note below*)
1 tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and cook over medium-low heat for 8-10 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the core of the cabbage and immerse it into the water (that should be boiling by now) for a few minutes, peeling off each leaf with tongs as soon as it's flexible. Set the leaves aside. Depending on the size of each leaf, you will need at least 14 leaves.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For the filling, combine the ground meat with the rest of the filling ingredients. Add 1 cup of your homemade tomato sauce to the mixture and combine it all with a fork.

To assemble, place 1 cup of the sauce in the bottom of a large Dutch oven. Remove the hard triangular rib from the base of each cabbage leaf with a small paring knife. Place 1/3 cup of filling in an oval shape near the rib edge of each leaf and roll up toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll. Place half the cabbage rolls, seam sides down, over the sauce.

Alternately add more sauce and more cabbage rolls until you’ve placed all the cabbage rolls in the pot. Pour the remaining sauce over the rolls. Cover dish tightly with the lid and bake for 45 minutes, maybe an hour, until meat is cooked. Serve hot.

This dish is good with a salad to start it off with, and a glass of red wine.

Bon Appetit!

Salad Dressings

If you eat salads, there is nothing like a homemade dressing to toss it with. While there are countless dressings on the market to choose from, if you care about your health and are into quality ingredients like I am, you will avoid the vast majority of them.

What’s wrong with them? So many things! Most importantly, the oils they contain. They also usually have preservatives, thickeners that might not be ideal for people with digestive issues, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, soy lecithin, and far too much sodium.

Let’s start with the most important. Industrial vegetable oils, despite what you hear about canola and sunflower, are NOT good for you. These oils are mostly genetically-modified, over abundant in Omega-6 fatty acids, and chemically processed during the manufacturing process, and you should never consume them. Unfortunately, they creep up in so many processed foods on the market, like crackers and baked goods as well...another reason to be vigilant about reading food labels. One of my favorite health blogs, Wellness Mama, has perhaps one of the best articles I’ve read on why these oils should be avoided. Another good one comparing most of the common oils on the market today is this one from Mark Sisson. And Dr. Catherine Shanahan, nutrition consultant to the LA Lakers, has a handy chart to help identify which are good and which are to be avoided.

So what can we use and feel good about? Most of the ancestral health nutritionists agree on the following oils you can use without worry:

Coconut oil
Avocado oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Macadamia nut oil

Coconut oil, while great for high heat cooking, doesn’t work well in dressings because it needs to stay over 76 degrees to remain fluid. Coconut oil gets hard below that temperature, so unless you are leaving your dressing out at room temperature and your room is warm, it’s going to be a solid mass if you store it in the fridge. Not ideal for pouring over a salad!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Macadamia nut oil is also super good for you, but can be a little pricey. It is a delicious oil and one that would work really well on salads. Let your pocketbook decide.

So price-wise, avocado oil and olive oil are your best choices. If you can find a dressing, like from Primal Kitchen, that uses one of these 2, then fine. But they are pricey at $6 a bottle and honestly you can make these yourself for much, much less because you probably have most of these ingredients in your pantry already anyway.

Now, if you think you’re better off avoiding oils to begin with, you’re not. Studies have shown that fats - the healthy ones - are actually necessary on salads in order to fully absorb the nutrients in the vegetables. Plus, who wants to eat salad without oil? The mouthfeel of the oil really helps give the salad some “oomph”. It’s like the Emperor with no clothes. It’s naked without it!

While I’m not going to give you an actual recipe here, I am going to give you the basic formula for a well-constructed dressing so that you can make your own creation. The French, with their vinaigrettes, have the balance right:

Acid - 1 part (I usually start with 1/2-3/4 cup)
Oil - 2-3 parts
Good quality sea salt (I like pink Himalayan) and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Additional ingredients I nearly always add:
Herbs - 1/2 to 1 tsp of this or that, like dried oregano, basil, or thyme
Herbs - fresh, like parsley, chives or dill (just a little)
1 tsp. minced fresh garlic (or dried garlic powder if I’m in a rush)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Honey or a few drops of Stevia Glycerite

Lemon Garlic Salad Dressing

So I’ve talked about the oil. What do we mean by acid? It’s what helps round out the fat, giving the dressing a little edge. It could be lemon juice (a personal favorite), apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar or any other flavored vinegar. You pick. In the spring and summer, I like lemon. In the fall, I usually reach for apple cider or red wine vinegar. Or you could mix them.

Either way, here’s how to make one:
Grab a glass or stainless steel bowl and a whisk. Start with the acid and add that to the bowl. Now the  salt and pepper and herbs, the garlic, Dijon and honey and whisk that together. Lastly, the oil: add it in a slow, steady stream, while whisking the whole time. Maybe get someone else in the house to slowly pour it in while you hold the bowl with 1 hand and the whisk in the other! The Dijon will help emulsify the dressing, perfectly incorporating all the ingredients. The honey/stevia will take a little of the acidic edge off, smoothing out the flavors. The herbs add a fresh component (speaking of which, fresh dill is really lovely in dressings) which the garlic gives it a little punch. All around, a perfect combination for your lovely greens.

Another quick option is to use a glass jar with a lid, something you’ve recycled, like a jam jar or small Mason jar or something. Put everything in and shake it! That’s handy to take to work.

Alternative additions:
Instead of oil, you could use an avocado.
Instead of oil, you could use organic, full-fat yogurt, or buttermilk with a little sour cream.
Instead of the acids listed above, you could use a roasted tomato (with a little balsamic for a little extra boost).
In addition to the items above, you could add a Tbsp of grated Parmesan.

The sky’s the limit. Experiment and see what you like best. The important thing is that you use whole, unprocessed, real ingredients! No need to ever buy bottled dressings again.

Roasted Pork Loin with Root Veggies

As I become more and more concerned about the quality of the food I eat and where it comes from, I find I am eating less pork and beef and more wild caught seafood and organic vegetables. Organic pork is difficult to find unless you get it from a local producer, and by local, I mean within a 200 mile radius of L.A./Orange County, and I honestly don’t love grass-fed beef. I am so glad to see the stores carrying more grass-fed options. Clearly that means that there is a demand for it. That people are asking for it and the stores are sourcing it for us. It’s easier with beef, but I’m still having trouble finding pork that I am ok with.

That said, last week I found a brand of pork at the market that’s (supposedly) humanely and ethically raised, so I bought it, thinking “now’s my chance”. I do want to do further fact-checking into this company to find out exactly how “natural”, “humanely and ethically raised” their products really are.

Since it was sort of an impulse purchase, I hadn’t thought a recipe through yet, so I improvised when I got home, thinking of what I had on hand and how I wanted the final product to taste. I love pork with fruit or something sweet. Things like maple syrup, apricots, prunes, cherries, even sweet veggies like carrots and squashes go particularly well with pork.  I had some of these things at home and this is what I came up with. It’s perfect for cold evenings when you want comfort food. We loved it.

Roasted Pork Loin with Root Vegetables

Preheat the oven to 375F.

What you’ll need:
Pork Loin about 3-4 lbs.

Quantities of the following are approximate. Use more or less of an item as you see fit.

Make a paste out of the following:
2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. dry mustard
2-3 Tbsp. maple syrup

Rub this paste all over the pork.

Grab a Dutch oven or large covered casserole type dish that you can both use on the stovetop as well as place inside the oven. Turn on the heat to medium high and warm up on your stove top for about a minute. Now add some fat, in the form of bacon fat, butter, or olive oil. Sear both sides of the pork loin until nicely browned all over.

Remove the pork but leave the pot on the heat and add 1 large sliced onion, getting it nice and golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Add the following veggies, all chopped into medium-sized chunks, to the onion:
1 sweet potato
1-2 apples depending on size
3 carrots

Give it all a good stir for about a minute and then make a little well for the pork in the center. Return the pork back into the pot nestling it in between the veggies and cover. Place pot in preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes. Starting at the 30 min mark, remove lid and insert a meat thermometer. Continue cooking until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 145-150F. Do not overcook! A little hint of pink is ok. We want it to be juicy. Keep cooking uncovered for the next 10 minutes or so, or however long you need until the meat reaches the appropriate temperature. The veggies are going to be pretty soft, almost mashable.

Recent find: serve with Trader Joe’s apple cider jam, if they still have it. Last time I checked they were out. If it’s a seasonal thing and they are permanently out, not to worry, the dish has plenty of flavor so you don’t need it, but it’s pretty awesome with a little bit of this on the side.

Wine recommendation: your favorite red. Pinot Noir is mine. It’s lighter and therefore goes well with the fruity nature of the vegetables.