Numbers

Izabella at Four Years

Height  41.5 inches  83%
Weight  41.25 pounds 87%
BMI 16.9  86%
Blood Pressure 111/88 (Right arm, sitting)

Again, Paprikas

1 onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 carrot, grated
1 cup diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon paprika
4 legs, 4 thights (skin removed)
2 teaspoons salt
I tried my mother-in-laws thickener but felt it was not successful.  So I ended up removing the chicken and boiled down the sauce.  I then poured it over the chicken to serve.

This was the most successful iteration yet.  Thighs are definitely juicier than breasts.  Just saying.

Paprikas A Third Time

The third attempt at this recipe was a step backward.  The paprika tasted harsh, a bit bitter.

The only major difference I made was to include an entire can of diced tomatoes, which I did only because I hate to waste half a can of tomatoes.  Perhaps it was too much acidity.  Also my attempts have not thickened properly.  Perhaps I might have to try a roux instead of my mother-in-law's thickener with egg yolk, flour, and milk.  

Also we are in agreement that the paprikas would be better with thighs and breast meat on the bone.  The skinless chicken breasts end up being too tough.  We think that the chicken should melt into the sauce.  So perhaps next time I'll go back to 7 ounces of diced tomatoes and use thighs instead, as well as a roux to thicken it.

1 onion

1/2 large red pepper

1 large carrot

3 large chicken breasts (1.8 pounds)

1 can diced tomatoes (14 ounces, drained of liquid)

1 teaspoon sweet paprika

20 minute simmer

add thickener, strained
1 teaspoon salt

Paprikas Waban Style

I have just completed my second attempt at chicken paprikas and have revised the recipe thus:

1 onion
1/2 large red pepper
1 large carrot
3 large chicken breasts (1.8 pounds)
half a can of diced tomatoes (7 ounces, drained of liquid)
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
20 minute simmer
add thickener, strained
1 teaspoon salt

Stuffed Cabbage, Version Two

Here is the recipe as it evolved after my first attempt on Christmas:

1 head cabbage, leaves steamed off and remainder diced
2 x 25 ounce jars sauerkraut

Filling:
1 large onion
1/3 cup white rice
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 pounds ground pork
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Sauce:
oil (for roux)
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 6 ounce jars of tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste if needed
2 bay leaf
2 teaspoons dried majoram leaves

Also contemplate adding sausage or bacon to pot.

In the meantime we discovered that you can buy pickled cabbage leaves at a local Russian grocery market.  Originally my mother-in-law said this recipe was impossible without this ingredient.  Since we found it I thought we had to give a go.

So here is what I am currently brewing:

1 47.6 ounce (2 lbs. 15.6 oz.) jar of Cabbage Leaves---The brand we found is Marco Polo and is a product of Macedonia with the following website on the label:  www.adrianimports.com
3 x 14 oz packages of sauerkraut--the other brand was out of stock and this one is raw, cultured, non-pasteurized. 

Filling:
1 large onion
1/3 cup white rice
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 pounds ground pork
1 egg
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

I also used about 1 1/2 hot Italian pork sausage links from Whole Foods in the pot. I sliced it an dotted it between the cabbage rolls.  I added the bay leaf and the majoram leaves to the pot during the initial 30 minutes of cooking.

Sauce:
oil (for roux)
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 6 ounce jars of tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste if needed
2 bay leaf
2 teaspoons dried majoram leaves


First taste:  SOUR!  I added two more teaspoons of sugar for a total of three.  I also did not add any more salt to the sauce as I felt that sodium in the cabbage leaves might drastically change things.

I'll let it sit for a while and re-taste......

I ended up adding 2 more teaspoons of sugar for a total of 5.

While the crowd went in for seconds and thirds, I am not satisfied.  I don't like the high-sodium dosage here, not to mention the sugar.  Using fresh cabbage is healthier and also more attractive in presentation.  I think I will go for fresh leaves with sauerkraut, but heavy on the sauerkraut and leave out the shredded fresh cabbage.  Also with the all sauerkraut version the hot Italian sausage links were lost in the sauce and didn't seem to add anything worthwhile.

New Year's Day Menu

French Meat Pie

3 pounds ground pork
1 pound ground beef
2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. celery salt
1 -3 cups bread crumbs
1 onion

Cook meat and 1 onion in water to cover meat, simmer about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Set aside to cool.  I prepare the meat the day before.

Skim off grease.  (The original recipe says to use this grease in the pie crusts. I have yet to succeed in this step.  I now buy pastry shells ready-made.)

Add seasonings and bread crumbs.  The recipe calls for 1 cup, but this year I used about 3 and 1/2 cups.  It should be very moist without being liquid.  A quivering mass of meat.

Put 3 1/2 cups of meat inside pastry shell and use a top crust, cutting slits in the top.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes or until brown.  Let set about 30 minutes before serving.

This is an insanely huge about of meat and makes enough fillings for at least 3 pies with some remaining.  We only hate half a pie at lunch.  So I froze meat in 3 1/2/ cup amounts to make pies in the next few months.

We eat the pies with mashed potatoes and creamed peas or corn.  This year I also happened to have some roasted parsnips ready to go as well.

We ate around noon.  My almost-four-year-old just wandered into the kitchen as I am typing this and requested some more of "that pie and peas and mashed potatoes please." 

My mother always serves this on New Year's Day.  I'll have to ask her for more history about how it become part of our tradition.  Mom?

Christmas Traditions

This year I am not visiting my parents in Kansas for the holidays.  I have only missed Christmas perhaps two times in my thirty seven years.

We are staying at our home in the effort to establish traditions.  Of course tradition requires that one remembers from one year to the next just exactly or approximately what was done.  So, here is my account of this year's event:


Christmas Eve Eve:
Tata left as I was putting the kids to bed.  He procured the Christmas tree and hid it in the shed behind the garage. 

Christmas Eve:
The kids woke us up by crawling into bed with us at six something.  Tata later took the kids to Cafe Fixe for morning coffee.  Max was peeved because Leo spilled his milk and made a huge mess.  It was too cold to play in the park and so they ended up going to Dani's house to visit and play.  They come home at noon.  Leo had fallen asleep in the car, unusual for him.  Tata manage to carry him upstairs to bed and he slept until three, very unusual for him!

We had kolbasz for lunch with mashed potato and roasted peppers.  After which, Tata went down for his own epic afternoon nap. 

After the naps, we rallied the ranks and got bundled up in snowsuits to protect against the cold.  We walked to the T stop with no clear plan in mind.  We ended up going all the way to Brookline.  After trying several places, we ended up eating dinner at Tamarind Bay, an Indian restaurant.  Rice was amok and kids had to guzzle water after surprise bites of spicy food.  It was a success.  Indian next year too?

Then home on the T, bath, a little Curious George, and sleepy time.

I had a few more gifts to wrap.  I arranged all the decorations and supplies in one place ready for tomorrow.  Red wine was a helpful fixative. Tata was relaxing on the couch with a a mediocre movie.

Christmas Day:
Dawns like any other.  No fanfare.  Business as usual.  We took the kids over to their step-brother's house.  They had celebrated Christmas the day before.  It was our turn to have big brother in place for the festivities.  We have a lovely relationship with our blended family.  So a quick trip to pick up big brother ended up being a few hours lingering around the brunch table.  The kids love playing together and the resident dog is always good for entertainment.

On the way home Leo was falling asleep in the car seat.  So I opted to take the little ones out for a drive and eventually head toward the fire station.  The angels need some time to set up the tree and arrange the gifts.  Our plan was to visit the fire station bearing chocolate chip cookies while the angels (Tata and big brother) worked their magic at the house.

Leo fell asleep.  I wanted him to be awake at the fire station and I needed to give him time to nap.  After not too much thought I took to the highway toward the Dedham Starbucks, which has a drive-through.  I used to frequent the route back in the months when it was the only way to get baby number 2 to nap while entertaining baby number 1 AND acquiring coffee for me.

We arrived to discover that the drive-through was closed due to the holiday but the main counter was open.  So I placed my order by phone and then ran inside.  In the meantime I chatted with my mother and learned that my little nephew had been rushed to the hospital Christmas morning after eating a chocolate that contained peanuts.  He is fine, but that is not a pleasant way to greet Christmas morning for sure.

After learning that the angels had finished their work at home, we dropped by the house (leaving the kids in the car) and picked up Tata and biggest brother.  We headed to the fire station in Newton Center.  If you ever need to pass an hour or so on Christmas, try the fire station. We brought chocolate chip cookies and the friendly crew was happy to show us the trucks and entertain us. 

We returned home about four o'clock.  We came in through the front door to discover that the angels had visited us!  They brought a fully decorated Christmas tree surrounded by toys.  Music, candles, a roaring fire and we were ready to settle into the joy of giving and getting.

Dinner was stuffed cabbage. Dessert was chocolate cake sent by my mother.

The two little ones were very reluctant to head to bath and bed.  How sweet it was to tuck two warm bodies in next two their two new baby dolls and listen for that moment when they gave into the raspy deep breathes of Christmas dreams.

Christmas 2011, Stuffed Cabbage

Not turkey.  Not a soft fillet of white fish.  Not even a ham.

Stuffed cabbage, people.  Stuffed with pork.

This entry chronicles my attempt to cook a traditional Hungarian Christmas dish as an American (Kansan) married to a Hungarian living in the Northeast.  This dish is always better the second day (notice a theme here?) and so I have started on Christmas Eve.  My family celebrates with the arrival of the angels, tree, and festive meal on Christmas afternoon.  Pictures and list of ingredients at end.

I consulted various websites and cookbooks, as well as my mother-in-law about this dish.  Here is how I am making it this Christmas Eve morn:

Remove the outer leaves of a cabbage and rinse well.  Drop the entire head into a large pot of boiling water for about 7 minutes.  Remove the head from the water (so easily said, very awkwardly done).  Then nip (<------technical term) the base of a leaf and peel it away whole from the head.  Continue doing this until the leaves will not come away in one piece.  Then return the entire head to the boiling pot for 2 - 3 minutes. (Leave pot boiling until you finish.)  Remove more leaves, returning the head to the pot as needed.  I returned the cabbage twice to the pot.  I was able to peel about 15 leaves off my cabbage.

Remove the core from the cabbage and discard.  Chop the remaining cabbage and set aside.

Prepare the leaves by paring down each stem so that it is the same thickness as the rest of the leaf.

For the meat filling:

Dice one large onion and add it to a dutch oven pot with a bit of canola oil to soften for 5 minutes or so. Add 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika and 1/2 cup white rice and let cook for about 3 minutes.  Let this mixture cool.

Blend with hands 1 kilo ground pork, two eggs, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, and rice mixture.

Here is the description from Habeas Brulee.com  I followed about how to stuff the cabbage leaves:

To fill each cabbage leaf, set the leaf on the table rib-side down, so that it naturally curves into a sort of cup waiting to be filled. Roll small handfuls of meat into oblong patties that fit the size of the leaves, and place the filling on the cabbage leaf, near the bottom of the leaf. Fold the sides of the leaf over the filling, and roll the cabbage around the meat, being sure to tuck the bottom end of the rib around the filling to keep it all snugly wrapped.

Now mix the chopped up cabbage with a 25 ounce jar of sauerkraut.  Place a layer of the sauerkraut mixture in pot and then layer your little cabbage packages on top.  Repeat sauerkraut mixture layer and then another layer of stuffed cabbages until you reach the end of your supply.  Place remainder of sauerkraut mixture on top.  Here I began to doubt my amount of sauerkraut (gut feeling.  don't ask.) and so I opened a second jar and added about another cup or two.  Then cover the entire contents with water.  Bring to boil.  Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

At this point I followed Habeas Brulee to make the sauce.  She recommends:

A few minutes before your kitchen timer goes off, make a roux by browning the flour in a bit of oil in a separate pan. Stir in the paprika, then remove from heat. Add the sugar, salt, and tomato paste, and mix well. Ladle some of the water out of the cooking cabbage pot and mix in with the paste, just to thin it out. Add the thinned paste back into the pot with the cabbage, and carefully stir it in to dissolve it in the water. My grandmother instructed me to the shake the pot to get the paste mixed in, but my pot was too full for me to risk that.

But here is what really happened:  I was distracted and instead of mixing the paprika into the roux, I added the tomato paste.  At that point I removed it from the heat and added the paprika, sugar, and salt.  Oh well.  My mother-in-law told my husband that she makes the meat (and I assume the sauce) the same way she makes them for stuffed peppers.  I am apparently inspired from numerous sources and will just see what happens.....

I stirred in the tomato paste mixture, gently, gently as my pot was filled to the rim.  Now I am wait another 30 minutes before I test for doneness (meat) and flavor.

The test taste:

At 1 hour of cooking, the meat is done.  It tastes a bit salty to me.  The dish is not bad.  But it is not amazing.  Unfortunately I do not have a childhood of flavor memories to reference here.  I'll have to ask the resident Hungarian to do a taste test.

And the consensus was:  it is not bad.  perhaps, even good. but a bit bland.  Today I  happened to have served kolbasz (sausage) and mashed potatoes for lunch.  (And roasted peppers, made the night before.  Just saying.)  In true Hungarian style we decided that the one remaining spicy Italian pork sausage could only improve the stuffed cabbage.  And it has been added to the pot.

Now we will let it sit overnight and serve it for Christmas dinner tomorrow.  With sour cream, of course.  And homemade white rolls.

Preparing the tidy little cabbage rolls.

My pot was filled to the brim.

After the tomato paste mixture is added.

Very Sexy, indeed.

Taste Test

A few notes:  Next time I would use even less rice.  I would also use either bacon or sausage in the initial cooking to take it to the next level.  Also, I would make my meat filling more oblong instead of round in shape.  I should have counted, but did not and so can say that I ended up with about 15 cabbage rolls and that I had enough meat left over for two more.

Tinkering with the pot on the day after Christmas:  I added 1 teaspoon marjoram, 1 bay leaf and the remainder of the sauerkraut (about 2 cups).  Much improved!  I will definitely add these to the recipe and perhaps extra cooking time as well.


Revised Recipe for Next Time:

1 head cabbage, leaves steamed off and remainder diced
2 x 25 ounce jars sauerkraut

Filling:
1 large onion
1/3 cup white rice
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 pounds ground pork
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons salt

Sauce:
oil (for roux)
2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 6 ounce jars of tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste if needed
2 bay leaf
2 teaspoons dried majoram leaves

Also contemplate adding sausage or bacon to pot.


Here is a sight with way too much information about stuffed cabbage:
http://www.squidoo.com/stuffed-cabbage#module12673893

Green Chili Egg Dish

This recipe has been adapted from Cooks.com.

12 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
8 ounces canned chopped green chilies
8 eggs
1 cup flour
2 cups whole milk

Grease dutch oven.  I use my beautiful azur Emile Henry dutch oven, which makes everything taste better.  I grease mine by using a generous spray of canola oil.

Mix cheese and chilies (with liquid) together and spread in bottom of pan.

Blend eggs, flour, and milk until smooth.  Pour over cheese and chilies.

Bake 45 minutes at 400 degress.  Eggs should be set but not dry.

*I have omitted the chilies and used fresh peppers sauteed first before adding.

*This is delicious warm from the oven or at room temperature or cold.  I have taken it to potlucks cut into cubes.  I have served it for brunch.

Starlight

STARLIGHT

by Ted Kooser

All night, this soft rain from the distant past.
No wonder I sometimes waken as a child.