executive bad-girl decision...

someone had a birthday. i made a German apple cake to mark the occasion.

it was not my birthday, i should add, as my parents had sense enough to see that the celebration of my arrival in the world would not fall in the dead of Winter. and, before i forget... let us just chat a bit here about the dead of Winter.

you know all those groundhogs everyone tends to make a fuss about at this time of year? well, according to the majority of said creatures, Spring is supposed to come early this year. meanwhile, we are expecting something in the range of fifty centimeters of snow... FIFTY CENTIMETERS... (TWENTY INCHES, to us Yanks)... before the day is through.

so, basically... groundhogs lie!

where was i again? oh, yes... a birthday has been celebrated.

he has been super-busy of late, so the festivities consisted of the aforementioned cake... and leftovers from the day before. and, before you go thinking that it sucks to be eating leftovers, i should point out that we made a huge batch of sarma (the subject of my first ever post).

while most people's Wednesday meal probably consisted of bits left over from the meals they ate on Tuesday, Monday... and probably Sunday too... we were whipping up a fresh batch of mid-week Croatian cabbage rolls. so that is what we had for his birthday meal the following day.

i had one with a bit of smoked meat...

and he had two with half a kielbasa... because he excels at being absurd.

we made quite a few adjustments to his father's basic recipe, which will probably result in my favorite animator being kicked out of the family when his dad finds out. the four biggest changes were 1) using a combo of ground  pork and lamb (his dad uses pork and veal), 2) the addition of some barley to the rice and ground meat filling, 3) ditto for a grated zucchini, and 4) copious amounts of gochujang (Korean chili paste) mixed into the simmering broth. the first bite was indescribable.

him: i may get disowned... but it will be totally worth it. 

i cannot begin to explain how delicious this was. i love the taste of lamb, and gochujang makes everything better—we put it in most things we cook around here—but the inclusion of the barley turned out to be the best decision of all. not only does it bring a slightly nutty taste, but the chewy cooked-barley texture is fantastic in the filling. there was no discernible taste from the zucchini, as it has very little to offer on that front, but i like knowing that it was there.

we were practically pausing after every bite to comment about how good it was. my empty bowl speaks for itself.

then there was that cake.

this was my second time using this recipe from a food magazine (which i will talk about next time around, as this is already too long), and it is far less complex than it looks. the secret is the use of frangipane (almond paste) in an otherwise basic butter cake batter. that goes into a springform pan, and is topped with fanned out slices of Granny Smith apple.

i made a some minor changes to the recipe (added some ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the mix) and a few less-minor ones. we tend to like our baked goods on the less-sweet side, so i used about two-thirds the recommended amount of sugar (especially as there would be powdered sugar sprinkled over the top, plus a bit more sugar sprinkled on the apples).

if you squint a bit, you can see the sugar crystals on the fruit before the cake went into the oven for about an hour.

the biggest change of all was to reduce the oven to 350°F, instead of the suggested 375°F. i was skeptical about so small a cake being in so hot an oven for so long a time, but i decided to be a good-girl and do as i was told the first time i used this recipe. i will not be making that mistake twice, as the batter expanded so rapidly that first time, the apple slices were mostly covered up.

had i not made the executive bad-girl decision to reduce the heat halfway through, the cake would probably have been burnt long before the cooking time was up.

so, i used the lower oven temperature this time around, and it was perfect... if i do say so myself. i left it cooling while we ate sarma and watched the newest episode of Death in Paradise.

[random aside: i am rather fond of Ralf Little, so i may have done a bit of fan-girl swooning over him being added to the cast.]

it should be noted that my favorite animator is like a small child where cooling baked goods are concerned, so we had the same conversation several times.

him: how long do we have to wait to eat cake?
me: until it's done cooling. 

and, eventually it was. he insisted that it had to go on one of the plates he... uhm... "borrowed" from his parents place when he first moved out... like twenty years ago. those plates are older than him. this one has a chip on the edge, which i cleverly positioned just out of the frame.

the last step was to add a bit of powdered sugar. he did that part.

i skipped this step the first time i tried this recipe, because i did not want the extra sweetness, but we were celebrating this time around, so the powdered sugar is a nice final touch. i was afraid the apple slices would be covered up, but they were still visible.

it was still his day, so he did the slicing.

now, if it was my birthday, i would be eating cake with some sort of adult beverage. however, he absolutely despises the taste of most forms of alcohol (he makes an exception for boozy eggnog during the holiday season), so we opted instead for geriatric-adult hot beverages.

that last bit reminded me that i also added a healthy splash of vodka infused with juniper berries to the cake batter. he may hate drinking alcohol, but he has no problem with it as an ingredient in cooked items.

the most important thing i should note about this cake is that it was entirely wheat-free, so i did not have to resort to taking antihistamines at any point.

i used a combination of roughly three parts oat flour to one part Bob's Mill Gluten-Free baking flour. i used straight oat flour the first time i made this cake, but the GF flour was a surprisingly excellent addition this time around, especially as i only included it because i wanted to get rid of the stuff. i usually hate the grainy texture of those GF flours, but this one was absolutely undetectable when combined with the oat flour, so i will most likely use this combination in other wheat-free baked goods from now on.

a great time was had by all.

deep in the heart of winter...

having survived the recent deep-freeze and the cold/flu epidemic that tagged along for the ride, i am back to using the dreariness of deep winter as an excuse for eating yummy things.  i had fried plantain slices and a Mineola orange for lunch every day this week...

and we took a break from eating marathon amounts of sarma (the subject of my very first post here) to enjoy a dinner of homemade calzones...

stuffed with spicy Italian sausage and a mixture of ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses.  i even tossed in some fresh rosemary and oregano from my window herb box...

and served them up along with a very rustic marinara.  by rustic, i mean... too lazy to chop the garlic, so i just smashed the cloves and left them whole.  [the sauce is usually served on the side and NEVER inside the calzone.  if there's sauce inside, then you're not eating a calzone.]

i've also discovered a recent fascination with pears.  it's usually a bit of a his and hers situation around here with him reaching for the pears in the market while i gravitate toward the apples and grapes. but,  i can't seem to get my fill of the delicious pears we've been getting lately...

which means that there's probably another upside-down pear cake in the near future (this one was from a few months ago, and it was yummm).

on the fiber end of the diet, i've been doing a lot of dyeing and even a touch of spinning in the last few weeks.  i finally got around to to finishing up the merino top i started working on waaay back in October.  this drop spindle was a gift from my Sweetie when i first started spinning for sanity back in grad school.  it is still the only one i have that i did not make myself.

the wool was dyed during last spring/summer's dyeing frenzy, in a combination inspired by my calico kitty...

i added a healthy splash of goldish-yellow to the mix for bright cheerfulness.

to preserve the color changes, i split the top lengthwise into 4 thinner sections and lightly pre-drafted each into a loose nest all ready for spinning...

into a single-ply, fingering weight yarn.

i left it on the niddy noddy for several days...

but there was still quite a bit of twist in the end.

it needs a soak to set the twist, but... that is some mighty sweet-looking yarn, if i do say so myself.

out with the old, in with the gnu...?

okay, so it's 3 weeks later, but i'm still thinking about the first meal i had this year.  foregoing all the usual conventions regarding lucky foods (i have never had a fondness for black-eyed peas, regardless of how nicely one disguises their presence), i try to start each new year with one meal that i truly love.  this time around, i decided to opt for one of my favorite dishes, a slight perversion of the one-pot meal concept in that it requires that you begin with one enormous pot and an assortment of ingredients that will make most modest meat-eaters blush.

CAUTION: this content is not for the weak of heart or appetite.  if you have a moral or religious objection to eating tasty animals... look away!  i present to you, a most meatiful new year meal and wishes for a tasy 2012.

okay... so it's a stuffed cabbage roll.  i can feel the immediate disappointment at those two words, but i assure you, this is no mere cabbage roll.  ever since my first encounter with sarma some years ago, i knew it would fast become one of my favorite foods.  this classic dish is featured in cuisines throughout the Middle East and Central/Eastern Europe with each region  providing their own variation on the theme.  i was introduced to sarma via Croatian cuisine, and my version aims to remain true to that style.

the two defining components of this meal are the soured cabbage leaves and the smoked meats that together give it its characteristic flavor.  the cabbage is a whole head that has been turned,intact, to sauerkraut.  in lieu of a whole soured cabbage, you can use either whole leaves of sauerkraut, usually sold rolled up in jars of brine next to the shredded sauerkraut, or you can opt for fresh cabbage leaves that have been wilted to enable easy rolling.  most recipes for cabbage rolls suggest either freezing then thawing the whole head to wilt the leaves, or immersing the whole head into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds, prying off the leaves one at a time in between blanchings.  when using fresh cabbage, the freezer method is definitely the way to go... unless you prefer to play 'bobbing for cabbage' in a large pot of boiling water.



the meat consists of ground pork for the filling and an assortment of smoked meats and sausages for the milieu. the fresh pork was ground by the butcher with the addition of a small portion of smoked meat for extra flavor, but that step is optional.  the smoked meat pictured consists of baby back ribs and neck bones and a secret ingredient to be discussed later.  the assortment of sausages includes sweet and spicy kranjska klobasa, a type of kielbasa, and spicy Italian sausage.  any variety of kielbasa and sausages may be used with acceptable results.  all of the smoked meats and sausages picture here were freshly removed from the freezer, hence the dusting of frostiness on the surface.  the remaining ingredients include rice, onions, sauerkraut, smoked paprika, salt, fresh ground pepper, an egg, and fresh thyme (optional).  i really like the spark of fresh herbiness the thyme adds to the dish.  you can use your nails or the back of a small knife to scrape the leaves from the stem for the filling.

to begin,  carefully peel off the layers of cabbages until you have a pile of as many large, intact leaves as your head of cabbage allows.  the number of leaves will determine how many rolls you can potentially make.  reserve the heart of the cabbage to add to the pot, or, if using fresh cabbage, the inner portion can be saved for another dish... maybe a hearty soup?

 

place the ground pork in a large bowl and add chopped onions, rice, egg, paprika, salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.  you can also opt to add some garlic powder or crushed fresh garlic. 

 

i use a blend of red, green, and black peppercorns and whole coriander seeds ground using the handy mortar and pestle.  sure, a pepper grinder or... gasp... pre-ground pepper would be faster, but where's the fun in that?

at this point, roll up your sleeves and get stuck in with clean hands until you have completely combined the mixture.  try to avoid excessive squeezing or pressing.  now we're ready to make rolls.  

i prefer to divide the mixture in advance of beginning the rolling process.  my obsessive-compulsive tendency requires evenness in all things, so i weighed the mixture using a digital kitchen scale, and brought it up to a round number by the addition of an extra handful of rice.  in this case, my mixture weighed 1600g (i use metric measures to blend in to my Canadian surroundings), so i used 100g of filling for each roll, which is roughly 1/2 c of mixture.  be sure to take the number of cabbage leaves into account  before beginning to divide the meat.  one head of cabbage should provide enough large leaves for 10-16 rolls.  keep in mind that the rice will expand, so don't over stuff your rolls, or they can explode in the pot.  

working with one portion of filling at a time, shape into a log slightly smaller than the width of your cabbage leaf.  place the log on the stem end of the leaf, and make the first roll to cover the filling.  if using fresh cabbage leaves, you can use a small, sharp knife to shave off part of the tough central rib on the back of each leaf.  toss the trimmings into the bottom of the pot.  nothing goes to waste in this dish.  

flip up the sides of the leaf to prevent loss of filling, and continue to roll until you have a snug packet.  repeat until you have used up all the filling.  any leftover cabbage leaves can be tossed into the bottom of the pot at this point.  we have all the parts necessary to create a fantastic batch of sarma, but if we are to take this meal over the top and into the realm of sublime deliciousness, it's time to bring out the secret-no-more ingredient.  

just when it seems this dish could not get any more meatiful, here comes happiness in the form of salty, smokey perfection.  speck is a cold-smoked ham, with a flavor that is a cross between prosciutto and a dry-cured Virginia ham.  it can be used in much the same manner as prosciutto, including eating as is, sliced paper-thin, or as a very sophisticated replacement for bacon.  the rind is very tough, and is usually removed before use, but given the long, slow cooking required for sarma, the rind should be left in place.  cut the speck into large cubes and carve up the slab of smoked ribs.  all the parts are now in place to begin filling the pot.  

place a layer of cabbage leaves or sauerkraut on the bottom of a large stock pot or dutch oven, and begin to layer in the rolls.  mix each layer with one or two sausages and a portion of the smoked meat.  arrange each layer so the rolls are packed in tightly enough that they will not unravel once the liquid is added, but with enough room to expand slightly as the rice cooks.  as absurd as it may sound, use the pieces of meat as packing material to fill in any large gaps along the perimeter of the pot and in between the rolls.  

i also tuck a few sprigs of thyme along the sides as i continue to build the layers.

spread some of the sauerkraut between each layer, finishing with a layer of sauerkraut on to top.  pour any remaining sauerkraut liquid into the pot and fill with enough water to cover the contents.   there should be at least a few inches of headroom to allow for expansion of the rice and some slight floating of the rolls in the cooking liquid. bring to a boil, and reduce the heat to a low simmer.  given the volume and density of the rolls, it is important to get the liquid to a boil before reducing the heat, but be careful not to leave it at a boil for too long, or the rolls can begin to unravel in the turbulence.  cook 3 1/2 to 4 hours, beginning the timing after you have reduce it to a simmer.  you may need to add some water from time to time, but be mindful that the rolls will want to float in the fluid, so do not add too much at a time, or you risk ending up with a large pot of sarma soup.  

     

allow the rolls to cool slightly in the pot before serving up  with a few pieces of assorted meat and a splash of cooking liquid.  the best part of this meal is that after all the work, they freeze very well.  divide between freezer-safe container, allow to cool to room temperature, then cover tightly and freeze.  a delicious meal at the ready.  to reheat place sarma, frozen or defrosted overnight in the refrigerator, in a pan with a splash of water, cover, and heat over a low flame.