Cabbage Lasagna

As you may have noticed, I am not the very best at consistantly doing anything. For those who do follow the blog, I apologize. It has not been forgotten--just put aside for a while.
Here is a fantastic low-carb lasagna, or, if you are a purist like my brother (who insists that it cannot be called lasagna), a cabbage and tomato gratin. Or perhaps it's like flattened cabbage rolls. Despite his protests on this dish's authenticity, my brother ate three pieces and offered to take home what we didn't want, so whatever you call it, be assured that your family or guests will call it delicious.
I got this recipe from a friend of mine who has done fantastically on a low-carb diet. Thank you, Hetty, for a wonderful, filling meal with low-cost ingredients.

Cabbage Lasagna
8-9 servings

One medium to large head of cabbage

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped (optional)

3/4 to 1 lb ground round

1 can spaghetti sauce (I use Prego, generally mushroom-flavored varieties)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper (optional)

1 cup or more grated Mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup ricotta or cottage cheese (whole milk ricotta, on my part)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash cabbage and remove the tough outer leaves (those that are a very dark green). Cut the head in half. Carefully peel back the leaves, trying to keep them intact--they will serve as the lasagna noodles. Steam the leaves in whatever way you find best (microwave, steamer, rice cooker) until they are very tender. Do not skimp on the steaming--they will not soften further in the oven, and crunchy cabbage leaves do no textural favors to this dish.

Put the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and green pepper, if you are using it (I personally despise green pepper, so I skip it) until the onion is translucent. If you know you'll have to leave the stove, do the onions first, and add the garlic once they are already translucent, cooking a few more minutes. It won't hurt the onions, and it will keep your tiny pieces of garlic from burning.

Add the ground round and brown thoroughly. Drain or skip any excess fat or liquid. Pour in spaghetti sauce and seasonings, and stir until combined. Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 (standard long) baking pan with olive oil. Line the bottom of the pan with cabbage leaves. Top with half the meat mixture. Add a third of the mozzarella, and half the ricotta. Repeat the layers. Add a third layer of cabbage leaves, top with the last third of mozzarella, and cover with Parmesan. Cover with foil or a lid.

Bake covered for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5 minutes more, or until top is bubbling and slightly brown.

I hear this dish freezes well. I wouldn't know. There's generally enough for lunch for both of us once we've had it for dinner, and then it's gone.

Breakfast Stroganoff

This is a recipe I threw together on Saturday morning—relief from eggs! I discovered that I actually love green tomatoes during my experimentations last week. The fried recipe did not work out so well, but they tasted great even though their coating fell off. I’m looking forward to using them cooked and fresh in a lot of dishes.

Breakfast Stroganoff
½ to 1 lb ground beef (I used ¾ lb, I think, but that’s an awkward measurement)
Half an onion, sliced then roughly chopped
8 oz sour cream, more or less to taste
1 green tomato, sliced into thin strips
½ packet Goya Sazón seasoning
1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, or your favorite seasoning blend
½ lb white mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons port, sack, sherry, or dry white wine in a pinch

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Add onions, and sauté five minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to sauté for another five minutes. Add ground beef to the middle of the pan, pushing other ingredients to the side. Break it up with whatever you’re using to stir (you are stirring, aren’t you?). Add alcohol. Cook until meat is brown with almost no trace of pink. Add seasonings and green tomato. Cook five minutes. Take off heat, stir in sour cream, and serve.

I love this because the green tomatoes add acidity and actually work well texturally for the noodles you will not be eating. It’s not ‘real’ stroganoff, but it’s nearly as delicious, and great for a change of pace for breakfast. I suppose you could have it for lunch or dinner too!

Syrian Lamb with Green Beans

So today's post was supposed to be about the little fish-packets I made last night, but they turned out very meh. And I refuse to post anything less that wonderful on this blog.
So I thought I'd introduce you to a dish I discovered during my semester in Wales a few years ago. You can make it with minimal equipment, and it's absolutely marvelous. Keep a lookout for lamb on sale, and remember that this takes a relatively small amount of meat for a really big flavor. If you live where lamb is cheap, I am wildly jealous. :)

The original recipe was found on Food Network, apparently the work of a lady called Katherine Dickenson

Syrian Lamb with Green Beans

4 to 6 shoulder lamb chops, fat removed and bones in for flavor
OR
2 or 3 lamb shank pieces
3 tablespoons butter
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 bay leaf
1 sweet red pepper--the 'Italian' kind if possible (long and skinny and fabulously sweet)
1 1/2 teaspoon dried whole oregano, crushed between your hands (please, please don't use ancient flavorless oregano that has lived in your cupboard for decades, because you will make me cry)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans, ends snapped off and cut into bite size pieces
2 cans diced tomatoes or a big can of fire roasted whole ones, cut into pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste

Saute your meat in butter until brown on all sides. Saute the onion until translucent. Add garlic, bay leaf, red pepper and seasoning and cook for 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the green beans and tomatoes. Cover and cook for 1 hour on medium to medium low heat. Check it every now and then to make sure you're not boiling the water away. Unlid and serve!

You could serve this over riced cauliflower or something if you really wanted to, but I prefer eating it as a soup/stew, and don't think it needs a thing. We have used it as both a side and a main dish, and it serves both purposes admirably. You can add more green beans for further tasty servings, but I just don't have a pot that will hold that much comfortably.

You might be able to use lamb ribs and such for this as well, but you'd likely have to cool the finished product and scrape off the fat. It's pretty oily using the original cuts, albeit a delicious lamb fat kind of oily. If you have a problem with that, then cool and skim away!

And come to think of it, I bet that you could dump it in a slow cooker after the initial saute, and waltz away for a few hours. The flavors would have intermingled further, and long low heat makes for more tender lamb.

Indian Spiced Bison Meatballs

It's been a while since I posted, mostly because a fair amount of the recipes I've tried have been less than stellar. However, over the weekend my brother brought over a couple of pounds of ground buffalo (on sale, yay!) and I searched for a long time for what to do with it. Buffalo or bison tends to be drier than beef, apparently. I think that this recipe, tweaked from the original at Bison Basics, turned out really well, and those who are fonder of cilantro (e.g. my brother and my husband) raved about it. For cilantro haters, you could likely use parsley or mint.

Indian Spiced Bison Meatballs (feeds 3 hungry people)
1 cup shallots, finely chopped
2 lbs ground bison or 'buffalo'
1/2 cup cilantro
4 cloves minced or smashed garlic
Several shakes cinnamon
One shake cloves
Several shakes ground ginger
Several shakes cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 cup crushed pork rinds (or substitute breadcrumbs, etc.)
1 teaspoon salt
Olive oil for frying

Sauce
2/3 cup almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1 small can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can whole peeled tomatoes (I used Muir Glen)
1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or make your own by draining yogurt in cheesecloth for an hour or so, or use cream)

Drizzle olive oil into a large skillet. Saute shallots over medium heat in olive oil until they have softened. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Grab a plate to put the raw meatballs on. Add the other non-sauce ingredients; blend well with your hands until everything is evenly distributed throughout the meat. Form into balls and pile on the plate. Pour more oil into the pan, and brown your meatballs over medium heat, turning occasionally. Keep them there until cooked through, 10-15 minutes. Remove them to a clean plate and drain your pan.

Dump all sauce ingredients except for the yogurt into the pan. Simmer for a few minutes, breaking up the whole tomatoes with your spoon or spatula. Heat the meatballs in the sauce until they're warm again, then add yogurt and simmer for another two minutes. Serve your delicious meatballs! They don't need a thing to go with them, but you could serve them with cooked riced cauliflower if you like.

Pumpkin Chili

I made this chili a few nights ago, and it was out of this world. I did change the recipe around a bit, but I got the idea from BellaOnline. I was a bit annoyed at the recipe because it didn't specify the form of pumpkin. Yes, most of us will get the canned puree, but there's always the chance you want whole pumpkin cubes, as you would for a delicious-sounding Thai soup with coconut milk and pumpkin.

But I figured I would try the recipe anyway, as I was yearning for something hearty and filling, and a good way to use my oh-so-healthy pumpkin.

Do you remember the meatloaf recipe I posted before? I made most of it in my muffin tin. However, I only have one muffin tin, and there was more meatloaf mixture then there was room in the tin. So I wrapped the biiig clump I had left in six slices of bacon, and popped it in a large ramekin to bake. This large meat cake was still sitting in my refrigerator at the time of making chili, and I decided to use it to speed the recipe up. So I chopped my meat cake and used it in this recipe. You, however, don't have to make meatloaf to have chili!

Pumpkin Chili

1 lbs ground beef, or ground beef and ground pork
6 strips chopped bacon, cooked through but not crispy (optional)
1 large onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1/2 can pumpkin
1 poblano pepper, roasted, skinned, de-seeded, and chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
dash salt
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup sour cream

In a frying pan, saute the ground meat, onion, red pepper and garlic until meat is brown. Pour off grease if needed and add in tomatoes, pumpkin, poblano, cumin, pepper and salt. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with cheese and sour cream as desired.

Alternately, plug in your slow cooker and set it to high. Pour in the tomatoes, pumpkin, poblano, and seasonings, as well as the bacon, if you're using it. Brown the meat and scoop it into the slow cooker with a slotted spoon, leaving the grease in the pan. Saute the red pepper until it brightens up and is slightly soft, and pour into the slow cooker. Saute the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent and just beginning to brown. Add the onion-garlic mixture to the slow cooker. Cover and let cook for an hour and a half. Serve with cheese and sour cream.

Polish Stirfry

This originated as a Rachel Ray recipe off the Food Network website. I have refined it, abandoned the pierogies, and embraced it for the fast, easy low-carb meal that it is. Even if it is from Ms. Ray....who tends to be a food cheerleader. I don't think that woman is allowed to not like anything.

Anyway, here it is:

Polish Stirfry

2 pounds kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut in angled slices (you can cook these straight from frozen, it will just take a little longer)
Olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan
1 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
1 package baby spinach (or the chopped greens of your choice)
1 pound sauerkraut, drained (if you don't like sauerkraut or don't want to bother, substitute with thinly sliced cabbage and add about a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar)
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Brown kielbasa and remove from pan. Add olive oil and butter to pan. Raise heat to high. Add onion to the pan and saute for a few minutes to soften. Add spinach in batches as it wilts into the pan (add cabbage and vinegar before spinachif you are subbing for kraut). When spinach is wilted, add sauerkraut. Season stir-fry with mustard, paprika, and salt. Return kielbasa to pan. Heat through and serve.