Tuesday, April 20, 2010

If you don't cook, you can't eat

I have vague but fond recollections of the things I used to eat and enjoy as a child. I didn't have an opportunity to learn how to cook at the time though, so for the most part all of those things are effectively lost and forgotten to me. There was one thing in particular that I liked enough to cobble together a passable meal about a year or so after I'd left home, but not being all that into cooking at the time it fell into disuse and I eventually forgot about it again. While shopping at the farmer's market a couple weeks ago I happened across some of the main ingredients and, on a whim, decided to bring some home and see what I could do with them. A quick search on the webternets turned up something that looked like a fairly close approximation, the name of which not only do I not recall, but neither does the author who wrote the recipe I found. I've made it a couple times now, and I've gotta say I'm kinda digging it. I would have one helping for dinner and another for dessert, it's so good. In fact that's kinda what happened the first go 'round, and the seemingly huge pot I'd made that I was sure would result in tasty leftovers was instead polished off in one sitting. Nom nom, recipe (original). It's a little different than I remember, and I've been further tweaking based on my own preferences and the things I happen to have on hand at the time... I guess I should jot some notes down for posterity.

Polish Sausage, Cabbage and Potato something or the other

Ingredients:
~1/4 cup onion, chopped
~1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped or sliced
~1 clove garlic, crushed (optional)
~1/2 cup water
~4 tablespoons butter or margarine
~1/2 ring polish sausage, sliced
~6 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced
~1/2 large cabbage, washed, cored, and coarsely shredded
~1 tsp seasoning salt
~1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
~1/4 tsp cumin
~1/4 tsp paprika (I think...)

I'm fudging on some of these numbers a bit; I didn't really measure things and kinda went more by sight / taste.

Instructions:
1. Saute onion, bell pepper and garlic in 2 tablespoons of the margarine or butter until tender.
2. Layer cabbage, sausage, and potatoes and balance of butter and margarine in the pan. Add seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, paprika and water.
3. Cover and simmer on low heat until cabbage is desired tenderness, stirring occasionally. This should only cook about 20 minutes or the time it takes to make the potatoes tender.

Hints & variations:
The second time around I chopped up most of the bell pepper and added as usual, but some I sliced and set aside to add after the potatoes, cabbage and sausage, maybe halfway through the cooking time. When it was all said and done, they were a little crisper and had a little more flavor since I'd left less time for it to be cooked out.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What color is the bell pepper? If it's red or green I may try the recipe, but if it's yellow or orange than probably not.

Anonymous said...

*then

Marcus said...

I used mostly green as I'd just grabbed three fresh ones on my last farmer's market run, but I threw in a little red too to finish off the last of one and add a little color. The nice thing about cooking, though, is nothing's set in stone. Frequently when I'm making something - and especially when I'm trying something new - I'll look at maybe two recipes that seem interesting. I'll follow each of them about a third of the time depending on what sounds most appealing, and then the last bit I'll just make up. It's maybe a strange way to do things, but it's scary how well it always seems to work out. Happy cooking!

Anonymous said...

Good to know, thanks! I was kidding about the color of the pepper being a possible deterrent, but I WAS curious as to what you used. Can't wait to try it :)

Marcus said...

Ha... I did think that was odd, but I also remember how very many things I wouldn't eat when I was really little. Who am I to judge? :-)