Anyone here with fantabulous cooking skills?

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
In Pgh where I grew up, they were called Pigs in a Blanket LOL Anything my family cooked always had three kinds of meats, from meatballs to meatloaf - equal amounts of ground beef, ground pork and ground veal. I don't really eat meat, and definately not veal after I realized what it was. I always put some Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs in meatloaf and when I make the pigs for my family, I chop up the cabbage cept for the bottom layer where I use full leaves, then a layer of cooked meat, uncooked rice, brown sugar, sauce,uncooked chopped cabbage, meat, uncooked rice, some brown sugar till I reach the top then cover with full leaves

Marcie
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
My maternal grandmother was Polish and made these often. She called them golumpki. Believe me, this is not gourmet food, not very spicy. If you want spicy try some other culture, lol.
 

pasajes4

Well-Known Member
I used to make cabbage rolls until I got lazy and made cabbage unrolled. I cook it all in a pot. Season the meat and onions with whatever spices float your boat. I then add (gasp) packaged coleslaw from the produce isle. I add a can of diced tomatoes (size depends on how much I am making). Let it simmer or do the whole thing in a crockpot. I love my crockpot. It is so yummy on a cold day.
 

PatriotsGirl

Well-Known Member
1 Head of Cabbage
3 Cups Tomato Juice
1 8oz. can tomato sauce
1 egg
1/2 C. uncooked brown or white rice
1 envelope Onion soup mix
1 lb. Ground Turkey or Extra Lean Ground Beef
1/3 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Peel 8-12 big Leaves off the Cabbage head and place in a microwave safe dish. Cover in about an inch of water and microwave on high for 2 min.

In a mixing bowl combine tomato sauce, egg, turkey or beef, rice, onion soup, and cheese, and mix with fingers until well combined.

Grease your crock pot with some Pam cooking spray.

Carefully place a ball of the meat mixture into the middle of each cabbage leaf and roll up into a ball, and place on the bottom of your crock pot seam side down. Do this until all your meat mixture is gone.

After you have all your cabbage rolls in the crock pot, pour the 3 cups of Tomato Juice on top.

Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
When we used to make cabbage rolls, we used the sauce from Sunday's spaghetti. (husband is Italian, remember.) I will post that recipe for you here, but I am thinking you could just use a jar of Ragu with meat. We topped the rolls with mozzerella.

Yum.

Our meatball recipe is similar to those mentioned here, except that we use an egg and parmesan cheese and sliced fresh basil in ours.

That would be what we would use for the cabbage rolls, too.

I should make those, again.

****

1 package bone-in Country style pork ribs (six or seven ribs)

1 pound stew meat

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound ground beef

1/4 pound salt pork

1 onion, chopped

parsley

5 leaves fresh basil

3 cloves garlic

olive oil

Lawry's Garlic Salt

Sauce ratio: For every 16 oz can Contadina tomato sauce with nothing else in it ~ no onions, no Italian seasoning, just straight tomato sauce (it must be Contadina at our house), use one 6 ounce can of Contadina tomato paste and one and one half sauce cans of water.

***

Mince the salt pork. Crisp fry it in the olive oil. Remove the salt pork.

Brown the onions and garlic in olive oil just til transparent. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Garlic should be broken into two or three pieces with the fingers before cooking. This is how husband's mom does it and so that is exactly how we do it, too.

Exactly.

:O)

Remove the onions and garlic to a platter or bowl.

Season the meats (not the ground meats ~ those are for the meatballs) with salt, black pepper, and Lawry's Garlic Salt.

Nicely brown the meats in the same oil. This is where the flavor is developed, so brown everything evenly to a rich, pretty color over medium heat.

The secret to Italians and their cooking is that they love food. Both husband and his mom have infinite patience for this business of browning the meat to crisp-edged perfection. I am always trying to sneak the temperature up to high.

Don't do that.

:O)

This is where husband Italian mom stops what she's doing. (Generally, that would be leaning over the sauce pot, relishing the scent of the cooking meat and poking it, prodding it, encouraging it to brown in Italian.) She looks me straight in the eye if the heat is too high or when I have committed some other cooking sin and says: "What you doing."

Just like that. That's all she says, and I know I've done something wrong. There are two things I usually do wrong, whenever husband' mom watches me cook: I brown the meat on too high a heat, and (gasp) I take the oil out of things. This sauce will look very, very oily. That is where the flavor is.

In the fat.

So says husband' mom.

And her sauce is definitely better than mine.

I think they love it into perfection.

:O)

Anyway, once the meat is nicely browned, add your sauce. No water and no paste yet. Just the sauce. Now you add parsley and fresh basil. Use dried basil if you do not have fresh. Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer, cover the pan, and cook the sauce and meat together over such low heat that it barely simmers for twenty minutes. Then, add paste and water. (Half of which can be wine, unless husband mom is in the kitchen.)

:O)

If husband mom is in the kitchen?

Drink the wine yourself.

Actually, I love husband mom. She tolerates no insurrection in the kitchen, though.

Where was I?

Once the sauce and meat are simmering away, make the meatballs. Generous portions. Gently set the balls onto the simmering meat. Partially cover and simmer without stirring until the meatballs have cooked enough to firm up. Then, you can gently stir them into the sauce. Stir the simmering sauce every time you think of it for the next hour and a half to two hours.

The household will be revolving around the sauce at this time. Nothing else can be done. No one can go anywhere.

The sauce is cooking.

When you cook the pasta, add some of the fat from the sauce to the water so your pasta will stay separate. After the pasta is drained, add a ladle of sauce, stirring it in gently to cover the pasta. I have often committed the cardinal sin of adding black pepper and parmesan at this point.

:O)

Rebel.

Serve each plate of pasta from the stove, adding sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan and handing the steaming plate to one of the kids to bring to the table.

That is how it's done.

Serve the meat in a separate bowl, already on the table.

I love Sunday spaghetti!

It's nowhere near as much fun without a houseful of people to anticipate it, though.

Cedar

husband aunt, from a different part of Italy, adds the smallest pinch of cinnamon to her sauce. This deepens the flavors and is really very good. It is easy to add too much, so be careful.
 
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Lil

Well-Known Member
O.M.G.

Cedar, I HAVE to make Sunday Spaghetti now. Really, I'm drooling.

Questions:

When you cook the pasta, add some of the fat from the sauce to the water so your pasta will stay separate.

Like skimmed off the top? I assume it'll be puddling there a bit. (I've never heard of an Italian person doing this! I thought you wanted the pasta a bit sticky so the sauce clings to it. I know that's why you don't rinse. Not really a question.)

Wine? Red or white in the sauce...(Since Mama won't be here. ;) )

How many 16 oz. cans of sauce?

So after browning the meat, you just leave the ribs and stew meat in the pan, make the sauce in there with it, and add the meatballs on top?

How generous on the meatballs? The size of a golf ball? An egg? A baseball?

Out of curiosity, do you make your own pasta? I got a Kitchenaid Mixer on black Friday last year - one of the BIG ones, and Jabber got me the pasta cutters for Xmas. LOVE fresh pasta, but haven't used the spaghetti cutter yet, just the Fettuccini.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Like skimmed off the top? I assume it'll be puddling there a bit.

I just asked husband. He said his mom would never do that. So I was like, "Well, why do we do that?" He said I did it so he did it. But..."Mama would rather cut her arm off than put oil in the pasta water."

"What you doing."

:O)

You are right, Lil. We don't rinse the pasta. It never even occurred to me to say not to rinse it!

We use either red (burgundy) or white (chablis). husband mom does not put wine in her sauce.

"What you doing."

They serve red wine with Sunday spaghetti.

We all seem to prefer rigatoni to spaghetti with Sunday sauce. Best pasta (unless you know of an Italian grocery) is Barilla, according to husband.

We hate Creamette brand of pasta.

I don't know whether I said this, but after ladling on the sauce, it is okay to sprinkle parmesan over the pasta before serving the individual servings.

***

husband and his mom both made/make pasta. husband mom had a special wooden board. She would make a well of her dry ingredients right on the board and add whatever else she put in. Then, she would make tubes of dough, pinch them off, and imprint them on the rough side of a grater. Or, she would make shells with her thumb. I never learned how to do pasta. husband makes his pasta in the bread machine and then rolls it out or whatever he is going to do with it. We have a pasta machine, but other than gnocci, we just buy ready made pasta. husband gnocci is superb. I just asked him how he does it.

3 boiled potatoes. Skin and mash them by hand with a potato masher. 1 egg. 1 c flour. No salt or pepper. Set the bread maker to do the mixing of the dough. Add flour if you need to. (husband: "Well, it's an art, how much flour. You just know.") Cook them in boiling salted water. They are done when they float. We don't rinse gnocci, either. Add ladle of sauce, top with parmesan or picarino romano cheese.

I told husband it was the lady who had researched and found the baklava recipe for me who was asking. He thinks you could find a nice gnocci recipe from that same allrecipes site, but said that this is how he does his.

How many 16 oz. cans of sauce?


So after browning the meat, you just leave the ribs and stew meat in the pan, make the sauce in there with it, and add the meatballs on top?


How generous on the meatballs? The size of a golf ball? An egg? A baseball?

For this recipe, you would use (2) 16 oz cans tomato sauce and (2) 6 oz cans of paste. So, you would use (2) 16 oz cans of water. If you are going to do wine, then replace the water in one of the 16 oz cans with half water, half wine.

Yes, those instructions for making the sauce are correct. Did I say to take the onions and garlic out of the pan before browning the meat in the same pan? Add them back in once the meat is browned.

For hotter sauce, brown hot Italian sausage with the meat and put those in the sauce. We don't do that. ("What you doing.") But some people like heat in their sauce, and that is how you do it.

The meatballs would be like what you can hold in your fist. Not as big as a hard ball in baseball, but pretty close.

***

Here is a clam fettuccini sauce tip I learned from a different Italian lady. Instead of white wine in her clam sauce, she uses...champagne. It can be left over champagne, or inexpensive champagne. It made the clearest, best clam fettuccini sauce, ever.

I don't actually have a recipe for this sauce. It's simple and delicious and quick. Start the pasta water before beginning the sauce.

Olive oil
2 or 3 cloves garlic
4 T parsley (fresh)
4 leaves fresh basil
1 t (we use more) dried oregano
crushed red pepper to taste
ground black pepper to taste

One small can minced clams with juice

fresh or frozen mussels
fresh or frozen clams

Lightly fry first six ingredients in olive oil. Add one small can minced clams with juice and about half a cup of white wine. Bring to boil. Add fresh or frozen whole clams and mussels. Bring to boil again and remove from heat. Remove whole shellfish from sauce and add about 1/3 to 1/2 c grated Parmesan or romano cheese. Stir cheese in, but don't cook sauce further. Add the shellfish back in and stir to dispense flavor.

I add olive oil to my drained pasta when I make this dish. Then, ladle sauce over pasta and mix lightly. Serve individual plates with a little extra sauce.

***

Here is one more quick, easy, really good sauce. This one is made with frozen cod "loins".

Basic sauce is the same as the Sunday sauce. No meat. So, one 16 oz can tomato sauce, one 6 oz can paste, one 16 oz can water.

Pour about 1/4 c olive oil into broad, shallow pan. Add garlic, parsley, basil, and black pepper. Brown just enough to bring the flavors up. Add sauce, paste, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and add frozen cod loins right from the freezer. Add sliced fresh mushrooms. Bring sauce to the boil and reduce heat to simmer. Partially cover. Simmer for thirty-five to forty minutes.

We serve this with vermicilli.

No cheese.

Black olives and green onions on the side complete the meal beautifully. Handle the pasta the same way the Italian people do all their pasta. Drain and ladle sauce into the pasta. Add extra sauce to individual servings, along with one or two cod "loins".

I add olive oil to the pasta before ladling the sauce on. husband says this is a criminal act.

***

Here is one more, Lil. This is a sauce made with green peppers. We serve it over vermicilli too, and have it when we have pork chops.


Olive oil
2 to 3 cloves garlic
one whole green pepper, seeded and sliced into rings
basil 1/2 t dried, 4 or 5 leaves fresh
black pepper to taste

One 16 oz can tomato sauce
One 6 oz can tomato paste
One sauce can water

Lightly fry the sliced pepper with garlic and black pepper in olive oil. Add tomato sauce, paste, water and basil all at the same time. Simmer partially covered until peppers are done. (About thirty minutes. About as long as it will take for the pork chops to cook.)

This is another recipe that requires no cheese.

husband and I both hope you enjoy the recipes. It was fun to ask him about how this or that was done, and to remember things his mom would do or say.

She is 86 now, and can no longer live at home.

So this was a special thing for us, to share these recipes with you.

Enjoy!

Cedar & husband

To keep it simple Lil? I used the 16 oz sauce to one 6 oz can of paste. Actually, when we make the pepper sauce, we use one small (8 oz) can of tomato sauce and 1/2 can of paste. You just don't need that much sauce when you are making pepper sauce.
 

dstc_99

Well-Known Member
OMG I am actually drooling on my keyboard at work. LOL

I got a crazy hairbrained idea to make meatballs last night. I had never made them before. I pulled a recipe off allrecipes and tweaked it per some of the suggestions/comments. I didn't have parm reggiano so I had to leave that out but they turned out decent. I will definitely have to try "mama's" recipe soon.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
husband and his mom both made/make pasta. husband mom had a special wooden board. She would make a well of her dry ingredients right on the board and add whatever else she put in. Then, she would make tubes of dough, pinch them off, and imprint them on the rough side of a grater. Or, she would make shells with her thumb. I never learned how to do pasta. husband makes his pasta in the bread machine and then rolls it out or whatever he is going to do with it. We have a pasta machine, but other than gnocci, we just buy ready made pasta. husband gnocci is superb. I just asked him how he does it.

I use my food processor. There is a chef on Yahoo, Fabio Viviani I think is his name, and I love his pasta recipe. He has one for gnocci too, that basically involves the Kitchenaid mixer and a lot of time under the paddle. :) The pasta recipe is so easy.


The meatballs would be like what you can hold in your fist. Not as big as a hard ball in baseball, but pretty close.

Good thing you qualified that. I can palm a basketball. LOL

The sauces sound WONDERFUL! Thanks!

And now to return Guide Me's cabbage roll thread. :D
 

Hope_Floats

Member
That is the funniest "recipe" I have ever read, Cedar. You should write an Italian cookbook! I would read it from cover to cover, even if I never cooked a thing! You should call it, What you doing? Lol!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
If you are getting wild and crazy, pick up some bacon sausage and use that in your recipe. It is about the same price as reg sausage here, and not even the pricy ones, and it is sausage that has chopped up bacon in it. It adds an extra layer of flavor to recipes.

I would likely add more garlic and a healthy dose of Mrs. Dash and Lawry's.

Do NOT EVER expect your food to look like a TV recipe. You simply cannot achieve that reliably. They have hours and hours to make it look that way, and they have food stylists to pick the best looking examples of everything and to arrange the food so it looks JUST like they want it.
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
This is really similar to the Greek stuffed grape leaves... What I do whenever I am making meat to stuff in something is spice it up. In the case of the grape leaves, I used 2/3 lamb and 1/3 beef; but you could use turkey, sausage, chorizo... Anything really.

When I make anything at all with ground beef - let's say 2 lbs, I add minced fresh onions - a whole medium onion; a HEAPING tablespoon of minced garlic (the kind in the jar), a can of diced tomatoes and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Sometimes I also add rice, bell peppers, chile peppers, or whatever else grabs my fancy.
 
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