What an outstanding day here in Maryland! Sky is blue, air is cool and crisp, The day will be perfect for turning off the overworked air conditioners and opening the windows. Payment indeed for the 7 tornados and torrents of rain that hit us on Friday. Yes, that was 7 tornados touching down all over from Frederick, MD to Northern VA. What is going on with our weather? But today is a gift I am going to take advantage of and head outside to read and take pictures of the garden.
Let’s look at what is coming up this week. Sorry all, things came up that pushed back my next installment of VGB. It will be posted at the end of this week. Last week was a banner week with wonderful books from great authors. For those who missed it, Saturday’s substitution was Mind Magic by Poppy Dennison. New author, first book in a new series. Loved it! This week will be some new authors for me as well as a continuation of a series I just love:
Monday: Still Waters, Sanctuary #4 by RJ Scott
Tuesday: Seizing It by Chris T Kat
Wednesday: Murder at The Rocking R by Catt Ford
Thursday: Five Star Review by Lara R Brukz
Friday: One Small Thing by Piper Vaughn and MJ O’Shea
Saturday: New Vocabulary Gone Bad!
Now for a great recipe that can be used as a main course or secondary dish. I just love this one. It came from Laura Calder again. Can’t go wrong with her recipes or her quirky show French Cooking At Home. Great taste and the presentation is so pretty! And it is easy to make. What’s not to like?
Stuffed Cabbage:
Ingredients:
Kosher salt
1 medium or 2 small savoy cabbages (about 1.5 pounds)
3 ounces white bread
About 1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 pound trimmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
A few handfuls fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon quatre-epices, more to taste, recipe below
Freshly ground black pepper
About 1 pound pork sausage meat – I like to use sweet Italian
Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Salt it generously.
Core the cabbage. Gently peel away the leaves to expose the heart (by heart, I mean the ball of more yellowish leaves at the center which are too tightly packed to bother prying apart). Cut out that core of inner-most leaves and shred to add to the stuffing. Cut the thick ribs out of the remaining leaves (they will look like you’ve stolen a sliver from a pie). Set aside.
Blanch the cabbage leaves for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain, and refresh under ice-cold water. Drain and pat dry with a towel.
Break the bread into crumbs in a bowl, pour over the milk and set aside to soften. Heat the butter and olive oil in a skillet and gently fry the onion and shallot until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped cabbage, mushrooms, garlic and thyme. Cook another 5 minutes. Add the bread and cook until the milk has evaporated. Stir through the quatre-epices and season generously with salt and pepper. Add this mixture to the sausage meat in a large bowl and mix thoroughly with a fork. Make a small ball and fry it in the frying pan. Taste it to check the seasonings. Adjust as needed.
Lay a tea towel on the counter with a piece of cheesecloth or muslin large enough to wrap the cabbage in. You’re going to reconstruct the cabbage, but with layers of stuffing between the leaves. So, first lay down the large outer leaves, in a circle, slightly overlapping with the prettiest side out. Spread over a layer of stuffing. Lay over another layer of leaves and repeat the action. Continue until you have run out of leaves. Pull up the edges of the cheesecloth, like a bag, and twist, as if making the head of a puppet, to shape the cabbage into a round loaf shape. Tie a string around the beard of cheesecloth where it meets the cabbage ball, to secure the package. The cabbage can be prepared to this stage in advance, refrigerated and then cooked before serving.
To cook: Steam the cabbage over water or good chicken stock (about 2 cups) for 45 minutes. The flavor from the stuffed cabbage will drip into the water or stock and give it the most amazing flavor. When the cabbage is done, boil down the cooking juices and serve a spoonful around each wedge of cabbage in a soup bowl.
Quatre Epices or Four Spices (a common French spice)
1 heaping Tbsp black peppercorns ground
2 tsp whole cloves ground up
2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 