I Am Delicious: March 2013

March 21, 2013

Polish Cabbage & Meat Rolls in Tomato & Capers Sauce

Cabbage and Meat Rolls served in Tomato & Capers Sauce are known in Polish as gołąbki (literally: little pigeons) and definitely are one of my favorite traditional Polish recipes. Cabbage rolls stuffed with a meat, rice and 'secret' herbs mixture are simply delicious and very easy to prepare. Full of nutrition and will keep your stomach full for many hours.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 100 minutes

Ingredients:

1 whole head cabbage - white or green - with large leaves
1 large onion, chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 eggs
2 Tbsp dried marjoram
2 Tbsp dried thyme
500 g minced beef meat
500 g minced pork meat
2 cups cooked white rice
4 cloves finely chopped garlic
1 l beef or vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
mashed potatoes to serve with
500 ml tomato sauce made from fresh tomatoes
150 g capers to mix with the sauce

Method:

1. Chop the onion. Add minced garlic cloves. Saute both in butter in large skillet until onion turns gold. Once ready. Leave aside to cool.

2. Beat the eggs. Add marjoram, salt, pepper and thyme. Add the eggs into minced beef mixed with minced pork. Add rice, onion and garlic. Mix well with your hands.

3. Leave aside in a fridge.

4. Core the cabbage and blanche its leaves in boiling salty water. Peel them off as they become limp. Once you separated all the leaves, cut off thick stems to prevent the limp leaf from bending.

5. Put about 2 Tbsp of meat & rice mixture in the center of each leaf and fold the sides of the leaf in a roll shape. Should look like a little envelope package.

6. Move all cabbage rolls into a casserole dish with their seam down. Pour beef stock into a casserole to come about half way up the rolls. Cover the casserole tightly and cook in a preheated oven in 190 C for 60 minutes.

7. Check the level of liquid in the casserole. Pour away all but 1 cup. Pour on the fresh tomato sauce with capers and cook, uncovered, for a further 30-40 minutes, or until the cabbage is tender. You can reduce the heat to 170 C.

8. Served hot with mashed potatoes.

ENJOY!!!

Posted on March 21, 2013 at 06:59 AM in All, Meat & Charcuterie, Sauces & Dressings, Vegetables & Grains | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 12, 2013

Rum & Cream Cupcakes

Rum and cream cupcakes are again a great option for a nice dessert or sweet breakfast. I love the smell when baking and delicious taste when having my morning coffee with one cupcake. Best thing about this recipe is that apart of the cake itself you can be really creative for a cream, fruits and decoration.

Prep Time: 55 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 glass of sugar
3 large eggs
70 g raisins
5-6 Tbsp dark rum
300 g plain flour
25 g yeast
150 ml lukewarm milk
150 g butter
1 pinch of salt
20 g vanilla sugar
fruits, jelly and icing for decoration. You can create nice jelly shapes like I did - anything you like

Method:

1. Soak the raisins in the rum for as long as you wish. Of course, the longer, the better.

2. Add the flour to a large bowl and create a hole in the center. Crumble in the yeast. Add 3-4 Tbsp of lukewarm milk, 2 Tbsp of sugar and create a dough.

3. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and leave in a pre-heated oven to 50 C for approx. 15 minutes. Oven must be pre-heated and switched off. The dough should expand almost a double of its size and develop plenty of air bubbles.

4. Now add the remaining sugar, milk, vanilla sugar, eggs, flakes of soft butter, salt and soaked raisins into the dough. I also add a few additional spoons of dark rum for a better taste :)

5. Kneed the mixture using a dough hook of a hand-held mixer. Again cover the dough and leave it in a pre-heated to 50 C and switched off oven for approx. 30 minutes until it has doubled the size.

6. Once your dough is ready, fill cupcake baking moulds to approx. 2/3 full. Do not overfill. Am using silicon moulds for that as I think they are best. Do not forget to springle some oil over the moulds so your cupcakes won't stick when baked.

7. Place the moulds into the center of a pre-heated to 180 C oven and bake for approx. 25 minutes. Cupcakes are ready when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Cool aside then remove cupcakes from the moulds and place on wire racks to cool completely.

9. Now time to decorate. I used a whipped cream with 1 Tbsp of orange liquer, decorated with icing sugar and fruits. Additionally, I created nice and funny shapes jellies in two flavours: cherry and kiwi. You can be as creative as you wish.