Dark Days: A Foray into Fleshy Foods (and an array of side dishes)

This week, I cooked meat. I hadn't eaten meat in over a month. I am an almost-vegetarian, averaging probably a pound of meat per month. But, in order to be a part of my house's local-organic-meat CSA, I had to place a monthly order of five pounds. So, January's order has arrived and I had to figure out what to do with it all!

I thawed a pound of ground beef and took a stab at The Joy of Cooking's "Ground Beef in Cabbage Leaves." As usual, I made quite a few modifications to the recipe, but I wasn't too far off. At first, this recipe seemed like more trouble than it was worth, but once I got the hang of it, and tasted the results, I was at peace with my efforts.

I'll start with a picture of the gourmet (okay, slightly burned on top) final result, and work backwards from there:

Cabbage rolls, as far as I can tell, are kind of like sweet-and-sour meatballs in a leaf. I would do a few things differently next time, but it was exciting to see that I could make a relatively complex dish, with multiple side dishes, out of entirely local foods.

The parboiling of the leaves was less tedious but more time-consuming than I imagined, and I didn't have tongs so I had to use some canning equipment to fish the leaves out. I was afraid of over-doing it, so I under-did it and ended up with crunchy stems. Next time I would boil each leaf until even the stem felt slightly soft.

The beef was exceptionally tender and, until I added the vinegar, a bright red. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I went with a whole chopped onion, salt, pepper, cayenne, crushed garlic clove, apple cider vinegar, and a tablespoon of honey for the filling.

I used an Ulu to chop the onion. TheUlu took me some time to get used to, but now I consider it an indispensible tool for chopping anything into small pieces without excessive labor or loss of fingertips.

Lacking any sort of string or toothpick as required by the recipe, I simply folded the rolls up tight and put the flappy-side down, and that held them together just fine. I had some kefir left, so I poured that on top and sprinkled paprika all over.

 I baked them 50 minutes on 375 as recommended, but next time I would likely cover them for the second half of the bake time to protect from burning. The end result was was rich and brothy. I might like to add another vegetable to the filling...maybe mashed sweet potatoes? Or something spicy? In any case, I have a jar of them in the freezer to test how useful they may be as a sort of "local fast-food" in the future.

(A note on the kefir: I never strained out the grains and it continued fermenting into a strong, sour, effervescent sludge. I took it out of the fridge to come to room temperature while I was cooking and the pressure from the gasses built up enough to blow the lid off. The cat was on it like bluebonnet.)

 

And nowww..side dishes!

Tiny baker potatoes came in abundance with this week's veggie CSA, but they were already sprouting at the eyes so I decided they needed to be used. I also had parsnips in the refrigerator from about three weeks ago and a few of them were starting to get a little flimsy at the ends. Thus, potato-parsnip mash. And a roasted medly.

First, the medly: a simple toss in olive oil, salt and pepper, and twenty minutes in the toaster oven did the trick.

The mash was slightly more complex. I sauteed a mashed clove of garlic in a cast iron dutch oven in Earth Balance vegan margarine, and then I filled the pot about 2/3 full with fresh milk. While that was warming, I chopped parsnhips and potatoes--about 1/2 and 1/2 equally--into bite-sized pieces. Then I added them to the milk, brought it all to a boil, turned the heat to medium, and simmered until everything was "mashable". I mashed them with a large serving fork (I would LOVE to have a potato masher...it's one of those eternally useful things without which I frequently find myself) and turned the heat down to low. Replaced the lid and let simmer until I got hungry.

My other side dish was cabbage soup. Earlier in the day I had pulled my full broth-bag out of the freezer, covered it in filtered water, and simmered it down until those veggies looked good-and-dead.

After straining, I put the broth back in the pot and chopped two-and-a-half small green cabbages. A-la-Joy of Cooking, I kept it simple and just included salt and pepper. That's it. It was painfully bland at first, but but after a day of seasoning it improved. Plus, I discovered that adding a (local) hard boiled egg to the top makes a world of difference.

Finally, I had some leftover meat filling so I grilled up three small hamburgers and steamed some purple kale from this week's CSA. How many meals came out of thise one, entirely local and organic, cooking spree???? Totally amazing. My, belly, fridge and freezer are full.

A couple of other updates:

I got another accidental extra half-gallon of milk and made kefir again, this time keeping more closely to the directions, and straining out the grains in the end, and it is lighter, creamier, and sweeter.

I have also started "feeding" the sourdough starter, which means adding a tablespoon or two of flour each day and stirring vigorously. It is thick, sour smelling, and will be ready to make bread within the week! I moved it to the mantle above the wood stove in the livingroom to encourage a warmer, bacteria-friendly environment.

Bon apetit!