Roasted cabbage with chive-mustard vinaigrette

Cabbage is one of my more recent discoveries in the world. I guess it comes with dating a polish guy...but I am all about it! It is relatively flavorless until you figure out the right way to prepare it. When you get the right recipe cabbage can turn into something so flavorful that can really add to a meal. I really fell in love with this cabbage recipe I found in my Eating Well magazine because the cabbage is just the star and its such a simple preparation that shows off what you can do with a head of cabbage.

What you'll need:
1/2 medium green cabbage, outer leaves removed
olive oil
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp white balsamic or white wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp minced fresh chives

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Prepare cabbage by cutting the cabbage half into 4 wedges and cut out the thick core, leaving the wedge as intact as possible. Drizzle cut sides with olive oil and and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place wedges on baking sheet.
3. Roast the cabbage for 12 minutes. Carefully flip over and roast for about 8 minutes longer, until both sides are browned.
4. Prepare vinaigrette by combining mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add chives and 2 tbsps of olive oil and stir well to combine.
5. Transfer wedge to plate and drizzle with vinaigrette.

Oh yea, these look good. I would serve this with maybe steak, so like a steak wedge salad. Yea, that sounds good!

Golombki recipe

I must start out by saying that I had no idea what a golombki even was until my polish boy told me that he was wishing for some. So I did some research and found this delicious looking recipe in Taste of Home magazine. After running the recipe by Eric to make sure this was the real deal I decided it needed to be added to the list of things to try. I sure hope it is as good as it looks, and I hope I can live up to his mom's version (although I am sure I can't, she is a fabulous cook). 

What you'll need:

1 medium head of cabbage

1/2 cup uncooked instant rice

1 lb ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) condensed tomato soup

1 1/4 cup water

1. Cook cabbage in boiling water just until outer leaves pull away easily from head. Set aside 10 large leaves for rolls. Refrigerate remaining cabbage for another use. Cut out the think vein from the bottom of each leaf, making a V-shaped cut. 

2. Cook rice according to package instructions. Cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cook rice and a pinch of salt and pepper.
3. Place 1/2 cup beef mixture on a cabbage leaf, overlap cut ends of leaf. Fold in sides, roll up beginning from cut end. Place rolls in a greased baking dish. Combine soup and water, pour over top. 

4. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes until cabbage is tender. 

Even though this recipe passed on Eric's end, I think there are so many changes that I would make. I think there is potential for A TON more flavor if you used regular rice, not instant, and you cooked it in the tomato broth. I would also not use condensed tomato soup. I hate the taste of that stuff, I would go for more of a crushed tomato sauce. Season that up nice and it will get thick and yummy as it bakes. I would leave the cabbage leaves and beef raw and let the tomato sauce cook everything together. This is all just a plan in my head...whether it would work or not is the question...but I can't wait to try it!

Let me know if you have a favorite golombki recipe!

Corned beef and cabbage recipe

To start....sorry there is no photo of this glorious master piece of a meal, but I found this one on google just to try and get your mouth watering. I specifically brought my phone to the kitchen to capture a picture of mine right when I brought it out of the oven and then I was struck by its beauty and instantly forgot to take a picture haha. So just use this photo to imagine what a beautiful 3lb slab of meat looks like resting on a bed of carrots, potatoes, and cabbage. It is the best I could do, and actually it looks quite similar to my finished product.

This was only the second time I have made this dish and the first time was a disaster, so this has definitely been a learning experience. It is something that Eric's parents make and he LOVES so I have been trying really hard to perfect it. I still think there is one thing I would change for next time, but we will get to that.

What you'll need:
2-3 lb Corned beef brisket, with seasoning packet
1 lb baby red potatoes, quartered
1 head cabbage, chopped
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp ground cloves

1. Place your brisket with all seasoning from packet into a large pot and cover with water. Get water boiling and then turn heat down so you have a steady rolling boil. Let boil covered for 50 minutes per pound of meat.
2. Once you have about 1/2 hour left of boiling add your cabbage, potatoes, and carrots to the pot and continue the boiling.
3. Set your oven to broil and prepare a deep roasting pan lined with tin foil that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Drain the water from the brisket pot, reserving 1 cup.
4. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of the Dijon mustard into the reserved water and pour into the bottom of your roasting pan (I must warn, I have not tried this part. Next time I make corned beef I will be doing this though. I think it will add a good sauce to the recipe). Then in a small bowl mix together the rest of the Dijon mustard (about 1/4 cup), honey, and cloves. Now at this point feel free to add more honey if you prefer sweeter honey mustard or keep the mixture with more mustard if you prefer it to be tart. Once this is combined, slather the mixture onto the top of the brisket and place into the oven for about 15 minutes, until the top has formed a crust and the liquids in the bottom of the pan have begun to reduce.
5. Slice thinly for sandwiches or into chunks to serve with the potatoes, cabbage and carrots.

I hope you enjoy this one and that my pan sauce experiment works! That boiling liquid just has SOOOO much flavor, I don't want it to go to waste. It would make the perfect sauce. I wanted to wait and post this until I had it perfect, but I am not going to make this again for a while (corned beef is pretty expensive!) and I just couldn't wait to post it, it is too good of a winter meal. Let me know how it turns out!