Minestrone

Since my family is Italian, I can be pretty picky about Italian food. I have made minestrone a few times, trying to perfect it so it's just like my mom's. I finally got it perfect last summer, but I thought I'd give Fannie's version a shot anyway. It wasn't as good as my mom's, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was pretty good, since some of her recipes have come up way short. After all, no one can cook like our moms. That's the whole reason I picked this cookbook when I decided to undertake this whole learning-to-cook adventure.

Onward to my adaptation of Fannie's minestrone.

1 c. dried white beans (I used Great Northern)
4 quarts water
tsp salt

Onions in the pot with herbs.

1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. butter
tbsp dried parsley flakes (or handful fresh)
2 onions
1 tsp. thyme (fresh if possible)
4 tomatoes
2 carrots
8 small kale leaves
2 c chopped cabbage
2 c sliced zucchini
2 tsp dried basil (or fresh if you have it!)
1/2 c. parmesan cheese, plus extra for garnish

Optional: potatoes, green beans, pasta, corn, green peppers, celery stalks and leaves, substitute beef broth for 2-4 c. of water

After addition of pureed beans.

• Soak the beans about 8 hrs (longer is fine) in 1 quart water. You can soak them overnight, or, if you know you're making this for dinner, put them in the water first thing in the morning, and they'll be soaked by the time you're ready to make dinner. 
• Drain water from beans once soaked, add 2 quarts of water and cook in a pot with a lid for about 1-1.5 hrs or until soft.
• When beans are done, add olive oil and butter to a large pot (do not overheat--oil should not smoke)
• Chop onions and add them to pot along with parsley and thyme
• Stir onions frequently for about 2 minutes
• Between stirring, pour beans and their liquid into a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Add to the pot.
• Chop carrots and add to pot
• Chop kale and add to pot. If you don't have kale, you can use any kind of greens. Fannie calls for Swiss chard. You could use spinach, etc, just make sure you adjust cooking times. Spinach or Swiss chard should go in after all the vegetables, since they take very little time to cook. I used kale, adding it here because it takes a while to cook.
• Chop tomatoes and add to pot
• Cover and simmer 15 minutes
• Add zucchini, cabbage and 1 quart water (or beef broth). I just used water. I had blanched my cabbage earlier this summer, so I used that. It cooled the pan down a lot, since it was still frozen, so I waited until the soup began to simmer again before starting the timer.
• Cook for 20 more minutes
• Add basil and 1/2 c. parmesan, stir and adjust seasonings. I added some oregano at this point, along with the basil, and some more salt. 
• Garnish with  more parmesan.

This looks all complicated from the long set of directions, but it's really not. It's time consuming to chop all those veggies, but it's not stressful if you don't worry about adding everything at once. I tried to add each thing in order, then go on with chopping the next thing and adding it as I went. It turned out pretty well, though I realized when it was almost done that I didn't have any parmesan. It was much better as leftovers when I added parmesan. But when I made it, I just garnished with regular grated cheese. It wasn't as good without parmesan.

Simmering in the pot.

Still, it was really good despite the fact that unlike my mom's, it doesn't have potatoes, noodles, garbanzos, or green beans. Since I don't have any of those things, it worked out well. It's the flavor that really makes it minestrone, and this one has it, at least more so than any restaurant minestrone I've had. So I'd say it's a success. I'd make it again for sure, especially if I didn't have a recipe for minestrone already. And I think next time I make it like my mom's, I'm going to change up the beans and do them as Fannie does. I really liked the thickness they added to the broth.

Squash and Cabbage Saute

I've had this recipe marked in my book for a while, since I had so much cabbage earlier in the summer. Now that I have zucchini and peppers ready in the garden, it was time to make this recipe at last. I paired it with the goulash I posted yesterday.

For this recipe, you will need:
About 1/4 head cabbage
1 green bell pepper
1 med. zucchini
vinegar
thyme
oregano
salt & pepper

Directions: 

Heat a skillet and add 2-3 tbsp. butter.

Add 2-4 c. cabbage, shredded or sliced thinly.

Add 1 chopped green pepper (about 1 c.)

Add 1 medium zucchini, chopped (about 2-3 c.)

Saute about 10 mins, stirring a few times, until zucchini is just getting tender.

Add some thyme and oregano. A pinch of each, fresh if possible, but dried is fine, too.

Salt and pepper to taste. I like a lot of pepper.

And 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar.

Stir in the seasonings and serve immediately.

 This recipe was really good. Usually, I'll make a vegetable side dish and think it wasn't really worth the effort, because it's just as good simply steamed with a bit of butter and salt added. But this was really good. Definitely worth the small effort. The flavors went together incredibly well. One of the best vegetable sides I've made.

Goulash Stew

We are renovating a house this summer, and so far, it's a disaster zone. We have loose boards on the back porch, and some red wasps took up residence there. The other day, my husband got stung by a wasp, so I brought him a frozen steak for the swelling around the sting. So, we had a partially thawed round steak that needed to be used.

I looked in Fannie Farmer for a recipe that used round steak, and I found this one that I wanted to make. There was a very similar one called Hungarian Goulash, and only after I started making this and realized it barely has any vegetables did I look at the other recipe and see that it had more veggies! But, I stuck with this one and made a veggie side dish. I paired it with squash and cabbage saute (recipe tomorrow).

Here's the ingredients I used:
2 tbsp. organic butter
2 onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. paprika
1 lb. beef round (Fannie uses 2, but I had a package with about a lb, so that's what I used)
3 c. chopped fresh tomatoes (or a 16 oz can)
1/4 c. sour cream *AT ROOM TEMPERATURE*
salt to taste (FF suggests 1/2 tsp)

Two of these, any size. FF says large, I used medium.

Slice thin.

Saute 10 mins. in butter in casserole or dutch oven (cast iron of course)

Meanwhile, cut round steak into chunks (I tried for 1 1/2 inch).

After 10 mins, add paprika, garlic, & salt. Cook 2 mins more.

Remove onions from pan, add meat.

Turn to brown on both sides.

Put onions back in with meat.

Add tomatoes, stir pot, cover and simmer for 2 1/2 hrs.

Here it is when done.

*Now add the 1/4 c. sour cream. Unfortunately, I did not heed Fannie's advice to add it at ROOM TEMPERATURE, and instead of melting nicely and making a creamy soup, it kind of congealed and refused to melt no matter how I stirred it. So it looks kind of weird, but it tasted good!

With weird sour cream speckles.

I was a bit afraid that the steak would be tough, since I'd had the same cut recently (made into chicken fried steak) and it was a workout for the jaw. But this time, it had plenty of time to cook slowly and get nice and tender. Fannie suggests eating it over noodles, but I just ate it as stew. I could see it being very good with rice, too.

And a side of sauteed squash and cabbage.

I may make the Hungarian Goulash next time, since it's very similar but I won't have to make a vegetable to go on the side. Plus, aside from the sour cream fiasco, this was really good and worth making again. I even made it on a day when I was doing a major canning operation, and it worked out great. I just put it all together and let it simmer on the back burner for 2.5 hours while I did the canning. Since I was canning tomatoes, I ended up with about 2 c. of extra juice, so I threw that in the goulash to make it more soup-like so I wouldn't have to make noodles or rice. I also added about 6 oz. of pepper juice I had from my preserving endeavors. But none of this is necessary. The pepper juice did give it a bit more veggie flavor, though.

Braised Red Cabbage and Apples

I made this dish to go along with the pork chops I posted yesterday. I'd been meaning to make it for a couple weeks, and I finally had something to make it with.

For this recipe I used:
3-4 tbsp. butter (Fannie says to use bacon fat, if you have it)
2 tbsp. organic sugar
1/2 c. chopped onion (about 1 small)
3-4 c. thinly sliced red cabbage (Fannie says 2 lbs, but if you don't have a scale, 4 c. seems to work well. She also says to use shredded cabbage, but I had WAY too much going on with the pork chops to spend hours grating cabbage. I recommend cutting the head in half, then slicing thinly with a bread knife).
2 c. tart apples, sliced thinly (again, peel unless using organic apples. I had a bunch of apples from my mom's tree that were tiny, so I used about 8. But if using apples from the store, probably 2).
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1/2 c. red wine (Fannie says dry, but I have some sweet cooking wine, so that's what I used).
1/2 c. water
1/8 tsp. cayenne
Salt to taste

• Add butter and sugar to skillet and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
• Add the onion and cook until golden
• Add cabbage, apples, vinegar, wine, and cayenne
• Cover and cook 10 minutes on low
• Add water and replace lid, leaving it slightly ajar.
• Cook 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally

This worked out pretty well for me. I was running around in a panic as I cooked this, pork chops, and beer bread all at once, but somehow, I only ended up needing to work on one at a time. The sugar and butter sort of crystallized, but as I continued cooking, it melted again. I stirred the mixture about every five to ten minutes, whenever I had a minute between checking other things. It started sticking around the 25 minute mark, so I had to turn it off. I left it covered for the last 5 minutes, and it was cooked enough. Unfortunately, when I uncovered the pork chops at this point, they had not fared as well.

This dish was pretty good. I'm not sure I'd make it again on an average night, but it was decent. It didn't magically transform the veggies into french fries, but it went well with the apple pork chops I made it with. I'd make it again if I had something that needed a fancied-up vegetable. But I'll probably just stick with steaming the cabbage and adding a little butter and salt most of the time.

Braised Pork Chops with Apples

Putting the chops in to fry.

Confession: I have no clue how to cook meat. I was a vegetarian for half my childhood and all of high school and college. Since then, I've learned how to cook ground beef, but anything more complicated than that leaves me wandering in the dark. So I follow the recipe pretty exactly when it comes to slabs of meat. In this case, that was where I went wrong. That, and the fact that I tried to cook three things at once, which I do NOT recommended to newbie cooks (especially if you're barely keeping your eyes open because you stayed up watching Sex & the City until 1 am the night before). I ended up so stressed I wished I'd saved my one beer instead of putting it in the cheesy beer bread I made to go with the chops. Not to mention that by the time I was done, my kitchen was a disaster area that took another half hour to clean up.

After a minute of searing.

So, on with the chops. I had a package of frozen pork chops my sister had given us after she raised pigs (along with the ham). I looked up how to cook them in Fannie Farmer and followed the recipe pretty exactly. I made the recipe for Braised Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes, but used the apple alternative. Unfortunately, I failed to notice that she said to use 1 1/2 inch thick chops, and mine were more like 3/4 inch. So, when she said to cook them on medium high for 30 minutes, and I cooked them for 25 on low, they still ended up a bit burned in the spot towards the middle of the pan. Luckily I checked them five minutes early or they would have been charred to a crisp.

See the burnt spots? I never claimed I could cook!

Fannie's recipe, with my adaptations:

• Take 4 pork chops (1 1/2 inch thick)
• Coat them lightly on both sides with 1 1/2 tbsp. flour
• sprinkle with salt and pepper
• put 2 tbsp. of butter in a skillet and cook on medium high, 1 minute on each side
• Lower heat to medium, add 2 c. sliced apples (peeled unless they are organic--you don't want to eat what's on a commercial apple skin), cover the pan and cook for 30 minutes. Note the thickness of your chops and alter accordingly so you don't end up with chops like the ones above.

Despite the charring, these really weren't bad. My pan seemed to be sizzling a LOT, so after about 5-10 mins, I turned the heat to low. I'm really glad, too, or I might have caused a kitchen fire or something! As it was, I just scraped off the burned bits and everything tasted fine. My husband just ate his and said he didn't even notice. So they weren't bad. But I will definitely remember the timing lesson next time I make chops!

The apples in the pan with the chops were really good, and probably saved them from getting dried out. Plus, they went really well with the side dish, Braised Red Cabbage and Apples. Even though the chops had a bit of charring, they weren't dry or tough at all. Even my son ate them without complaining about anything but the strips of fat going through the meat. Overall, this is a good, simple recipe for pork chops that I may make again now that I know not to cook them so long (edit: for a more successful cooking experience, see my second attempt here).

Borscht (Russian Beet Soup)

 It's been a while since I've posted a cabbage recipe. But I'm still drowning in cabbages. No complaints here, though. It's nice to have a success crop my first year of gardening. What I don't have is beets. But my mom grew some, so she brought me some and asked if I could make borscht. I don't think I'd ever heard of this dish before my mom said I should make it.

It took me a couple days to get to it, since I didn't have any beef broth. I ended up making it with bone broth from the ham I made last week. The recipe is pretty simple.

In a large pot, cook 4 c. beef broth

 

 Get enough beets to make 2 cups. I used 3, but only took pics of 2.

Remove stems and skins. 

Chop or shred beets.

Add 1 onion, chopped, and 1-2 c. shredded cabbage. I used purple cabbage.

Simmer in a covered pot until veggies are tender.

Add 1 tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar

Add water if necessary

Season if necessary

Serve hot or chilled, with

1/2 c. sour cream

This recipe was pretty good. The beets were very sweet and the soup had great flavor. I really enjoyed it. If you like beets and cabbage, you would like this recipe.

Chinese Cabbage and Tomatoes

This is a simple vegetable recipe that would be good with pretty much anything, especially beef. I've eaten Chinese cabbage a lot, both in stir-fry and by itself. But I've never really done much with it. If you don't like the flavor of cabbage, this has a completely different flavor and texture. It's very tender and delicious.

This recipe is not in my updated Fannie Farmer Cookbook, sadly. But it is in my mom's old version, The Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Fannie doesn't give much detail on the cooking technique, so I'll add my own.

Recipe:
4 c. shredded Chinese cabbage (I sliced it thin, since I'm not even sure how you could shred this stuff)
1/2 c. cooked or canned tomatoes (I didn't have this, so I just chopped a fresh tomato and threw it in the pan with everything else and it cooked very well).
1 small chopped onion

Cook until tender, adding water if necessary to keep cabbage from sticking.

The recipe doesn't give instructions on cooking or seasoning. So, I wasn't sure how to cook it. I threw it in the cast iron frying pan, like always, with a tbsp. or two of olive oil. It cooked really well, so everything was done at once. I seasoned with salt and pepper.

It definitely did not need any water added. It was kind of juicy, maybe because I cooked it with a lid on. It was pretty plain, but for a side dish, it would be fine. It was nice to use all veggies from the garden, but next time, I'll probably just steam the Chinese cabbage. This wasn't all that special.

Colcannon

Guess what I have today? Surprise! Another cabbage recipe!

With the fridge overflowing cabbage, I had to do something. So I went back to Fannie Farmer for more cabbage recipes. I found this one, an Irish recipe that I would describe as "mashed potatoes and cabbage."

• 2 lbs. potatoes, chopped and peeled (I didn't peel mine, and estimated the amount since I don't have a kitchen scale).
• 1 1/2 lbs. cabbage, cored and quartered (this is later supposed to be sliced, so I just sliced it first, before cooking)
• 4 tbsp. butter
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1 tsp. salt
• Ground pepper
• 6 scallions, sliced (I didn't have these, so I used half a regular onion, cooked with the cabbage and potatoes)

Directions:
Boil potatoes until 15-20 mins, until tender
Halfway through the cooking, add the cabbage to the pot.
When done, drain and remove cabbage, slice into thin strips (like I said, I did this before cooking, as it seemed easier than trying to slice cooked cabbage)
Take drained pot (with potatoes still in it) and add butter, 1/2 c. milk, salt & pepper and mash until smooth.
Add other 1/2 c. milk and stir.
Add cabbage and mix until blended.
Garnish with scallions (or cook onion in with veggies if you don't have green onions).

The mashed potatoes, sans cabbage.

 This turned out really well. In fact, I may just throw cabbage in all my mashed potatoes from now on. It was really tasty. My son didn't want the cabbage, but once I told him he had to try it, he ate it all up without complaining much. Even my picky sister, who said it sounded gross, liked it. Even more shockingly, my dad came in and asked about it and, after looking up 'colcannon' in the dictionary (they had it), he tried it and said it was really good. If you knew my dad, you'd know how shocking it is for him to try a random dish.

So, I'm calling this a success all around. I barely tasted the cabbage--it's pretty much a rich, creamy mashed potato with a hidden veggie. If your kids are very veggie resistant, you could probably chop the cabbage more finely and sneak it in there.