Pork & Sauerkraut Stew

I LOVE sauerkraut. My family thinks that it's weird, but I can sit down with a good jar of drained sauerkraut and just eat it cold out of the jar all by itself. This is a pretty recent thing for me, at least I could never do that when I was a kid; back then I hated the stuff.

Nowadays I usually have two kinds of sauerkraut in the cupboard at any given time, a jar of Rotkraut (or red cabbage sauerkraut), and a regular white cabbage sauerkraut. Yummy stuff!

Sauerkraut is made by fermenting cabbage, rather like kimchi. As a result, sauerkraut has beneficial bacteria and digestive enzymes in it as well as high levels of Vitamin C.

My favourite way to prepare sauerkraut, which most of the people in my house like, is in pork stew with sauerkraut. It has a not-overwhelming sauerkraut flavour that's balanced nicely with good Hungarian paprika and dill. This stew is best made with homemade sauerkraut, of course, just like Papa makes.

Pork & Sauerkraut Stew

Brown in batches in a hot pan with a Tbsp of oil:

• 6 cups of lean cubed pork - can use stew cuts as well

Remove pork and sautee until they start to caramelize:

• 1 or 2 diced onions, according to preference

Stir in:

• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 Tbsp dill
• 2 Tbsp Hungarian paprika
• 4 cups drained and rinsed sauerkraut

Add:

• Vegetable stock or water to just scantly cover.

Simmer for at least an hour before checking the meat. The pork should be very tender, do not rush this stew! I often add more dill and paprika to this as it cooks as well to add more depth to the flavour.

I usually serve this stew with mashed potatoes, topped with a little bit of sour cream.

Adriatic Fish Stew

This is a really delicious way to cook fish that's a little different. I use halibut in this recipe as it is my favourite, though I tend to only make it when a friend goes fishing and I get it for free because halibut is so expensive. You can use just about any kind of firm fish to make this.

Adriatic Fish Stew

In a big pot sautee until soft:

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 minced onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed

Add:

• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 – 3 cups chopped tomatoes (or use canned diced tomatoes)
• 1 Tbsp vinegar (or 1/2 c wine)
• 2 bay leaves
• chopped parsley
• 2 1/2 cups fish or vegetable stock (or chicken, in a pinch)

Bring to a boil and add:

• 2 lbs of fish fillets – cut into 4 cm cubes

Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 mins or until done. Shake pan instead of stirring if possible to keep fish from breaking up. Season to taste.
Serve over herbed mashed potatoes.

Basic Borscht

Since the weather is still rather yucky out here in Western BC, I've been cooking a lot of soups and stews to help stave off the damp chill. I suppose that I shouldn't complain too much about the state of things here, since it seems that the rest of the northern hemisphere is suffering with a crazy cold winter and we're going to be hard pressed to scrape up enough snow to actually host the Olympics on.

So, if you're in the midst of a deep freeze this winter, this recipe will help you stay warm too. And, even better, it's cheap as hell to make. You might even say it's cheap like borscht! Okay, maybe not..

I can rarely find lamb stew meat that's what I would consider a reasonable price. So instead I often use a couple of lame steaks with bones in them. If you brown the steaks and throw them into the stew intact, you can break up the meat later when the stew is done. This gives a very rich broth.

If I have a chicken or a turkey carcass, I will make stock from that and toss in some bits of poultry for meat instead of the lamb. Borscht is fabulous made with turkey!

Borscht

• 1 lb approx. lamb stew meat (can omit meat and use a vegetable stock if preferred)
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 4 large beets, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 – 1/2 head of green cabbage, coarsely shredded
• 1-2 onions, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 tomatoes, diced (or a can of stewed tomatoes if you MUST)
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cups stock (beef, chicken, veggie)
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• dill
• sour cream to garnish

Instructions:
Brown the stew meat in a large heavy pot. Drain the fat if preferred.
Add the onion, carrots, celery, beets to the pot and cook until they’re just starting to soften. Then add the garlic, tomatoes, and cabbage and cook for a few more mins.
Add the bay leaf and the stock and simmer for about an hour, until the meat is very tender and the vegetables are done. Add the lemon juice and dill (to taste) and salt and pepper.
Garnish with sour cream and fresh dill. Serve with dark Russian rye bread.

For my first trick..

This is a recipe that I've never, ever shared before. For a Very Long Time ™, I was a terrible cake baker. In fact, I was almost convinced that cakes were somehow unattainable for me. Then, I was given this cake recipe and my whole world changed! Okay, maybe not my whole world, but my cakes sure did.

The secret to a "proper" cake from scratch is that you have to do is buy cake & pastry flour. That's it. Even if you don't even sift it like those finicky old cake recipes say, just using cake flour is going to make an AMAZING difference. Trust me.

Perfect White Cake from scratch

Pre-heat oven to 375 F
Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans

Sift together:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Beat until foamy, in a small bowl:

• 4 eggs whites

Gradually add in:

• 1/2 cup white sugar

until mixture forms soft peaks!

In a large bowl cream together gradually:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup white sugar

In a measuring cup, combine:

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract (also good with almond or coconut extracts)

Into the shortening mixture, beat in flour mixture 1/4 at a time alternated with milk mixture 1/3 at a time. Mix ONLY until just barely smooth. Gently beat egg whites into the batter; don't worry about folding them in, just beat them on slow speed until combined.

Turn into prepared pans and bake for 25 mins. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

I like to split the layers each in half horizontally to add more filling to it to keep it nice and moist. I HATE dry cake.

I made this cake last year for my yearly birthday extravaganza and filled it with a mixture of cream cheese, crushed pineapple, flaked coconut, and whipped cream, and then covered the top with big dollops of whipped cream.

A fresh start

For anyone who's read through my old recipe blog, this will be the replacement. As such, the old one will not be updated anymore. I know, I know.. it's not like I updated much ANYWAYS, but you know how it is.

This blog is hopefully not just going to be a list of recipes though, I hope to actually talk about cooking and food related topics in general. I hope that you find some of them interesting and maybe even a little amusing.

Welcome to the experiment.