Once upon a time, I was a professional chef. I still cook, though now my efforts are confined to our Seattle condo, better known as the Ward Street Bistro. [More]
The holidays are over and we're getting back to our normal routine, including simpler winter fare. This sweet and sour cabbage is my mother's recipe--I'm 51 so I'll let you do the math on how long I've been enjoying this cabbage--but it is a family favorite served with grilled sausages and a baked potato. Warm comfort on a winter evening for sure.
You can go directly to the printable recipe, or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...
I'm not sure why it took me so long to post this recipe. If I prioritized writing posts according to recipes we make the most, this might well be in the #1 slot. It's a recipe adaptation from one of my culinary heroes, Patricia Wells. Carrots are braised with olive oil, garlic and olives until everything is butter-tender. You've got the sweet carrots playing of the salty, briny olives plus sweet, tender slivers of garlic. We had these recently nestled up against Linguine with Shrimp Scampi--but they are fantastic with just about any meat or poultry. They are served warm or room temperature, which makes them a great make-ahead option.
You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make them, step-by-step...
I am very pleased to be doing a second guest post over at one of my favorite cooking sites, startcooking.com. This time I'm featuring a quick & easy risotto - no stirring required - that makes a great weeknight dinner. The key is cooking a flavorful plain risotto on its own and mixing it into a skillet that contains a desired combination of vegetables, herbs, seafood, sausage...whatever strikes your fancy. I'm demonstrating the recipe with one of my favorite combinations - tomatoes and mushrooms - both of which have had their flavors concentrated before being mixed into the rice. I hope you'll stop by startcooking.com to check my latest post and of course the wealth of other recipes and information Kathy Maister provides.
P.S. If you're curious on how Kathy does her amazing how-to videos, there is a complete explanation here.
Some time ago, Cooking Light published a lightened version of the classic "Jiffy Mix" corn casserole. If you're not familiar with this side dish it is really tasty. But the original version - which contains Jiffy Mix corn muffin mix, sour cream, eggs, canned corn and a stick of butter - packs on the calories. Fine if you're Paul Deen (her version, BTW, adds cheddar cheese), but not-so-fine for the weight-watching head chef here at the Bistro. (That would be me.)
So, I gave the Cooking Light version a go and Drake loved it. I, however, was a bit bothered about the Jiffy Mix. The mix is is loaded with hydrogenated fats and it uses de-germinated corn meal, which has less flavor (and less fiber) than whole grain. To top it off, Jiffy Mix is quite sweet, which made the casserole very sweet - tasty - but a bit too sweet to my taste.
So, I re-worked the recipe into a healthier, "from scratch" version that's less sweet than the original and with richer corn flavor. I'm quite happy with my variation, and it passed the hubby test with flying colors. Served along side some BBQ it's a hard-to-beat summer side dish.
You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...
