Sausage mac n’ cheese

Southern potato - sausage hash

Frogmore stew

comfort food from the South.

Dublin/Irish coddle

Usually I make the Irish-Ameican corned beef and cabbge for St Patricks Day. This year, went for Irish coddle. Simple but tasty with Irish soda bread.

Asha's beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

When the cold season strikes, these days, I somehow look to warm comfort foods with an Eastern European slant. This casserole is based on the cabbage-sausage-potato recipes that originate from that part of our world. The sausage that I used is one of the uncooked kinds, my favorite, the brat. You may reduce the amount of garlic and red pepper according to your preference, of course. By the way, this is not a healthy version, just plain delicious. :)

Ground beef - 1 lb.
Johnsonville original bratwurst -3

1 Savoy cabbage - shredded
6-8 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes - sliced thin
Onion, diced small- 1 large
Garlic, crushed - 1 large  bulb
Vegeta seasoning (optional) - 1/2- 1 tsp
garlic powder - a good sprinkling in the meat and the veggies later
dried sage- 1tsp
dried marjoram - 1 tsp
crushed red pepper flakes - 4 tsp
ground black pepper- 1- 2 tsp
white vinegar - 2 tsp
salt
Olive oil, and/or butter - 2 or 3 tbsp

Draw a sharp knife down the middle of the sausage, lengthwise. Peel off the skin so as to remove the meat.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet or other large vessel. Saute half of the onion and garlic till almost brown.
Add the spices - 1 tsp of the black pepper, or more, if you like-  and herbs.Stir for a minute. Add the beef and the sausage meat. Brown the meat for a few minutes, Add the vinegar. Stir. Remove from heat.

Now add a little more olive oil or a little piece of butter to the same skillet or pot, and saute the rest of the onion and garlic till almost brown.  Add 1 tsp of black pepper. Or crushed red pepper if you like. Or both. No set rules. Fry for a minute. Add the potatoes and cabbage. Stir well so that the veggies are coated well with the spicy oil. Add enough salt to taste, Remove from heat. You do not need to cook the veggies.

Butter a large baking pan or Dutch oven. Place a layer of the cabbage-potato mixture in the pan.

beef-potato-cabbage-sausage casserole

Next add  layer of the browned beef-sausage mixture. Repeat layers ending with potato-cabbage mix at the top. Cover pan with aluminum foil.

 Bake at 375° for 40 minutes to an hour, till the top is browned a little.

PS: Browning the meat before baking is optional. Alternately, you can saute all of the onion-garlic at once. Divide into two. Mix one half with the meat, and the other with the veggies. Then do the layering, cover, and bake.

For the meat part, make it with just beef or just sausage, or more sausage, cooked or otherwise.

Serve warm with  rolls, and a salad, for health, and for color. :).

buttery rolls

Betty Neels English picnic - pasty

here's the deal with Neels

I enjoy reading a Betty Neels romance. There is a certain "purity" to her novels. They are no thrillers, there isn't any sex in them. The plots and characters are fairly repetitive. Still,  they please me. The sheer predictability make them home-like, or like a warm fireplace on a snowy night. I read them as a young girl in India, and now, as a middle-aged housewife in the US.

Back then, I was fascinated by the exotic ( for me)  locales, Amsterdam, London, Vienna etc. I walked along the English countryside, gazed at the canals and the old houses in Amsterdam, ate cakes at Sacher in Vienna, along with the heroine. I visited in my mind's eye, the English cottages, their gardens, the  black and white floors of a Dutch house, the museums and shops in the cities.
And of course, love! :)
There was a period when I forgot about these characters. But now they are back. Like a hot cup of tea, or a chilled glass of wine, these books relax me. But this time around, it is the food that captures my attention more ( of course, there will always be love  on my mind-- that pure, impossibly perfect, perfectly impossible, other worldly, golden ideal! :)). Betty Neels dishes out a  delicious menu in each of her books. And I try to recreate them. I research the recipes,  I combine, edit and create the dishes that Neels has mentioned in her novels. I am having fun doing this, as I learn new things. The recipes and pictures you see here have their origins from this liking.

Like her serious hero who is an expert at making small talk when he loves the girl, let's talk about nothing in particular, and have a glass of sherry before dinner. Here's to us! ;)
read more: who is Betty Neels

Now we 'll all go on a picnic with Betty.

 I forgot the boiled eggs for this platter. The heroine, after a nice walk on the beach, goes to a seaside eatery and enjoys a hearty teatime meal.

cucumber sandwich, sandwich with gentleman's relish, chicken vol-au-vents, cornish pasty, sausage rolls

Pasty


2 lbs short crust pastry -  I used pie crust.
2 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium potato, diced and cooked (use microwave :)
1- 2  cups ground beef ( or lamb, diced, cooked)
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped, optional
salt, pepper
cayenne (optional)
1/2 lb cheddar, grated
Eggwash for glaze


Filling -- Heat oil. Saute onion, garlic. Add beef. Cook well. Add mushrooms. then potatoes. Season to taste. Remove from heat. Add the cheese. Stir well.

400 F oven. Roll out pastry. Cut out 6" circles. Spoon in filling. Crimp edges together. Cut slits. Brush with beaten egg. Bake on sheet for 20- 30 minutes, till golden.

                                                      

buns