Getting warped again

[altivo]

Workshop starts Wednesday morning. Spent the afternoon measuring the warp, that's completed. Hope to get it beamed yet tonight (wound onto the back beam of the loom.) Then I can thread tomorrow and sley on Tuesday, with any luck.

Also made golubky or stuffed cabbage rolls for dinner. That's a traditional Polish dish, and my recipe is fairly close to tradition except I usually substitute ground poultry for the beef or pork. Instead of baking in the oven, we use the microwave, but that makes little difference since it's a closed casserole dish and the final baking is more a steaming than anything else. Baked in an open pan, the cabbage leaves turn to tough dry papery stuff. It's a dish with many steps, though mostly not difficult. The only tricky part is separating whole leaves from a head of cabbage. My mom used to hack out the core and steam the cabbage whole for 15 minutes, which makes the leaves pliable. It also makes them scalding hot, so you have to wait a long time for it to cool enough to handle, so I don't do that. Instead I carefully separate the outer leaves from the raw cabbage, then steam them in the microwave so they become pliable enough to roll up. Some get cracked in the separation process, but usually I can still make a roll from them. The filling is ground meat cooked with onion and garlic, mixed with cooked rice and a beaten egg, and seasoned with fennel seed. Then a sauce of tomato, with vinegar, brown sugar, red wine, and dill is poured over the top, and the whole baked or steamed for 15-20 min. It's very tasty, and pretty healthy too if you use poultry in the stuffing or else my vegetarian filling which is based on brown rice with some cheese and a lot of seasoning. Serves four, or two twice. Leftovers!

Comments

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

Wow, that does sound tasty.

I ate a couple of Hormel chili and macaroni things that require no refrigeration and microwave in 90 seconds.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Eewww! ;p

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a great meal. AND it uses fennel. The strange vegetable that no one seems to know what to do with.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I really like fennel. The seeds are infinitely useful, as in this case. But the fresh green thingie (so-called because it is so bizarre looking) is best eaten raw. I just slice it up thin and toss it with mixed greens for an excellent salad. There are various ways of cooking it, of course, but why bother?

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I remember my mother boiling one whole once, and observing steam spraying out of the "spout" at the top of the fennel. Disturbing.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm, never tried that. Sort of like a live lobster eh? I can well imagine those hollow stems conducting steam or even boiling water. Could be dangerous. XD

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

I can't remember exactly why she was doing it. i think she added it to a pie later. Since then, I have always found it a bit of a freaky veg. :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The fennel and the kohlrabi are certainly among the most bizarre of common veggies.

Did you know that in Italian the word fenocchio is a slang term or euphemism for a gay man? I think the Italians also have the best ideas for actually cooking fennel, usually involving olive oil and braising or stir fry. It also flavors bread very nicely.

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

Gay men often have steamy spouts. ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Don't you mean "sprouts?"

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Depends if they are thought as teapots or kohlrabi or fennel :P

*hugs*

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Warped, beamed...

"Warp nine, Scott!"
"you cannot do that, it is against the laws of physics!"
"Okay, then, just beam me up then"

Somehow I kep thinking of Star Trek when you talk about weaving :P

Sounds like a nice dinner, and it is also very popular in Finland. They usually use mince mix of pork and beef as a filling. They are called "Kaalikääryle" in finnish. In some dialects it sounds like a "Kualkiärjyle" which always sounds silly. :P

I think your finnish colleagues might know the dish ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We were looking at our big Hungarian cookbook last night trying to figure out whether there was a Hungarian version. There apparently is one, so I'm not surprised that Finland has one too. My mother (who was of English and German descent) used to make cabbage rolls often when I was little. I love them, and they are a "comfort food." Unfortunately, they are time consuming to make, even with the microwave, because of all the steps. Consequently, we don't have them more than once or twice a year as a rule.

We used to have a restaurant here in town that was owned by a Bosnian family, and they made nice cabbage rolls. Alas, they closed down and sold the place for a Mexican restaurant instead.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess they make wraps instead of rolls now :P

*nuzzles the horsie*

Maybe make more at once and freeze them? :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well I could make more and freeze them, but I'm not fond of leftovers that have been frozen and thawed, except for soups usually. Most of the time I can only get about eight leaves off the cabbage that are large enough, so to make a larger batch I'd need several cabbages...

Yeah, I guess you could say that Mexican food is served in wraps. ;p I actually do like Mexican cooking, but we haven't ever tried the new place. I think we feel it's somehow being a traitor to the old owners, because we liked them a lot.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*sits beside the cooker sniffing at the lovely cooking smells*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You need to be faster, kitty cat. Those leftovers are long gone. ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*goes all big watery kitten eyes and bottom lip trembles*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*gives you fresh baked bread with butter and jam*