Saturday, December 5, 2009

Rosemary Halusky with Cabbage and Broccoli Rabe


I'm not quite sure what I think of this dish. The halusky are the best I've ever made, namely because I used potatoes for the first time. Duh! Also, the rosemary added a nice flavor and made the halusky seem like something special rather than just filler dough balls. Whereas my taste tester liked the broccoli rabe and said it "punched through the cabbage and dumplings," I thought it was a tad too bitter. The next time I make halusky, I'll use a different green (mustard, kale?), although I don't know which one. You can't really see it in the picture, but the dish came out much more attractive and interesting than traditional halusky with cabbage. Not only does the broccoli add color, I added some parsley to the halusky which give them green flecks and break up the white.

Here's the recipe I used. It's a modified version of a basic halusky recipe from the "Dobra Cookbook" I mentioned in the previous post.

2 medium potatoes
1 egg
salt
2 cups flour
1 cabbage
1 large bunch of broccoli rabe (aka broccolini)
1 Tblsp butter
1 Tblsp olive oil
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion
1 Tblsp dried rosemary squeezed by my fingers into small bits
1 Tblsp dried parsley
1 tsp white pepper

Peel and grate potatoes and then pulverize in a food processor until they look like hummus. Add salt, egg, flour, rosemary, parsley and white pepper. Mix until the dough holds together but is still very sticky and doesn't hold its shape. It should not be like bread dough. Because it's moist and sticky, it will make for moist halusky. I used a halusky maker my mother lent me to drop the halusky quickly into a pot of boiling water to which I had added some vegetable oil to keep the halusky from sticking together. Boil halusky for about 10 minutes; drain in a colander and rinse with cold water and return to pot. Brown 1 Tblsp butter and 1 Tblsp olive oil in a pan and then pour over the halusky. Chop onion and brown in 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1/4 cup of butter. Chop the cabbage finely and add to the onion. Also, remove the leaves from the broccoli rabe and set aside. Add the crowns and thick stems to the cabbage and onion mix. Fry the onion, cabbage and broccoli stem and crown mix slowly, covered, about 15 minutes. Add the broccoli rabe leaves and saute for another few minutes until they are wilted but not mush. Add dumplings, season with salt and pepper to taste, mix well.

Breakfast Machanka: Traditional Recipe


I've been wanting to make this recipe for a long time, namely because it sounds so unappealing. For me, its simple and cheap ingredients that lack spice or color conjure up images of poor Slavs living in clapboard homes in company towns in Western Pennsylvania preparing to be lowered into the coal mines. Of course, that's a pretty accurate picture, cause those are the people who actually ate this stuff.

Before I can experiment with "Breakfast Machanka," I had to make it in its original form. Here's the recipe, which comes from my mother's "Dobra Cookbook," a collection of recipes put together in 1977 by the members of the Federated Russian Orthodox Club.

2 cups boiled milk
2 Tbsp. flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp butter

Mix flour and egg in 1/2 cup cold milk to a smooth cream. Slowly add the cream to the remaining 1.5 cups boiling milk and stir so it will not turn lumpy. Add salt and cook until thick. Melt the butter in a frying pan. Add Machanka to small bowls, and spoon butter on top. Eat as any hot cereal.


I'm very surprised to say that this stuff is quite good. The texture is smooth, creamy and soothing and is basically a porridge. It had a few lumps in it, but they actually enhanced the feel. As for the flavor, it is a lot like a buttermilk biscuit with butter and salt. I'll definitely be making this again and updating it. It would be fantastic with brown sugar, cinnamon, apples or other fruit, like bananas.

On a related not, I need to find out what "macanka" actually means, because my mother makes a macanka that has tomatoes in it, and the Slovak neighbor of ours from my childhood used to make it with sauerkraut juice and bacon fat, which we would all eat on bread. I'm wondering if machanka means gravy or sauce or something like that. Anyone know?