In the Kitchen With Mattie

Tenderloin and Cabbage

It is Holloween night and all the little princess’ and gremlins are out and about. I was looking for something to make that wouldn’t need me to have a careful watch over it while also having to answer the door for the kids looking for their treats. I had some pork tenderloins in the fridge and a head of cabbage on hand so I took out my trusty two burner grill pan and set about to grill the tenderloins. I seasoned them heavily with Mrs Dash Salt Free Seasoning mix and a liberal dose of some garlic and herb seasoning too. When the grill had heated up enough I put them on it and began to sear them on all sides. Hubby came home then and he said he would handle the treaters so that left me to concentrate on dinner. I already had some potatoes mashed up in the fridge so into the microwave they went to heat up. When the meat had a nice sear on it I removed it from the grill and cut it into thick slices that then went back onto the grill to continue cooking, they needed another 10 minutes to get to the done stage.

My family were big cabbage eaters during my youth but I have to admit I couldn’t stand the stuff, I could never imagine how they could so willingly put something that smelled so horrific to me into their mouths! Typically it was just steamed or boiled back then.  It took me moving south to learn to appreciate  the lowly cabbage and to learn to do it justice in preparing it. If you too have a dislike for the lowly cabbage give this method a try, you too might well become a cabbage loving fool like me!

Smothered Cabbage

1 large head of cabbage, sliced thinnly either by hand or on a mandoline, place into a colander and rinse in cold water, leave in colander to drain a bit

1 small onion sliced thin

8 slices bacon

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon Accent

1/2 cup broth, any kind

Dinner Tonight

First get out a large (4 quart or more) saute pan with a cover, and heat it over a medium flame. When the pan is heated add the bacon strips and cook until crispy, remove the bacon from the pan and pour off most of the fat, leave just a film on the pan bottom along with the browned bits of flavor from cooking the bacon. Add the onion and saute until it softens a bit, add the wet cabbage gradually and continue to saute until the cabbage starts to wilt. You may need to add half the cabbage at first until it starts to wilt and then continue adding more until it all fits into the pan. When it is all in the pan add the Accent, the crumbled cooked bacon, pepper and the broth and cover the pan. Cook for 15 minutes until the cabbage is tender, remove the cover and cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Serve with ham, pork or some nice grilled sausages.

I have to admit that when I first discovered how wonderful cabbage tasted when prepared this way I became addicted to it and would often prepare it and eat it as a snack for myself. Hubby thought I had lost my mind as I was always known as a junk food addict and suddenly here I was giving up my chips and doodles for a bowl of cabbage. I still today will make it for myself and hate the thought that I missed out on enjoying something this wonderful for almost half my life. Give it a try you too might get addicted.

A word about the Accent in it………I know Accent gets a bad rap in a lot of places but used sparingly it really does up the flavors in many many dishes and it is always in my kitchen.

Tenderloin on a bed of cabbage

Potato Soup

Is it chilly where you are? Do you have a pressure cooker? Do you have a few potatoes, some stock, some onions or leeks? If so you have the makings of a great pot of soup in all of about 20 minutes!

Our temperatures have dropped drastically in the past two days, we went from the high 80′s to the low 40′s literally overnight. It got so chilly so fast that we needed a light jacket today when we went out to the store, usually we don’t even get a jacket out until about mid December.

Hubby is working tonight so I was having dinner alone, a good enough reason to make something that only I liked! Although lately hubby has been eating and enjoying more and more of the soups that I’ve been making so I made enough for him to enjoy some later too.

This is a really simple and quick soup to make in the pressure cooker but even if you don’t happen to have one handy you can make it on the stove top in a regular pot in under an hour. You will need some cooked bacon and shredded cheese for garnish if you like (I do) and even sour cream if you have some on hand will up the taste of the soup.

Potato Soup

5 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large leeks or one large onion, peeled cleaned and diced

5-6 cups of good home made chicken stock, UNSALTED, if salted then leave out salt below

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup heavy cream optional, leave it out if you don’t want the extra calories

6 slices cooked bacon

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sour cream, optional

1/2 cup chives or scallions

In 2 tablespoons bacon fat or butter saute the leeks or onions until they soften. Add the potatoes and the pepper, salt and stock. Close the cover on the pressure cooker and bring up to high pressure, time for 10 minutes and when finished do a quick release of the pressure according to your cookers instruction manual.

Remove half the contents and puree them in a blender until smooth, add the smooth puree back to the pot and add the cream, bring up to a simmer and taste for seasoning, adjust with more salt and pepper if needed.

Ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream some shredded cheese, some chopped bacon and either chives or scallion tops. Sit back and enjoy!

Potato Soup

I think by now most people who know me also know I love home made soups. I make many kinds here at home but I also indulge in a few canned ones that I find good. One such soup was made by Progresso and back when we lived in NY I would always have a few cans on the shelf in the pantry.  It became one of the things I missed most when we moved south years ago. Whenever we have gone up to visit family back east I am always packing a case of it into the car for the house here along with anything else I can squeeze in that still allows us room to sit and drive. It’s funny how some things are just so close to your hearts and bring back memories. Hubby and the boys didn’t miss my favorite soup because they don’t like soup anyway, but for me it was a big thing.

Hubby worked all day today and late into the night so I was having dinner by myself and decided that with all the stock I had in the freezer and as I had everything else I needed to make the soup that is exactly what I did. I made myself a nice pot of soup!  Hubby got home a bit earlier than we expected and he smelled the soup and decided to have a bowl himself………he didn’t stop at one! So now all my great soup is gone and I’ll have to make more, well maybe later this week I will, but for tonight I will just remember how great it tasted for dinner.

Matties Chickarina Soup

8 cups of strong homemade chicken stock

4 stalks celery chopped

4 carrots, scraped and chopped

1 small onion, diced fine

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups of diced chicken

about 2 dozen tiny meatballs

3/4 cup dry tubbetini pasta (Ronzoni is a good one)

For this I used a digital pressure cooker. Into the pressure cooker put the chicken broth and all the vegetables. Close the cover and set the timer for 5 minutes. When the timer shuts off let the pressure drop by itself and then open the cooker and add the pasta (cooked separately in a small pot) and the diced chicken and meatballs, bring back up to a boil without the cover and simmer for 5 minutes to blend the flavors. I usually add about a cup of baby spinach at the end so it just wilts but I had none at home tonight and didn’t really feel like going to the market.

The chicken in this soup was already cooked, diced and frozen. The meatballs to were already cooked and frozen weeks ago. The meatballs are a plain one without heavy seasoning in them, I usually make about 200-300 and store them in a large freezer container until I need them for this soup or sometimes I put them into lasagna or I use them when I make some pasta for small children, they find them easy to eat.

Tonight dinner was made on one pan on the stove! I seasoned some pork chops and cut some large baking potatoes into planks and then seasoned it all with Mrs Dash Salt Free and some Janes Crazy Mixed Up Salt for good measure. I simply wiped the grill with a bit of oil and set the potatoes on the surface to cook and get crispy, they had already been steamed in the pressure cooker so I was just trying to crisp them up and season them. The combination of those two seaoning mixs really upped the flavor, I’ll be using them together again on other things.

The grill pan I got a few weeks ago has become a favorite of mine for the way it allows me to cook a large quantity of food at one time. Add to that  the fact that the pan also cleans up very quickly with a quick rinse in the sink and I really love this pan. It fits over two burners so you can regulate the heat under each item as you need, tonight I put the flame on a bit higher under the potatoes than I did under the four pork chops.

Once one side of the potatoes got crispy and I turned them over I then placed the chops on the other half of the pan, they got a beautiful sear on them very quickly.  Because I didn’t peel the potatoes the skin on them also got crispy and tasted just like the potato skins you get out in restaurants, I think I will have to try making those skins on this grill instead of the oven next time we are in the mood for them.

All in all dinner tonight was quickly cooked in about 15 minutes, not bad for a nice pork chop dinner. I did the broccoli in the microwave in 5 minutes and we had a small tossed salad too.

http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Calphalon-Nonstick-Double-Grill/dp/B002CZQGS6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1318549978&sr=8-5

This link will lead you to my favorite grill pan by Caphalon, it is a dual burner non stick pan that I absolutely love. I does a great job and cleans up quickly with no scrubbing. It also works well on all kinds of gas and electric stoves. If you regularly have a need to grill lots of food at once I would really recommend this pan. I have bought at least 4 grill type pans over the years and been disappointed in the performance from them, this one is a 10 in my book!