Concern

Cooking day again. Today I went for the “Transylvanian Stockpot” recipe, from page 44 of our current working manual.

Ingredients overview:

• 6 oz. bacon.
• One onion, three cloves garlic.
• Paprika, black pepper, bay leaves and a cinnamon stick.
• Cabbage.
• 28 oz. can tomatoes.
• 3 cups chicken broth.
• Golden raisins.
• Kielbasa sausage.

For whatever reason, Whole Foods didn’t have any golden raisins anywhere, and only had giant buckets of Thompson raisins. So, I went instead for some white figs, which worked great.

Cooking took a while, but was simple. Cook the bacon in a pot until the fat renders, and it starts to crisp. Add onion and garlic, and cook until the onion becomes transparent. Add chopped cabbage, paprika, pepper, cook briefly. Add tomatoes, broth, figs, cinnamon and bay leaves, and simmer for 45 minutes. Add sliced kielbasa and cook until the sausage is heated.

It’s good. Spicy, and a nice sweetness from the figs and the paprika. Nice and meaty with the bacon and the sausage. It also made a lot, meaning I’ll eat off of this one pot for at least three days. It took a while, but thankfully most of it was on autopilot, just waiting for the ingredients to simmer. These old-world recipes that feature vegetables like cabbage that have been cooked beyond any recognition as a vegetable aren’t my favorite, since I love the taste and texture of fresh, perfectly cooked vegetables, but it worked here as a good filler.

I’m enjoying these epically fragrant dishes!

★ ★ ★ ★ – (4/5)

I’ve decided, in an attempt to save a little money and to be healthier, to do a lot of cooking myself, instead of going out to eat most of the time. A good way to get started in doing this, I’ve found, is to buy a cookbook that appeals to you, flip through it, and find something you want to try making.

The cookbook I’m starting out with is The Primal Blueprint Cookbook, which features recipes that mostly follow a low-carb, grain and dairy-free, paleo mindset. I’m not entirely sold that diets like the paleo diet are optimal, but aiming for a low-carbohydrate diet that’s high in lean protein sounds like a good approach.

I’m going to try blogging about things I make, and how well they turn out. This is the first one.

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