Ingredients:

I head cabbage (medium or large)
1.5 lb ground beef, pork, veal (you can use the mixture of different meats or just pork but the total weight should be about 1.5 lbs)
16 oz can tomato sauce
2.5 cups rice
salt and pepper to taste
Optional:
1 maggi cube (beef, chicken or vegetable flavor bouillon cube)
100 g fresh mushrooms
some onion
1-2 Tbsp. margarine

Procedure:

Stuffing (filling) preparation

Cook the rice. In one pan heat the ground meat, add salt and pepper to taste. In another pan fry sliced onion with margarine, add sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper to taste, some water if needed. When it is all ready - mix well rice, ground beef and mushrooms together, taste, add spices if needed.

Cabbage wrap preparation

Remove the core from the cabbage. Place the cabbage to a big pot with boiling water (it does not need to cover the whole cabbage, but then you have to flip the cabbage to make sure that the whole head would heat up), remove the leaves as they soften one after one. You may keep a water heated on low heat.

I usually prepare cabbage leaves after stuffing is ready because the leaves need to be warm to wrap nicely around the stuffing.

Cabbage rolls preparation

Place about 1-2 Tbsp. of the meat mixture (depending on the size of the leaf) in the center of the cabbage leaf and wrap the leaf like an envelope with the meat inside - this is a pigeon (golabek). Put some empty leaves on the bottom of the big pot to prevent burning, place the pigeons close to each other in the layers, so that they would not loose filling during cooking.

More and more Americans are planning their travels around food, from lavish, 10-day trips to Europe and Asia to quick weekend getaways at U.S. cooking schools of every imaginable style and size.

Steven Raichlen slices open a 3-pound hunk of pork and sprinkles it liberally with Jack Daniel’s and a spice rub. Then he smears on Dijon mustard and brown sugar before wrapping it all up in bacon and tying it with a string.

As he works, a question comes from one of the 40 salivating students at his Barbecue University: “How many grills do you have at home?”

Raichlen, author of 26 books including “The Barbecue Bible,” pauses only a second.

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Ingredients:

1 medium hen
2 carrots
1 parsley root
1 celery root
1 parsnip
1 onion
2 juniper berries (optional)
1 bay leaf ( optional)
3-4 potatoes]
3 quarts to 3 liters water

Procedure:

Clean and wash the hen and set it to boil at low heat with 3 quarts to 3 liters water. Remove foam, then add the vegetables, onion, juniper berries, bay leaf and salt. Cover and simmer until the hen is almost done. Add the halved (lengthwise) potatoes and let simmer until done. Remove the hen, cut in pieces, arrange on a platter and garnish with boiled potatoes and sliced carrot and celery. Spray with a few tablespoons of the boiling liquid. Serve to taste with oil and lemon juice or vinegar, horseradish sauce or garlic juice.

Ingredients:

1 kg. lapu-lapu or any white meat fish
2 hard cooked eggs, sliced
4 slices cooked ham
1/4 cup flour1/2 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon calamansi or lemon juice
Sprig of parsley for garnishing
Stuffed green olives

Procedure:

Prepare Spanish Tomato Sauce. Set aside. Clean fish. Slit at the back to open and debone. Stuff with alternate layer of egg and ham. Tie with string. Dredge in flour and put in a baking pan. Set aside. Heat olive oil and fry the garlic. Pour over fish. Bake at 350 deg. F. until half done Baste occasionally with pan oil. Remove pan from oven. Pour Spanish Tomato Sauce, calamansi or lemon juice. Return to oven, bake 15 minutes longer. Arrange on a platter, garnish with parsley and chopped olives. Serve hot.

Spanish Tomato Sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup onion, chopped finely
1 can tomato sauce

Fry garlic and onion in olive oil. Add tomato sauce. Simmer gently for 1/2 to 1 hour.

The secret of Bigos is that it gets better as it’s reheated. The more it heated the better it gets. Serve with good bread.

Ingredients:

4 lbs. sauerkraut
1 cup apple juice
1 lb. smoked pork
1 lb. spareribs
1/4 bacon
1 can tomatoes (large)
2 cups water
2 bay leaves
black pepper
salt
4 lbs. cabbage
1 lb. pork loin or pork ribs
1 lb. smoked kielbasa (sausage)
1/2 cup onion (chopped)
16 ounces mushrooms (fresh)
1 ounce mushroom (dried)
2 tablespoon flour

Procedure:

Brown pork and spareribs in a large heavy pot.m Add smoked pork with one cup of water and simmer until one hour. Add the sauerkraut and one cup apple juice. Chop the cabbage fine and add to sauerkraut. Add lots of pepper and salt, cover and simmer for one hour. Remove lid and keep pot on a very low simmer. In a pan, Fry bacon until crisp, then crumble into sauerkraut mixture. Remove most of the bacon fats and fry onions, mushrooms and flour until they just brown. Mix into sauerkraut mixture. Cut kielbasa into slices add to sauerkraut mixture with the tomatoes. bring to a boil, simmer 30 minutes, and serve hot.

Ingredients:

1 tsp. of pepper
1 large onion
1 lb. of ground beef
2 cans of whole tomatoes
5 cans of kidney beans
1 jalapeno pepper
1 can of tomato paste
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp. of salt

Procedure:

Fry the ground beef until light brown. Add onion, salt,& pepper. Crush garlic then add it. Add the tomato paste, kidney beans, and take the whole tomatoes, crush then add and the jalapeno pepper cut into small pieces. Add water and cook for one hour.

Note: It tastes better if you put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

After trying this one, you’ll want to put cheese in other traditional pies.

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese (7 oz.)
1 (11-oz.) pkg. pie crust mix
Cold water
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
4 oz. Swiss cheese, finely diced

Procedure:

In a medium bowl, use 2 forks to toss shredded cheese with pie crust, Add cold water according to package directions. Divide into 2 parts, making 1 slightly larger than the other. Wrap separately in foil or plastic wrap. Refrigerate 20 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out larger piece of pastry to an 11-inch circle. Fit into a 9-inch pie pan. Trim edge 1/2 inch larger than pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 450 deg.F (230 deg.C). In a large bowl combine brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Add apples, tossing gently until coated with brown sugar mixture. Turn into prepared pastry shell. Drop pieces of butter or margarine evenly over filling. Sprinkle filling evenly with lemon juice, lemon peel and diced cheese. Roll out remaining pastry. Make several small cuts to let steam escape during baking. Lift top pastry with rolling pin and center over filling. Remove rolling pin. Trim edge 1/2 inch larger than pan. Flute edge with your fingers or turn under and press with tines of a fork dipped in flour. Bake 10 minutes in preheated oven. Reduce heat to 375 deg. F (190 deg. C). Bake about 1 hour longer until apples are tender. Cool on a rack. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 lb (600g) flat fish, such as flounder, sole or pomfret
2 tablespoons salt
Lemon wedge to garnish
10 oz (300g) daikon (giant white radish), very finely grated and squeezed to extract moisture

Lotus Root Garnish:

2 oz (60g) fresh lotus root, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons (50ml) Sweet Vinegar
1 red chili, seeds discarded
1/3 cup (80ml) ponzu sauce
Sprinkling fresh fish liberally with salt before grilling helps keep in the moisture.

Procedure:

Prepare lotus root garnish several hours before it is required. Boil the sliced lotus root in water for 30 seconds, drain and put it in the sweet vinegar. Heat the chili in a dry pan for a few seconds, then add to the vinegar and ponzu sauce. Refrigerate. Clean and scale the fish. Dry with a paper towel and make two deep crosswise incisions on each side. Put a skewer through the tail end of the fish, making it come out in the center and continuing to the head so that the fish has a wave shape. Sprinkle both sides of the fish lightly with salt, then press a liberal amount of salt onto the tail and fins. Cook the fish over a moderately hot charcoal fire or under a broiler (grill) turning it with the skewer to avoid damaging the skin, until the fish is golden on both sides and cooked through. Serve on a plate garnished with lemon wedge, grated daikon and the marinated lotus root.

Herbes de Provence, famous world-wide, add flavor to the Beyond region. Rosemary (romarin), sage (sauge), origan (origan), marjoram (marjolaine) and savory (sarriette) are used alone or in different mixtures together to give Provençal cooking its unique taste and smell. A typical jar of Herbes de Provence lists ” savory , rosemary (romarin), (serpolet), marjoram (marjolaine), origan (origan), (basilic), thyme (thym) in variable proportions”.

Some of these plants, such and rosemary and thyme, grow so abundantly that they are almost always present in even the most remote areas, adding fragrance to hikes thorough the hills.

A few pots growing on the kitchen window sill provide instant fresh herbs for cooking, and the plants strategically located around the outdoor barbeque provide handfuls of flavoring to be thrown directly onto the sizzling steaks and chops.

The herbs of Provence, dried and mixed together in small cloth sacks for sale in gift shops and grocery stores, are popular with tourists and visitors, allowing them to take some of the flavor of the region home with them. The small sacks add a lovely fragrance in kitchens and closets.

[Source]

Ingredients:

1 lb. lamb cut into small pieces

Blend together to a fine paste:

2 medium onions
1.5″ ginger
6-8 flakes of garlic
a small piece cinnamon
2-3 cloves
2 black cardammom

Blend together to a fine paste:

10 red chillies
1 lb. tomatoes
cooking oil
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
Coriander leaves(Cilantro), chopped
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the first blended mixture till done. Add the second mixture and fry till the mixture has lost all the water content and oil begins to float on top. Now add all the dry powders and fry for a minute. Add the lamb, salt to taste and the cilantro. Add some water and simmer the curry for around 10 minutes. The gravy should turn thick by then. Eat when hot.