With hunger in our bellies, money in our pockets, and two hours to spend delighting our gastronomic senses we headed toward Old Krakow, the only Polish restaurant in San Francisco, for some down home cooking. I agree with the rest of the critics that dine at Old Krakow, located in SF's bizarre little West Portal neighborhood. The food is good -some dishes are even great!- but way too expensive for Polish food. So, if you are ever feel like consuming a Polish meal, are in the Bay Area, and don't feel like dishing out the $15.00 for the golabki. Head to the market instead and spend the same amount of many on the ingredients below and make enough golabki to feed a group of about four. Heck, even if you aren't in the Bay Area, go ahead and treat yourself. Actually, you'll probably get more bang for your buck since you'll be buying groceries that most likely will cost less than they would here.
Chrzanka presents a recipe for Polish Stuffed Cabbage (Golabki*)
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*Pronounced - go whoa m b key.
Oh, the fun you can have with golabki! This Slavic delight can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. The stuffing (ground meat, sausage, mushrooms & rice ...) can be as diverse as the sauces in which the golabki bathe. In the culinary sense, the word "golabki" means stuffed cabbage, but in the everyday Polish sense, it can also mean little pigeons. I'm not sure why this is (something about the shape of the rolls perhaps?). I can assure you, though, that it has nothing to do with eating little pigeons.
- 1 lb. ground turkey (Any ground meat will do really. When I was a vegetarian, I used mashed up firm tofu. I betcha that faux vegan "meat" would work nicely, too.)
- 1/2 cup rice (more if you prefer more rice in the stuffing)
- 1-2 cups water
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1-2 eggs (usually one is enough)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons of flour
- Several dashes of marjoram (or Italian Seasoning)
- 1-2 can tomato paste (depending on how saucy you like it)
- 1 medium head savoy cabbage (savoy cabbage -the wrinkly kind- is best because it is easier to work with and easier/softer to eat, but the regular cabbage is OK too)
Rinse and core the cabbage and remove any bruised leaves. Put the entire cabbage in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and simmer. I don't know how long you need to do this; I usually do it about 30-45 minutes from the boiling point. The idea is to soften the leaves so that they are easier to handle and eat. While the cabbage is boiling, steam the rice. When the cabbage is done CAREFULLY remove it from the pot. It will be HOT, HOT, HOT!! Rinse it in cold water. When it has cooled a little, remove the leaves one-by-one. As you get to the center, the leaves will get smaller and you won't be able to use them for golabki. You can either throw them away or save them for another recipe. You may want to devein the cabbage leaves by slicing off a portion of the main artery of the leaf.
Put ground meat, steamed rice, onions, egg(s), marjoram, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl. Make sure the rice has cooled sufficiently before you start mixing. Mix the ingredients well.
Fill each cabbage leaf toward the bottom of the leaf with the stuffing mixture. I think a nice heaping tablespoon is usually enough, but that really depends on the size of your cabbage leaves and your appetite. Fold leaf to enclose the mixture. Do this by folding in the two sides of the leaf toward the center and rolling it up from the bottom up. Pack the golabki tightly side-by-side in a baking dish and pour a mixture of salt water over them. Bake uncovered in 350 degree oven until the leaves start to turn golden.
It's time to sauce it up! Golabki can be served sans sauce but they are usually served dressed up. Most often golabki are served in a tomato sauce but they can also be served in a variety of other sauces (e.g. cream sauce or mushroom sauce). It is your choice and I encourage you to experiment. Since I usually make my golabki with tomato sauce that is the recipe I will give you here.
Once the golabki turn golden is when you'll want to add a mixture of tomato paste, flour, water and seasonings (mix these -to your taste- before adding) to the baking dish. Continue to bake the golabki - this time covered- until the sauce thickens. You may want to make an extra batch of the sauce on the side, since sometimes the golabki absorb a good deal of the sauce. Smacznego!
On Central Avenue in Chicago there used to be a hardware and lumber store called the Crafty Beaver. It is probably still there. My family used to drive by it on the way to and from church on Sundays, to O'Hare Airport, or to my Great Aunt Dolly's house in the suburbs. I didn't realize the juvenile associations the store's name connoted until much later in my teen years. Although, I know better now, thinking about the store's name still makes me giggle.
So, in the spirit of the Crafty Beaver and all of its inspirational glory, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of crafty items of my own that I have been busying myself with these past few months. (Yes, I was just trying to find a way to mention the Crafty Beaver here.) You may have read about my interest in making sock dolls (mentioned in my profile). It is a craft that I have not yet perfected mainly because I seriously lack basic sewing skills, which will be remedied soon enough when I purchase my first sewing machine. Nonetheless, I would like to share with you my sock doll prototypes. Meet the girls!
Ready for their close up!
Well, what do you think? Aren't they as cute as can be? There will be more to come once I get my hands on that sewing machine. Any comments and suggestions on how I can improve my little chickies would be much appreciated and definitely taken into consideration even if not always honored.
More crafty handiwork to come soon... Just as soon as I take and upload the pictures. Currently, I'm working on a couple of hand knit scarves as well as some marble glass charms that I'll fashion into magnets, pins, and jewelry. Oh, and there are those felt pins... Hmmm, writing about all of this is making my palms itchy. I better go and knit a few rows on that scarf.
Spent last night at the Lush Lounge wishing my main amico farewell. He'll be traveling to Southeast Asia for a month, which will be an entire month spent without him. Sad for me, but well-deserved by him. Wishing you many wonderful adventures, yummy food, massages on the beach, and pure relaxation. Enjoy mio carino amico!
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I have been told that my paternal grandmother, Babcia Zosia, who lives in the small northwestern Polish town of Wrzesnia has not been feeling well these days.
Map of Wrzesnia painted on the side of a building in the rynek (old town square)
So, before retiring to bed, I decided to give my Babcia a ring to cheer her up. Not an easy task, since my Babcia's Slavic blood runs thick with post-Communist pessimism and despair. Regardless of the daunting task, my guilty conscience got the best of me and I called her at 9:30 A.M. her time. She picked up the phone with a weak, "Halo." I asked her how she was doing and once she started to speak I realized there were no words of comfort that I could offer her. They would just be met with helpless resignation to her perceived fate. After all, what does one say to someone whose situation is hopeless?
Speaking with my grandmother reminded me of a passage from a book, Aliens & Anorexia by Chris Kraus, that I started reading a few days ago.
Kraus writes:
When you're young, you look at older women like they're ciphers. Ciphers that you'd rather not decode, because you know you might be looking at the future. Their defeats and compromises are so visible. You wonder if they notice that you're studying their faces as they speak: the sagging flesh around their mouths and foreheads, the heavy fragile eyelids, wondering could she be me? Vague apprehension of a girl believing that she'll beat the odds, although she knows full well the woman that she sees was also once a girl... Not wanting, then, to think too much about how anybody gets from here to there; or more precisely, not wanting to imagine the events that might deform a person over twenty years....
Or, even a lifetime...
