Haluski

This is an Eastern European dish that can be made with dumplings, noodles or pasta. According to my former mother-in-law, Jane Loza, Haluski was Polish pauper food -- not unlike pasta e fagioli, polenta, risotto, and many other famously foodie dishes of today. The first time Jane served it when I was there for dinner, she actually apologized for serving up something so simple. No apology necessary, this dish has been a favorite of mine ever since.

Imagine sweet almost caramelized onions, tender cabbage sweetened and tamed by the onions, butter and seasonings all tossed with pasta. Seriously, you can't go wrong there. If your mouth is watering, you can head right to the recipe, but if you'd like another trip down the rabbit hole, read on.

As usual, I needed to prepare the Haluski so that I could take photos, so that's what I set out to do. Faced with the reality that I didn't need an entire cabbage for 1 pound of pasta -- which is what I was planing, I decided that maybe stuffed cabbages were in order.

While pondering what to stuff into the leaves, I remembered that I had some Hawaiian cocktail meatballs in Korean BBQ sauce in the fridge. That is a recipe in progress and although the larger meatballs came out great, the little ones were a bit to soft and didn't hold their shape very well, so that's a recipe for another time.

Anyway, I decided to cook up some rice, mash the meatballs, add some fresh diced pepper and onion and a couple of eggs for stability and use that concoction to stuff cabbage leaves. I had some Korean BBQ sauce on hand and doused the cabbages with it and covered tightly before I baked them to heat. Short story they were delicious. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I made Haluski when I cooked the stuffed cabbage for that recipe post a few months ago.

Korean BBQ Syuffed Cabbage before baking

After Baking

This is a nice way to make sure no cabbage goes to waste because unless you're cooking either recipe for a giant crowd, chances are you'll have too much cabbage.

OK, if you stuck with me through this tale, you have now arrived.....

THE RECIPE:

1 stick of salted butter

large onions cut into 3/4 inch chunks

2 -3 cups cabbage cut into 3/4 inch chunks

1/4 C caraway seeds

Salt and pepper to taste

1 LB of elbow, ditali, or egg noodles (depending on your preference)

1-2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Cabbage cut up for Haluski

Cabbage, onions, an d seasonings in butter for saute

Cabbage and onions color befor caramelizing

Cabbage and onion becomes a light golden color

• In a stockpot, melt the stick of butter

• When butter is melted, add cabbage, onions, salt, pepper, and caraway seeds.

• On low heat slow, cover, saute, and stir occasionally until the onion begins to caramelize a bit.

• At this point you can store the mixture in the fridge until you're ready to serve it, or you can remove from heat and cook the past as usual.

• Once the pasta is cooked al dente and drained, return the cabbage to low heat and stir in the pasta.

• Add broth the broth is small amounts to get from a buttery stick consistency to something just a bit lighter.

Serve immediately.

If you have leftover, you may want to add some broth when reheating.