Crock Pot Recipes

unbelievable root vegetable salad
This salad is a favourite of my good mate Pete Begg. He was inspired to make it when he lived in Italy, where each stall at the local market would offer its own seasonal salad mix. Come spring and summer, a beautiful veggie salad can be made with baby asparagus, broad beans or small, sweet courgettes (which you can treat just like cucumbers: slice them thinly or cut them into long strips with a speed peeler).

All these vibrant flavours need a powerful dressing to bring them together, so Pete decided to flavour his with chilli and mint as they are very good friends " brilliant!

Very finely slice or shave the beetroots and carrots, using good knife skills, a mandolin on a fine setting or, most easily, a speed peeler, until you have a pile of thin, wavy, crunchy slices. Place in a big mixing bowl. With a sharp knife, slice the celery heart and leaves, the radicchio, the radishes and the fennel as finely as you can and add to the bowl of root veg slices.

Toss the root vegetables in the grilled chilli dressing, season carefully to taste, and serve sprinkled with the reserved fennel tops.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Galumpkis)

Easy Serves about 1 dozen

Sweet and Sour Tomato Sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 1/2 quarts crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cabbage Rolls:

11/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Splash dry red wine
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups steamed white rice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 large heads green cabbage, about 3 pounds each

To make the sauce:

Coat a 3-quart saucepan with the oil and place over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar; simmer, until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
Place a skillet over medium heat and coat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the tomato paste, a splash of wine, parsley, and 1/2 cup of the prepared sweet and sour tomato sauce, mix to incorporate and then take it off the heat. Combine the ground meat in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, the cooked rice, and the sauteed onion mixture. Toss the filling together with your hands to combine, season with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Remove the large, damaged outer leaves from the cabbages and set aside. Cut out the cores of the cabbages with a sharp knife and carefully pull off all the rest of the leaves, keeping them whole and as undamaged as possible, (get rid of all the small leaves and use them for coleslaw or whatever.) Blanch the cabbage leaves in the pot of boiling water for 5 minutes, or until pliable. Run the leaves under cool water then lay them out so you can assess just how many blankets you have to wrap up the filling. Next, carefully cut out the center vein from the leaves so they will be easier to roll up. Take the reserved big outer leaves and lay them on the bottom of a casserole pan, let part of the leaves hang out the sides of the pan. This insulation will prevent the cabbage rolls from burning on the bottom when baked. Use all the good looking leaves to make the cabbage rolls. Put about 1/2 cup of the meat filling in the center of the cabbage and starting at what was the stem-end, fold the sides in and roll up the cabbage to enclose the filling. Place the cabbage rolls side by side in rows, seam-side down, in a casserole pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the remaining sweet and sour tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls. Fold the hanging leaves over the top to enclose and keep the moisture in. Drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 1 hour until the meat is cooked.