Tenderloin Roulades with Sage

Since my last post was about red cabbage, today I feel like posting something that would go well with it, and red cabbage loves the company of good meat. I also like this recipe very much because of the sage.

Sage is to me a quintessential autumn herb, just as basil is a summer herb, which enhances the taste of ripe tomatoes, and marjoram, especially dried, is a winter herb. Sage belongs to autumn because it is often served with pumpkin dishes and is used to flavor and decorate the Thanksgiving table and meals.

I used to have two big bushes of different types of sage--one green and the other one silver, but my rosemary has been so expansive that it overshadowed my sage plants. As a result, I have been left only with one very weak sage bush. And when I was preparing these roulades, I harvested almost the whole plant. I like the taste of sage and I was very generous with it while making these rolls.

Tenderloin roulades--this time I made them from pork but this applies to both beef and pork roulades--taste great with red cabbage, and can be served with all kinds of noodles or dumplings.

Tenderloin Roulades
(Serves four)

Ingredients:
1 lb (half a kilogram) of pork or beef tenderloin,
4 oz (125g) feta cheese,
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage leaves,
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley,
3 tbsp(72g)butter,
1 medium onion sliced,
3/4 cup (150 ml) vegetable stock,
3/4 cup (150 ml) white wine,
3/4 cup (150 ml) crème fraîche or heavy whipping cream,
salt and freshly ground pepper.

Preparation:
1. Cut tenderloin into thick (2/3 inch) slices. Using a meat tenderizer beat gently each slice on both sides.
2. Using food processor blend feta cheese and herbs until smooth. If you do not have a blender you can mix it together using fork.
3. Put an equal amount of feta mix on each piece of meat and spread it. Roll up each piece of meat and secure with wooden tooth pick.Season with salt and pepper on top.

4. In a frying pan with heavy base melt butter. Add onion and fry until transparent. Add tenderloin roulades and fry on the high heat for about 2-3 minutes, until brown, on both sides.
5. Pour in wine and vegetable stock. Bring it to boil and let it boil for a minute. Add crème fraîche and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve with all kinds of noodles, for instance egg noodles, and red cabbage sauté or red cabbage salads.

Red Cabbage Sauté--To the Rescue

In my recipe book there are many recipes that I copied decades ago from different sources but never had a chance to use, until now, when I now continuously look for something new and original, worth sharing.

Yesterday, I reached for one such recipe from Poland, and made a cake that, from looking at all the ingredients, I expected to be delicious. However, half way through the preparation, I started to realize that the dough seemed somewhat heavy. There was nothing I could have done at that moment, so I just finished it and baked it. When ready, the cake looked beautiful on the outside, although it almost did not rise during baking. I took a picture of it, but when I cut a piece I knew that it was inedible. Very dense and almost raw, totally slack-baked, the cake landed in the trash.

Very disappointed, I decided to make something Polish again, but well tried and familiar, that never failed during preparation--red cabbage.

When I lived in Poland, around this time of the year a red cabbage was showing up on our tables, where it was continuously present until early spring. I liked it even more than a regular green cabbage probably because it was more dense and harder and I was always charmed by its purple color and all the shades of it. It depended on the stage at which the cabbage was cooked. Unlike the green one, red cabbage usually is not served as a dish itself, but to accompany meat dishes. We serve it with beef rolls, roasted meats, and obviously a duck (which by the way I do not eat). But because I have not made it in a long time, I enjoyed it so much that I ate it as my lunch.

Red Cabbage Sauté

Ingredients:
1/2 medium red cabbage (about 6 cups shredded),
2 apples (I use Granny Smith or McIntosh)
1 medium onion,
1/2 stick butter (about 50 grams),
3-4 tbsp balsamic vinegar,
1 tsp salt,
1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon, or a small piece of cinnamon stick,
1 tbsp sugar,

Preparation:
1. Shred cabbage into very thin slices.

2. In a large pot, bring to boil about a gallon of water with a tbsp of salt. Put in shredded cabbage, turn off the heat, and let the cabbage blanche in the hot water for about 10 minutes. Drain the water but save about a cup for further cooking.
3. Peel the apples and shred them on a large hole grater.
4. Peel the onion, cut in half, and then into thin half-moons.

5. Melt butter in a large pan. Add onion and fry it for 3-5 minutes, until transparent. Add cabbage to the onion and mix. Add back a couple of tbsp of blanching water to the cabbage and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
6. Add apples and cinnamon and at this stage cook cabbage until soft--that may take 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile,if the cabbage starts to fry, add a little more water again.
7. When the cabbage turns appropriately soft (I like it a little al dente; please note that red cabbage, because of its texture, will always be somewhat harder than green cabbage), add more salt to taste, sugar, and vinegar. The vinegar will pretty much prevent the cabbage from softening further so you need to try it before adding it. Mix well all the ingredients, and let it all cook for about two more minutes.

Serve warm usually with red meats and all kind of potato dumplings, speatzle, or potato puree.

Swiss Apple Roulade--Surprisingly, from Poland

It is apple season. And I have just realized that so far I have not posted too many apple recipes. Back in Poland, I used apples a lot, at least once a week, mainly for baking cakes and pies. Here not so much anymore. Maybe because in the US I can buy all kinds of fruits and vegetables that I did not eat often then, and I keep exploring new recipes with fruits I never tried before.

Also, I cannot find here the cooking apples that we had in Poland in great variety, not necessarily the perfect looking ones, beautiful and shiny, but rather the sour and rough looking but very aromatic apples that would ripen in late fall and still be hard when harvested. They would soften nicely when baked and with the addition of some sugar would make a perfect dessert, so I am afraid to share a recipe that would be disappointing if a wrong kind of apple is used. Besides, in my yard, in Poland I had at least four different apple trees. Whenever we felt like, we had all kinds of apples within the reach of our hands, for eating raw or for cooking and serving in different dishes.

But recent fall weather made me think about apples more. Also, my son,a picky eater enjoys apple desserts very much, so I decided to make a couple of them recently. Today's recipe comes from my aunt who is a very good cook, but an even better baker.

Apple Roulade

Ingredients:
4 eggs,
1/2 cup sugar,
3/4 cup all purpose flour,
1 tsp baking powder,
2 tbsp hot water,
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon,
5-6 cooking apples (I used McIntosh),
icing sugar for dusting.

Preparation:
1. Line a large square baking cookie sheet with a wax paper. Grease the top of the paper with butter.
2. Peel off apples and grate them on a large wholes grater. Add cinnamon, mix it in, and spread apples on the buttered wax paper.
3. Preheat oven to 330F.
4. Separate egg yolks from whites. Put whites in a a large bowl or a stand-up mixer and beat them until almost stiff. Add gradually sugar and continue to beat until all the sugar dissolves.
5. Add yolks to the whites and mix with a spatula. Add hot water and mix again. Sift in flour and baking powder and fold them gently in the batter.
6. Spread a batter on top of the apples.

7. Put the cooking sheet in the oven and bake the cake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is set and gold.
8. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool slightly, but not completely.
9. Turn it upside down on a smooth surface (wax paper up). Remove gently the paper. Starting with one end roll up the cake into a roulade. Let it cool down completely.
10. Dust with icing sugar, cut into slices, and serve.