Lately, the past couple days, I’ve been on a pseudo Cubano sandwich making kick: We have some of this flat bread we pick up at a Middle Eastern bakery by the local H Mart-- they cook it up fresh all day long and it’s amazing bread-- similar to pita, only it’s baked in a diamond or trapezoid shape. We pick a bunch up whenever we also make an H Mart run and freeze leftovers-- it thaws really well.
So, I gently thaw a flatbread and cut it carefully so it separates in halves (just like pita ‘pocket’ bread). I spread kewpie mayo on one side and spicy brown mustard on the other. Then layer thick sliced deli ham, pre-cooked bacon (no pulled pork on hand, alas), thinly sliced pickles, and Provolone cheese slices (I know, Swiss is best, but it’s what I have). Then I grill it in a frying pan with a little butter, with a weighted down smaller frying pan on top to press it down.
Going to have to BBQ some pulled pork soon so I can use the leftovers to make real Cubanos.
Reser’s Main St Bistro baked mac & cheese – Sporked rates it the best prepared mac & cheese, and I agree. Was going to have it with chipotle pork chops but, like all good things, the last of the pork chops mysteriously disappeared, so just had the m&c by itself.
Dinner tonight will be boneless skinless ginger sesame marinated chicken thighs. I was considering doing them on the barbecue but the marinade likely has a high sugar content and might burn so I’m using the air fryer instead. Would probably be good with fries but it sounds very Asian so will make a pot-o-rice instead.
The cabbage rolls are unsauced. I have to figure out what I’ll use for their sauce. I know Rao’s is good, but plain marinara isn’t going to taste like the right stuff. The recipes I see online call for canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, S&P. This requires a degree of motivation I’m going to have to work up to.
In a small pot, I heated a combination of soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. Used that to barely poach 7oz of shaved beef (cheesesteak style, on sale for only $7/lb!). Served on a pan-griddled Telara rolls with sliced onions, a couple of Spicy dill spears, along with a big mixed green salad with fresh tomatoes and a bit of mozz.
Was going to use a bit of hoisin sauce if it dried out or needed extra flavor, neither of which was applicable.
Cabbage rolls without sauce are a traditional variant. Mom used to make both the kinds in sauce and the kinds without. When baked without sauce, rich sour cream was the traditional condiment.
I sometimes add a garlic and basil pizza sauce to tomato-sauced cabbage rolls if they don’t come with enough sauce for my liking. It may sound strange but you could try baking them (or even just microwaving them) well coated with a good tangy pizza sauce. Pizza sauce tends to be thicker and tangier than pasta sauce, but intended to be cooked in high heat rather than slowly blended.
The cabbage rolls at the Ukraine store actually had a small amount of a light colored coating which the clerk said was a little bit of sauce and that it contained some small amount of tomato - maybe it was similar to your sour cream condiment. The rolls were stacked up in a clear plastic container and were sold by the pound.
As far as the pizza sauce, I’m used to a slightly sweeter version such as the recipes I saw online with brown sugar, but I’ll think about it. I have a jar of pizza sauce here to use up.
It’s Oktoberfest season, so yesterday I made my usual Oktoberfest dinner: Rouladen (beef rolls stuffed with mustard, bacon, pickles, and onion), rotkohl (red cabbage with apples and spices), and mashed potatoes (which I don’t feel like looking up the German word for).
Tonight I will make chicken tetrazzini, because I have some leftover rotisserie chicken I need to use up.
Today is a happy cheat day - got back from a followup with my PCP with mostly good news. A1C is back to 5.4, and while my triglycerides are still a touch into the “high” range, they’ve dropped 50 points, which made my doctor very proud. So, one day of cheats, and then back to my usual careful 90% of the time and slightly relaxed 10% cheats.
To reward myself, 12 oz of duck breast in a hot skillet and finished in the oven to a perfect medium (though just barely past medium rare) plus some Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato gnocchi.
No alcohol or dessert though, not cheating *that much.
The ginger sesame chicken thighs got considerably delayed for one reason or another, but that was fine because they were vac-packed and I had frozen them anyway. Preparation plans changed when I saw how large they were. Instead of the air fryer, I did them on the barbecue, and they turned out nicely browned and tasty. Went well with white rice, topped with chili garlic sauce and crisp green onions.
The one left over will be used for ramen noodles tonight, along with sliced mushrooms.
Yesterday was a coupla chicken thighs, baked over the usual onion-garlic-potato-carrot assortment. With a crusty roll to soak up all that brothy goodness.
Tonight is pear-butternut squash soup, doctored up with croutons & sour cream.
