Secrets from the Cookie Princess: Haluski

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Haluski

It may not be the prettiest thing to look at but boy is it tasty and it reminds me of home. This is comfort food in my world. Delicious and easy to prepare, this is one of those dishes you can count on being right every time. But it's also one I don't think of making often and every time I do make it, I think, "I should make that more often," and then forget about it for a while and the cycle continues. I went to the farm stand recently, saw a bunch of cabbages and immediately thought of this dish. When I took my little cabbage to the register, the attendant said, "Isn't this a cute little cabbage?" "Yes," I said, "I thought to myself, aw, I want to take you home and eat you." And the attendant and I perfectly understood each other. Yeah, we had a moment. And even if you don't typically like cabbage, this dish might surprise you. Cooked down, coated in butter and added to carbs? Yeah, that's the way to eat cabbage.

Remember last month when I shared the origins of Pittsburgh Kielbasa and my Mom's awesome little cookbook, Babushka Power? Well, this is another one of those quintessential eastern European dishes that is luxuriously simple yet unique and is a big food memory in my family. The recipe was submitted to the book by Mrs. M. Evanichko from Latrobe, PA. It's one of those recipes I don't think I ever saw my mother open the book for since it's barely a recipe. Almost like saying you need a recipe to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So let's call it a method or a combination. I'll share it with you, then you can whip it up without even referring back to this page and impress your Polish friends with authentic old country food off the top of your head. It'll be our little secret.

Halushki

Ingredients

1 medium (about 3 pound) cabbage
1 16 ounce bag egg noodles
6 Tablespoons butter

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While water heats, finely chop cabbage, taking care to remove the center core.

Melt butter in a large skillet. When butter is melted, add cabbage and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned and the whitest pieces are nearly translucent, about 10 minutes.

While cabbage cooks, add the noodles to the boiling water and cook to package instructions. Season cabbage with salt and pepper and stir.

Remove cabbage from heat, drain noodles and add to cooked cabbage. Stir to combine and evenly distribute cabbage throughout the noodles, coating them with the butter.