Sunday, October 14, 2012

Haluski

I know what you are thinking, "Haluksi!" "Gesundheit!"
But for reals, this recipe is called Haluski. I think its Polish?
All I know is that I have never really seen this dish anywhere but in Pennsylvania. Thats not to say it isn't in other states, but its most def popular in PA. Specially in the Pittsburgh area.
Both my sets of my grandparents live about an hour from the Pitt, and this dish was a staple. Whenever I smell its I immediately am transported to 1995 summer vacation at Gramma and Pap's house.
I have been feeling nostalgic lately and we are having company for supper so I made it(along with a pot roast! which isn't going to be blogged, sorry).
The recipe I will share is more of an amalgam of recipes and just winging it. I mean its 4 ingredients, its not that difficult.
Do I like this dish that hearkens me to my youth?
Absolutely not.

Ingredients:
16 oz bag of egg noodles, 3 onions, a head of cabbage, and 1 cup of butter

So the onions. You know how in most of my recipes I cut back on the onion? Do not cut back for Haluski! Add as much or as little(if you must)as you want. I choose 3, at first as you can see from the picture but they were a little small so I added a fourth. They were small because our landlord grew them. We came back from work one day and a bag of what we thought were apples was waiting for us. But no, it was onions, about 2 dozen garden grown onions. Another reason why I made this recipe. Because I had a ton of onions to use up.


Directions:
Chop onions into half moon slices, and cook in large skillet with a stick of butter. Cook until golden brown/translucent. Chop the cabbage into long strips, and add them and another stick of butter to onions. Cook until cabbage is no longer crunchy. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions.

 
I had no idea how to cut a cabbage, so I just kinda hacked it. All I know is that it needed to be long strips. Also, I am not posting times since I really depends on the stove and pot you use. The onions took about 5 to 10 mins, and the cabbage is about 10 to 15. But this recipe is really a case by case recipe.

This is the resulting mess.


 
This pot got so hot that I needed pot holders just to pick it up!
 

I know what you healthy people are thinking, "A WHOLE stick of butter!" Just for once don't worry about that kinda stuff and just RELAX.

 
Onions are gross, but I find kinda fun to cook. Its so easy to see the results. Aside from the cutting that is. Then you can't see anything through your tears. I had to go outside and take a huge whiff of fresh air, then I got a candle to light, and dropped an entire big box of matches on the floor. I didn't take a picture because my cat was like, "STICKS!!!" and started to scatter them everywhere, and all I could envision is one lighting on something and setting our apartment on fire and burning the place down around me. So, yeah no pics of me frantically cleaning up matches, as my cat is freaking out, I look like I've been crying(which I was, technically), and onions cooking on the stove.
 
 
Yes, another stick of butter.
 
Mix onion cabbage mix with noodles and stir until noodles are hot again. Serve HOT with salt and pepper.
 

I mixed the onion/cabbage with the noodles in the pot that I cooked the noodles in, it was the biggest one I had. And I kept it on a hot burner, so it would heat up faster.
 

 
There is the finished project! My husband said it was good, but the cabbage was still a bit crunchy, so next time I will cook that a bit longer. Other then that he really liked it, and so did the company that we had over. They enjoyed the pork pot roast I made as well. It was the first roast I ever attempted, and it was moist and fell apart as you tried to dish it on your plate. Perfect. Well I hope you all enjoyed this recipe. It wasn't too complex, and never fear Butter. Or in this case Margarine!