Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends (9 page)
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Authors: Trisha Yearwood
Tags: #food.cookbooks
In a small bowl, combine the tomato juice with the remaining 1 cup water and pour the mixture over the cabbage rolls. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the meat is well done.
I use 2 heads of cabbage to get the 12 biggest leaves possible. If the outside of your cabbage has bright green leaves, discard them. They won’t get as tender in cooking as the brighter leaves underneath.
spaghetti
This dish meets all the requirements for the perfect potluck take-along. It’s a crowd pleaser, it’s big enough to feed a crowd—and it’s easy to transport. Beth takes this to church suppers, but I just make it for Garth and the girls. We never have any leftovers!
SERVES 12
6 slices bacon
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped bell pepper
3 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes with liquid
1 2.25-ounce can sliced ripe black olives, drained
1–2 tablespoons dried oregano, according to taste
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
12 ounces thin spaghetti, cooked and drained
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese (5 ounces)
1 10-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
¼ cup water
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13 × 2-inch baking dish.
In a large skillet, cook the bacon until slightly crisp, then cut it into smaller pieces. Remove the bacon and sauté the garlic, onion, and bell pepper in the bacon drippings until tender. Add the tomatoes, olives, oregano, bacon, and the cooked beef. Simmer this mixture, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Place half of the spaghetti in the prepared pan. Top the spaghetti with half of the vegetable-beef mixture. Sprinkle this layer with 1 cup of Cheddar cheese. Repeat the layers. Mix the canned soup and water until smooth, and pour over the casserole. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, or until heated through.
FROM BETH:
This entrée is also good if you substitute mozzarella cheese for the Cheddar.
roast beef
Nothing smells better than a roast cooking in the oven—the Dutch oven, that is. This roast smells great all over the house as it slowly simmers in its own gravy. When my friend Mandy comes over for this meal, she loves the smell so much that she will go outside and come back in, just to get the full effect all over again! If there is any left over, use it to make hash (
see recipe below
).
SERVES 8
2 tablespoons salt
1 3-pound eye of round beef roast
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 10-ounce cans French onion soup
1 10-ounce can golden mushroom soup
Rub the salt into the meat very well. Coat the meat with flour.
In a large cast-iron Dutch oven, heat the vegetable oil. Sear the roast on all sides. Transfer the seared roast to a platter and scrape the pan to loosen the drippings. Add the soups and 3 soup cans of water to the pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, return the roast and its juices to the pan, cover, and cook for 3 hours, or until the meat is tender.
Slice and serve with the pan gravy.
MAKES 12 ½-CUP SERVINGS
2 cups roast beef drippings (cooking liquid)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups water
1 small onion, chopped
1 pound leftover beef roast, chopped or shredded
1 4-ounce can evaporated milk
Pour the drippings from cooking a roast into a measuring cup and let the fat rise to the surface. Skim off the fat, reserving 4 tablespoons in a saucepan and discarding the rest. (If the fat measures less than 4 tablespoons, add enough butter to make up the difference.) Measure the defatted pan juices; if you have less than 2 cups, add water to make 2 cups. Boil the pan juices, the 2 cups water, and the onion until the onion is clear. Add the beef and return to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the evaporated milk. Serve over rice, grits, or cornbread.
I also like the hash over buttered toast with eggs.
pork loin
Before I found this recipe, my attempts at cooking pork loin usually began with high hopes and ended with dry, overcooked meat. The secret is the slow-cooking crockpot. Spices in the rub get a chance to really flavor the loin, and it doesn’t dry out. In fact, it’s so tender that it actually falls apart!
SERVES 8
1 2½- to 3-pound pork loin
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 teaspoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Salt and pepper
Trim the visible fat from the loin. If necessary, cut the roast to fit into a 3½-, 4-, or 5-quart crockpot. In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, ginger, thyme, and pepper. Rub the spice mixture over the entire surface of the loin. In a large skillet, heat the oil and brown the loin slowly on all sides. Drain off the fat. Transfer the loin to the crockpot. Combine the chicken broth, lemon juice, and soy sauce; pour over the loin. Cover and cook on a low-heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on a high-heat setting for 4 to 5 hours. When the roast is done, transfer the meat to a serving platter and cover to keep it warm. To make the gravy, pour the juices from the crockpot into a glass measuring cup. Skim off the fat. Measure 2 cups of liquid, adding water to the juices, if necessary, to make 2 cups. Transfer the juices to a saucepan, reserving ½ cup. Stir the cornstarch into the reserved ½ cup of juice until dissolved, then stir into the juices in the saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the gravy is thickened and bubbly, 5 to 7 minutes. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Season the gravy to taste with salt and pepper. Slice the roast and serve it with the gravy.
In my busy life, I just don’t have time to try complicated recipes. I think I always assumed homemade meatballs had to be really difficult and time-consuming. One day my friend Kim came over and showed me how to make these meatballs. They are so easy to make and so good! She likes to make the bigger ones, but I like the small bite-size ones. Simmer these meatballs in your favorite spaghetti sauce for 30 minutes.
MAKES 20 MEDIUM MEATBALLS OR 35 SMALL MEATBALLS; SERVES 10
2 pounds lean ground beef
½ pound ground pork
2 cups Italian-flavored bread crumbs
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
½ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, minced
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl or mixer, thoroughly mix the beef, pork, bread crumbs, eggs, milk, parsley, garlic, and onion. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Shape into meatballs and place on a foil-lined shallow baking pan. Bake 30 minutes for medium- or 25 minutes for bite-size meatballs.
Stick toothpicks in these meatballs and serve them as an appetizer.
lasagne
In my introduction to
Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen,
I mentioned that Garth had recently asked me about trying to create a heartier, meatier lasagne, and we started experimenting. Here’s what we came up with. Remember those old commercials that said, “How do you handle a hungry man?” Well, here’s how!
SERVES 12
1 pound lean ground beef, chuck or round
1 pound sage-flavored sausage
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sliced pepperoni
1 16-ounce can tomatoes, diced or stewed
1 12-ounce can tomato paste
2 cups water
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
16 ounces lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
16 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large, heavy skillet, lightly brown the ground beef, sausage, onion, and garlic in the oil. Be sure to keep the meat chunky, not finely separated, while cooking. Drain the meat. Add the pepperoni, tomatoes, tomato paste, water, salt, pepper, and oregano. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Cook and drain the lasagna noodles according to package directions.
In a 9 × 13 × 2-inch baking pan, spread 1 cup of the prepared sauce. Alternate layers of noodles, sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses, ending with sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly browned and bubbling. Allow the dish to stand for 15 minutes before serving. Cut the lasagne into 3-inch squares and serve.
Serves 12 regular people or 1 hungry cowboy and his wife!
FROM BETH:
My family likes cottage cheese in place of ricotta. It gives the lasagne even more texture.
