Charlyn’s Web

I read recipes and go to many recipe sites on the Internet. I often get a chuckle from the reviews that are left about the recipes. They say something like this:

“I absolutely LOVED this recipe! I fixed it last night and OMG everyone GUSHED about it! I followed the recipe exactly except I didn’t have ingredient A so I substituted B, threw in some C because I had it on hand and I didn’t have any D so left it out. I also cooked it in the oven instead of on the stove. It turned out great! Would make it again!”

Is this still the same recipe? Can you make that many changes and still get the same thing?

I did the same thing last night- no, not leaving a review but in how I changed a recipe. Oh, I mean, I followed it exactly. I was vastly amused at myself. But I am easily entertained.

The background: we are watching our weight- and it’s not a pretty sight. The Col. had been eating plenty due to several circumstances where he had to eat out. So when I asked him what kind of soup he wanted for dinner, it being Wednesday the soup night, he answered Cabbage Soup. Probably as a joke but also thinking he wouldn’t like it and therefore wouldn’t eat too much. He don’t know me very well, do he? I took the challenge and ran with it.

I took a recipe that I had found here for Kohlsuppe-Cabbage Soup. The basic recipe is this:

1. Put the chopped cabbage and the broth in the crockpot, on high; simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
2. In a sauté pan, cook the bacon slices until crisp; remove, chop roughly, and set aside.
3. Sauté the onion in the bacon drippings until soft.
4. Add the chopped bacon, onion, potato, and salt and pepper to the crockpot.
5. Cook on high for an additional 1 to 1 1/2 hours hours, until the cabbage reaches the texture you prefer.
6. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
7. Notes: would also be good with some dill weed or caraway added, or even kielbasa slices, if you like; I also added a 1 once cube of concentrated frozen duck stock, but as most folks don’t have it in their freezer I didn’t include it in the ingredient list; you could simmer this in a heavy pot on the stove for an hour instead of the crockpot, too.

Since I was starting to cook it at about 4:30 in the afternoon there was no way I could use the crockpot, so that was out. But the recipe does say that it could be cooked on the stove for an hour – so I didn’t stray too far that way. Then I looked at the methodology and decided that if I used a separate pan to saute the bacon and onion in then there would be another dirty pan to wash. Bad idea. Also the voices of the cooks at America’s Test Kitchen, one of my favorite TV shows, kept telling me to layer or build flavor. So I fried the bacon (already cut up) in my cast iron dutch oven, drained some of the fat and then cooked the onion (way more than 1/2 a cup) for awhile. Then I added the potatoes, letting them brown a little. Then the cabbage and let it brown and cook down. I put in two minced garlic cloves. After I could smell the garlic I added some chicken stock and stirred up the brown bits on the bottom. I didn’t have enough chicken stock so I added some water with a bit of chicken base (kind of like bullion). That still wasn’t enough so I added a pint of frozen turkey stock I had in the freezer. I was afraid too much chicken base would make it too salty. Then let it simmer awhile.

And guess what? It was good! The Col. took two helpings. 🙂 But at about 170 calories a serving he could afford to do that. Ha! How’s that for following a recipe?