Blue Cayenne

Lahanodolmades. Kaalikaaryle. Bai Cai Juan. Golabki.

It’s Lahanodolmades in Greece.

It’s Kaalikaaryle in Finland.

It’s Bai Cai Juan in China.

It’s Golabki in Poland.

Turns out, cabbage rolls are “a thing”  just about everywhere. And, it’s with good reason. They are delicious!

So here is today’s cooking challenge:  Buy a beautiful green winter cabbage–a big one, pick the most euphonious name from the world’s cabbage roll lexicon, and start rolling and cooking.

Personally, I’m going with the Polish Golabki. According to the Internet, Golabki is  pronounced gaw-WOHMP-kee. Translated, that means little pigeon feet. I’ve always loved the sweet little pigeons who visit my garden, but, truth be told, I’m going with Golabki because the idea of keeping the WOHMP in my cabbage rolls makes me giggle.

Cabbage roll fillings are traditionally made with meat and rice (or grains like barley or bulgur) and sauced with tomatoes. You can go rogue with this recipe, though. These great rolls are made with cubed potatoes and cubed tart apples and are sauced with brown butter and walnuts.

Here is the recipe.

This recipe was adapted from one that appeared on The Splendid Table site. You can find the original recipe here.

This Persimmon Nut Bread recipe comes from James Beard.

Beard shaped American cooking for 40 years. He wrote two dozen cookbooks, wrote a weekly syndicated cooking column, operated an eponymous cooking school in Greenwich Village and lived an altogether colorful life.

In 1990, Carl Jerome, writing for The Washington Post, described Beard as “a man who bordered on becoming a national folk hero. He read Dostoyevsky at the age of 6. He studied singing with Caruso’s voice teacher in London. He acted in Hollywood movies and once on Broadway. He slept on black satin sheets in elegant European bordellos. He picnicked with Alice B. Toklas.”

When he died in 1985, The New York Times ran this obituary : NYT Obituary for James Beard. It is worth a read.

This delicious Persimmon Nut Bread recipe produces a sweet bread that is moist and delicious. It got rave reviews from Blue Cayenne’s neighborhood team of testers.

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in James Beard’s book, Beard on Bread. The book is available here.

Cookies. What a beautiful word.

No need to feel guilty about eating them either. ‘Tis the season.

Being a cookie addict aficionado, imagine my delight when the New York Times ran a special cookie feature  this week by cookbook author and food stylist Susan Spungen. I couldn’t wait to begin giving her beautiful recipes a try. The Thumbprint Cookie, in particular, caught my eye. Here is a link to Spungen’s collection of cookie recipes: NY Times Special Cookie Section.  You’ll definitely want to read it.

And here are my Thumbprints.