Recipe: Polish Haluski

If you know me at all, you'll understand how surprising it is that my first recipe post on the blog is not a dessert. I really love baking but cooking is a different story, not because I don't like it but because the hubs only eats pizza, pasta, and meat. When I try to make anything other than those 3 items, Steve won't eat it. After more than 5 years together, I'm finally learning to cook for 1 if the dish has anything to do with vegetables. I've also gotten slightly better at not feeling offended when Steve doesn't eat what I've been slaving over for hours in the kitchen.

I think I had a craving for haluski this week because it reminds me of home. I decided to make it hoping the hubs would help eat it because (A) its got pasta noodles in it and (B) he had it before in Pittsburgh and claimed to like it. There are a lot of ways to make haluski but I'm using a family recipe that I've tweaked to add some onion just because I like the flavor it adds.

If you've never had haluski, a.k.a. pan-fried cabbage and noodles, its a Polish/Slovak dish that is very popular where I grew up. It's very easy to make and requires few ingredients.

At one point while I was making this haluski, the hubs comes into the kitchen and says "Heeeeey babushka!" To which I replied, "You know what a babushka is, right?" ha! 

Ingredients:

• 1 Medium Green Cabbage
• 1 package Egg Noodles
• 1 stick Butter, melted
• 1/2 cup White Sugar
• 1/2 cup Vinegar
• 1 cup Water
• 1 Sweet Onion, carmelized

Onion is missing from this photo

Step 1: Slice and caramelize your sweet onion.

Step 2: Cut your cabbage into approximately 1/2 inch wide strips. If you've never cooked with cabbage before, you'll want to cut the head of cabbage in half, then in half again so that you have 4 pieces. Slice the core from the center of each piece and then turn it over to cut it into strips.

Step 3: Combine the melted butter, water, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper into a small bowl and mix well.

Step 4: Place the cabbage into a dutch over on your stovetop with half of the butter mixture and the caramelized onions. If you don't have a dutch oven, I would recommend using a stock pot or something deep enough that it can hold all of the cabbage. It will look like a lot of cabbage but don't worry, cabbage is like spinach leaves in that it will shrink as its cooked.

Step 5: Cover your cabbage and cook until soft and browning slightly. While the cabbage is cooking, I always cook the egg noodles in a different pot so that it takes less time once I add them to the cabbage mixture. If you do this, cook the noodles until al dente.

Step 6: Add noodles and remaining butter mixture to cabbage. Cover and cook until noodles are soft, stirring occasionally.

Step 7: Top with a little extra pepper and serve! You can serve haluski on its own, or I would suggest with pork or chicken.

Hopefully whoever you are making this for has better developed taste buds than my husband, who was struggling to swallow the small bite I gave him. Guess he doesn't like haluski after all... oh well, more for me!

Do you have a certain type of food that reminds you of home or of your family? Let me know if you try the recipe and how it comes out! :)