Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Alternate cooking methods for Bubbles and Squeak

Although a couple of the Pratt siblings use the oven for this recipe, some prefer the stove top method, allowing for a more fresh cabbage texture, and making it more likely you'll have this in warm weather when you don't want to heat up the house with the oven. I have adjusted this to include both the stove top and the crock pot, thus allowing myself to prepare it around 2pm, before the kids come home from school, yet eat it when Aaron gets home at 5:30pm.

Boil 12 medium potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces, but not all the way. They should be firm still when the sausage is done being browned. If you check them and they are getting close to ready, remove, drain, and reserve them.
Brown a pound of sausage in wok or large skillet, then drain the fat and return to pan. I agree with Melissa that Jimmy Dean is not the best option for this. We have a different brand here than what is available there, but it has a wonderful flavor which has some fennel in it.
Mix in about 22 oz cream of (whatever) soup or a basic thick roux of your own making (which is a whole lot healthier than Campbell's) to the sausage, and add the potatoes.
Cut up a whole cabbage into bite-sized chunks. Add them to the top of the pan and sprinkle some kosher salt and some sugar on it, then cover. The chemical reaction of the salt and sugar with the cabbage allows it to retain a pleasant color, rather than turning gray. It also removes its bitterness.

If you have a few hours before you need to serve it, steam the cabbage until it is at a point where it has lost its crunch, but is not soggy, and then move the whole concoction to a crock pot. Turn it on low. 20 minutes before you serve it, sprinkle it with mozzarella.

If you aren't looking for some extra time before serving it, steam the cabbage until it has lost its crunch, then mix it in and add the mozzarella as soon as the potatoes and cabbage are just getting fork-tender. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to melt, so dinner will be ready very soon!

1 comment:

MJ said...

Thanks! I've been trying to get this to work in the crock pot and I've never been successful. I'll try this next time.