Swedabilly Kitchen

• Preheat the oven to 350℉/180℃.
• Gather your dry ingredients. This cake will go together quickly.

  I used a combination of around 25% each by volume of oat and sorghum flours, mixed with 50% of a starch-based commercial white flour blend here. Any multipurpose blend not specifically made for bread should work here. Only include the extra xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already contain it.

  The baking powder here isn't double-acting, so I use a little extra in a lot of things. Use the smaller amount if yours is.
  
• I decided to use vanillin sugar today, since it's just to add a hint of flavor to a cake where that's not the main note. You can use extract instead, and this should go in with the wet ingredients.
  
• Gather your liquid ingredients including all the butter. Reserve about ¾ of the butter for your topping.

  Chunk up the butter, and use a small portion of it to grease your baking pan well. I used a 1L capacity IKEA "oven to table" Pyrex storage container, which comes with a handy lid to clamp on top once your baked goods have cooled down.

  Set aside another small portion of butter to melt for the batter.
  
• Stir your dry ingredients together in a bowl. This batter is simple enough that I just mixed the whole thing with an eating tablespoon.

  Stir in your liquid ingredients, and pour the batter into the pan.
  
• Sprinkle on a good amount of cinnamon, and top with the brown sugar. I used a mix of light and extra dark for flavor, but choose whatever you prefer.

  Arrange cubed butter around the top, pushing it partway down into the batter.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes, then check for doneness by poking a skewer or toothpick into the middle. It's done when the stick comes out clean. Mine took 25 minutes in that pan in our oven.
• Enjoy! This is particularly good while it's still warm, with a nice cup of coffee or tea.
  

Ingredient Prep

• Assremble and prepare your vegetables.

  I cut the cabbage in advance, and wished I'd used more as called for here.
  
• If you're cutting/peeling larger potatoes, keep them to the side in water to cover.
• Soften the more finely chopped onion in butter. Reserve to the side to cool.
  
• Start the oven preheating to 180℃/350℉.
• In the same pan, start frying the cabbage and other onion over medium heat. After coating in the melted butter, add some salt and pepper and cover to let it steam in its own juices to soften for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  
• In the meantime, assemble the ingredients for the meatloaf layer.
  
• Place all the filling ingredients into a suitable mixing container, and combine well.

  Mixing with your hand(s) is the way to go here, and disposable gloves are awesome.
  
• This will result in a pretty loose mixture, but don't worry. It will firm up when it's cooked.

  Tip: One quick and easy way to test for seasoning while you can still adjust it, is to place a bite of the raw meat mixture on a suitable dish and microwave it for maybe 30-45 seconds or until it looks cooked. You could also fry it. This did need a little more salt.
  
• The cabbage may be close to done by now. Once it is on the slightly more tender side of tender-crisp, remove the lid. Fry for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally.

  You want at least a little browning. Near the very end, drizzle on a little syrup (or sprinkle sugar). Taste to adjust seasonings. I have to say I was initially skeptical of the syrup addition here, but just a subtle hint of added sweetness did work well. That will also help it caramelize if you want it browner, but I didn't want to risk seriously overcooking it to take it very dark.
  
• Grease an 8"x8"/20cmx20cm baking dish. Layer roughly half of the cabbage on the bottom.
• Add on an even layer of the meatloaf mixture.
  
• Top with the remaining cabbage.
  

Cooking

• Bake the casserole for 45 minutes.
• While that's cooking, put on the potatoes to boil in well-salted water.
  
• When those are done, drain well and gently stir in some butter and the parsley. Don't worry about absolutely even distribution at this point.

  Cover and set aside. They should stay plenty warm until everything is done.
  
• Assemble your sauce ingredients, and have a heatproof measuring cup ready to go.
  
• When the baking time is up, carefully pour the collected juices from the baking pan into the measuring cup. Top the liquid up with water to 200ml (or ¾ cup).
  
• Put the casserole back into the oven for another 10 minutes.
• Pour the cup into a small saucepan. You can measure out your cream in the same cup. Pour that into the pan too.
  
• Add in the seasononings. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
  
• While that heats, stir the cornstarch into the milk for your thickening. Turn the sauce heat down to barely simmering, and whisk in the milk and starch mixture to thicken.

  Adjust seasoning and consistency to your liking, with a little more milk and/or starch. Hold at a low simmer for a minute or so. We're looking for the slightly thinner side of a medium thickness here.
  
• When the casserole is done, let it rest out of the oven for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Serving

• Serve with the parsley potatoes, sauce, and a dollop of lingonberries on the side. Enjoy!
  

Preparation

• Assemble your ingredients, starting with the vegetables and lentils.

  This is a home-frozen package of refrigerated gluten free meat filled tortellini (beef), which is sitting out to thaw some while I do the other prep.
  
• Cut your veggies into soup-sized pieces, however you like. We're aiming for about 30 minutes of cooking time for most of them. Adjust as needed for your size pieces, or if you want them less tender.

  We did not have celery today, though I would include some if we did. We're also using frozen chopped kale, with around 100g left in the bag as it turned out.
• Set the onion and celery to one side with your chopped or crushed garlic to use first, with the carrots and greens ready to go in later.
• Also set the broth and tomato components ready to use.

  Today, I am using part of the recent homemade chicken broth, mixed half and half with Knorr vegetable bouillon. It'll be good with whatever broth you prefer. We also had an open jar of chunky Arrabiata sauce, so I am just using that instead of opening a can of chopped tomatoes.
  
• Assemble your seasonings.

  I was using the already seasoned pasta sauce, so you might want to increase the herbs a bit if you're using canned tomatoes. Same goes for the salt, and any other seasonings that might apply.
  
• Rinse your lentils well in a strainer, looking through them for anything like small rocks or stray grains mixed in. (Particularly important if you need to avoid gluten!)

  Shake excess water off, and set aside.

Cooking

• Sauté the onions and optional celery in olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan of at least 2L capacity..

  Again, we're not looking to get them particularly soft now, just cooked until they start turning translucent for the flavor. Add the chopped garlic, and continue frying for another minute or so.
  
• Add in the broth, bay leaf, pepper, and lentils. I would also add the red pepper flakes at this point, if I were not using the pasta sauce later on with some chile already in it.

  Bring to a boil.
  
• Simmer the lentils, covered, for 15 minutes. We're aiming for 45 minutes total with these before the tomatoes go into the soup and seriously slow further cooking.
• Add the carrot and greens, along with the rosemary and thyme.. Bring back to the boil, then simmer covered for another 30 minutes.

  These particular frozen greens came chopped much more finely than I prefer, or how that brand usually comes. It doesn't look nearly as good this way, but I'm sure it will taste just fine.
  
• After the 30 minutes are up, evaluate the lentils for doneness. These were soft all the way through, but not falling completely apart–which is what I was aiming for. Simmer for a few more minutes at a time as needed, until everything is done to your liking.
• Once the lentils are fully cooked, add the tomato component and oregano.
  
• Bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 5 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

  This is a good point to hold the soup until you're wanting to eat very soon. Resting will only improve the flavor. I ended up letting this sit for nearly an hour before we were ready to eat.
• Bring the soup back up to a boil, and stir in the tortellini. Keep it at a high simmer or low boil for maybe 3 minutes, then test a piece for doneness.

  This needed about 5 minutes to my liking. The fresh pasta does cook very quickly.
  
• Looking good! Time to eat.
  
• Sprinkle on some grated hard cheese to serve, as you like. Tonight we had some refrigerated pre-grated Grana Padano.
  
• Enjoy!