Swedabilly Kitchen

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!

• Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl or mug of boiling water for at least 30 minutes while you do other prep. Place them stem down, and I like to weigh them down in the water with a spoon resting on top.

  (When those are fully rehydrated, gently squeeze them out, reserving the soaking water to add to the soup broth. Slice the tough stem off the squeezed mushrooms, and slice the caps to add to the soup with the other vegetables.)

Prepare/Assemble Your Ingredients

• Cut all your fresh vegetables, as you prefer. We're keeping it simple here, and this is how I did it for this batch of soup.
  
• Get your kimchi ready.

  Tonight I'm using a relatively small amount from a homemade batch of aged shredded white cabbage kimchi–more as a seasoning component than anything else. If you want your soup to be more about the kimchi, cut back on the fresh cabbage and added salt, and use a higher proportion of kimchi.
  

Prepare Your Soup Base

• Tonight I'm using these basic components for flavor.
  
• Heat the oil over medium heat in a pan, and add the sliced ginger.

  Fry a little until it starts getting fragrant, then add the chopped garlic and sliced onion. Continue frying, stirring, for another minute or so until the garlic is also fragrant. We're not looking to brown anything, just bring out some of the flavor..
• Add the chicken broth into the pot, add in the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, and bring to the boil.

  Here, I used half fresh rich chicken broth from the previous post, and made up the other half with water plus a couple of teaspoons of the Chinese chicken broth powder shown above. It's less nutritious than using all homemade, but either way is delicious.
• Once the soup broth is boiling, add in your kombu and vegetables, including the kimchi. I purposely cut everything to need close to the same cooking time, so I just dumped it all in together.
• Also add the pepper and optional gochugaru.

  This is the same bag of flake type with a sort of medium heat level that was used in this kimchi. It's been staying in the freezer inside a zip bag for freshness. Here, I'm just using a little for the extra flavor and color. Use however much you like, or another type of red pepper entirely.
  
• Simmer covered for 10 minutes, then check for seasoning and doneness.

  I added some salt and a little more kimchi, and gave it another 5 minutes to simmer for a total of 15. For this type of soup, I prefer the veggies more on the tender side but not totally soft. It's up to you.

Noodle Time!

• Tonight I opted for bean thread noodles, cooked by the serving. They're quick cooking, come in handy single-serving nests, and work well with a lighter type soup broth like this. (The ones on the right labeled "Glass Noodles" in translation appear to be mixed pea and mung bean starch.)

  If we'd had more rice vermicelli today, I might have chosen those. Feel free to use whatever type of noodles you prefer.
  
• Easy peasy! These only need to boil for 3 minutes, then it's time to drain and assemble the first bowl.
  
• The easiest way to do this is to drain the noodles at the sink in a mesh strainer, optionally prewarming your soup bowl with the hot noodle water then pouring it out.

  Then, just transfer your fresh hot noodles into the bowl. The noodle pan and strainer should be ready for the next bowl. It's faster with a hot kettle ready.
• First step: Protein!

  This is leftover breast meat from the roast chicken that helped make the broth. It's fine to put that in cold from the refrigerator, because the hot noodles and scalding broth will heat it right up.

  This bowl also got a handful of sliced green onions early, because the only ones we had were frozen. It'll be good, and it's significantly better than no green onion!
  
• Ladle on some soup, and you're ready to go!

  This is with a drizzle of sesame oil, but before Mr. Sweden added his chili oil on top. No extra kimchi for him, because he doesn't particularly enjoy it fresh.

  This soup broth turned out lighter in color than I expected, and the kimchi cabbage visually blended in more than I would have thought with the other cabbage. The end result was still moderately hot, with a nice hint of tartness and fermented flavor underneath.
  
• Enjoy!