Haluski

Haluski is this incredible combination of potato dumplings added to pan-fried cabbage and onion. I found this dish whilst investigating another recipe and stumbling across a homemade noodle similar to spaetzl. My children all love spaetzl.

You start with finely sliced cabbage and onions sauteed in butter until golden and tender. 

Meanwhile, you grate 4 modest sized potatoes and combine it with some eggs, flour and seasoning and then drop this in small bits into boiling water. And, by small, I mean no more than a teaspoon as they will swell.

Were I to make changes to the recipe I think I'd want to have boiling chicken stock instead of water and then use the leftovers from the meal with the twice flavored stock and make a soup. I'm writing the recipe the way that I cooked it. I'll try to get a picture of the finished dish and add that later.

Haluski with Smoked Sausage
1 small green cabbage, washed and very thinly sliced (about softball size)
2 large shallots, peeled, halved and sliced very thin (about golf ball size ... my original called for 1 large onion)
1 stick of butter (I used a splash of olive oil before adding butter and didn't use the whole stick)
salt
4 medium potatoes, washed, grated (not HUGE baking potatoes)
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
salt & pepper
2 12-oz. pkg. Smoked Sausage, sliced thin

First, wash and thinly slice the cabbage, placing layers in a colander and sprinkling with a little salt. As you slice more cabbage keep layering in the colander with a little salt. Peel, halve and thinly slice the shallots (you could use sweet yellow or red onion for this). Slice sausages and set aside.

I let these sit for a bit to remove a little of cabbage's water. Start a dutch oven on high with lightly salted water (I actually used about 1/4 cup of soy sauce). While waiting, grate the potatoes and combine with eggs, flour, salt and any seasonings. A little garlic powder, onion powder and maybe some nutmeg might be good here, but I just used the salt and pepper. Mix all together until combined well (just get right in there with your hands... trust me, works much better).

Heat a large skillet and add a small splash of oil and 2 to 3 pats of the butter. Let butter melt and begin to brown (adjust heat as needed so butter doesn't burn). Slowly add cabbage and onions/shallots, stirring and adjusting temperature as needed. Add butter if pan shows signs of drying out.

Once water is boiling, drop scant teaspoons of potato mixture into water, keeping them separated as you would for any dumpling. They will drop to the bottom at first, but will rise to the surface as they cook through. Resist the urge to pull them out as soon as they rise as these need a couple minutes to really cook through (my recipe said 5).

Drain thoroughly cooked dumplings and add to cabbage in skillet, stirring to combine (I used my Asian ladle strainer and took finished noodles directly from water to cabbage). Add smoked sausage and stirring to mix them in evenly. Continue cooking until sausages heated through, though be sure to watch so that the pan does not dry out.

Season to taste and serve. This dish makes a lot... like enough for 8 or more people. The potato dumplings would be good on their own sauteed in a little butter before serving as a side dish or in soup. 

I am definitely going to be playing with this dish as I can imagine just making the potato dumplings and giving them a toss in a little butter and cream with just a little cabbage and grated carrot and serving them with pork chops.