Kielbasa sauerkraut soup with wild mushrooms

 

Fresh wild mushrooms are definitely not free, so I only tend to buy them for a specific recipe .... which I then do not make. Usually they're called for in some recipe that I don't have time or energy for at the point I would have intended to cook it. So if I'm half on the ball, the mushrooms get repurposed for something else before they go bad. If I'm not, it's some expensive compost fodder.

This recipe is so simple it really shouldn't have triggered that reaction. But it did. Three times. My ability to muster the energy and attention to cook a new recipe, and thus blog about it, is a pretty reliable indicator of how my life is going. For several months, mine was kind of off the rails working 12-hour days during the work week and several hours on weekends and faux vacations/holidays.

I'm not completely out of the woods yet workwise, but I finally had time for this recipe that comes together in less than an hour. Handy, since winter finally decided to reassert itself, and this helps take the edge off after a commute where people don't seem to remember where the lanes were the day before.

Polish hunter's stew

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, December 2023. I'd link to it online, but I can't find it on their site. Serves 4 passably well.

Ingredients

14-ounce kielbasa, sliced into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces mixed wild mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tomato puree
3 cups water
2 cups sauerkraut
½ teaspoon dried dill
Fresh dill for optional garnish

Method

Heat olive oil in a large deep skillet. Brown kielbasa. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add mushrooms, onion and salt to the pan. Cook, stirring often, until tender and the onion has started to pick up a bit of color. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Add water, sauerkraut and dill. Return kielbasa to the pan. Cover and simmer 15 minutes to allow mixture to heat through and flavors to blend. Serve topped with fresh dill leaves if desired.

Rating: Very hearty. Decent flavor, providing you like kielbasa, which is mainly what it tastes of. Not too time consuming to fix. Aside from the mushrooms, it's relatively pantry friendly, since the rest of the ingredients have staying power and you don't even have to have a decent broth on standby. I opted to add dried dill to the soup, since I had no fresh on hand, it not being summer when I'm overrun with it. I could see making it again the next time I want to play fresh mushroom roulette.

Pickle rollups in cheese ball form

 

These are basically Minnesota sushi inverted, so they seemed like a plausible thing to try for Super Bowl fare, when fancy seems a tad out of place.

Dill pickle cheese ball bites

Adapted from "Homestead Recipes" by Amanda Rettke of the I Am Baker blog. Makes about 20 cheese balls. I used these hamburger pickles.

Ingredients

1 8-ounce container cream cheese, softened
½ cup finely diced dill pickles plus ½ cup finely minced dill pickles, divided
½ cup diced ham
3 tablespoons ranch dressing seasoning mix
⅓ cup minced fresh chives
⅓ cup finely chopped pecans

Method

Line a large food storage box with waxed paper.

Mix cream cheese, ½ cup finely diced dill pickles, ham and seasoning mix in a medium bowl. Shape into small rounds, slightly more than ½-inch round. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Combine remaining minced pickles, chives and pecans in a small bowl. Roll cheese balls into mixture, pressing to coat well. Return to storage container and chill well until ready to serve.

Rating: A little too soft and messy for good finger food served couch-side. Definitely want to serve them as chilled as possible for structural integrity sake. Plus the flavor had intensified a bit more the second day. I kind of feel about these the same way I felt about the "undeviled eggs" that I decided really worked better in the more traditional form: Both were tasty enough versions, but no tastier, and decidedly harder to eat as finger food. 

If you want a good mini cheese ball that holds up as finger food, these mini rosemary roquefort cheese balls are the hot ticket.