Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of this podcast called Lore. It’s a good short podcast for the trip to and from the office and it’s generally very interesting.

If the title didn’t give it away, the content of each episode centers around “lore”. Stories of ghosts, folklore, haunted houses and witchcraft etc…

Which freaks me out. Like, legit freaks me out. I have the imagination of an over imaginative 5 year old so these stories stick with me a bit. In fact, the other night I was checking our apartment doors for the fourth time before bed (stupid cats making stupid scary noises), I saw three stacked paint cans that looked like a little goblin.

I stopped, gasped an audible “Oh no” and turned the lights on in a panic. Rediculous.

Well, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with food. I think that a lot of people scare themselves into thinking they can’t cook and just like my paint can goblin, it’s not the reality.

I’ve heard a lot of people over the years tell me that cooking is too hard and that “good” food is too complicated.

The truth is, it doesn’t have to be. Good food is good food regardless of the number of ingredients and no matter how simple the cooking process is.

In fact, the dish in the featured image above has 7 ingredients…for everything on the plate. That may seem like a lot but 2 of them are salt and sugar and 2 are the same ingredient just used in different parts.

The sausage:

 

The sausage is store bought hawt Italian sausage…not even name brand. I like dem deals.

Hot pan for a good sear, add a little bit of water and put the lid on to steam them and you’re done. Put the sausage off to the side and add your diced onion and pepper.

Keep the extra sausage and slice it later for pasta dishes or to eat like a banana in the pale light of the fridge at 3 in the morning…I don’t judge.

 

The onions and peppers:

 

Dice up half of your onion and all of your red pepper and toss into the pan your sausages were in. You shouldn’t need any extra oil just use the juices left over. Salt and Pepper to taste.

If you have crusty bits on the pan deglaze with a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Normally you’d julienne the pep and have larger slices of onions but I diced them, why? Because I only had one pepper and I wanted it to look like there was more.

Cook the onions and peppers on medium heat till the onions are translucent and then place the sausages back in to heat them up.

 

I made it look like the sausages were benches around a red pepper and onion fire pit.  Or like in that movie Volcano where they use concrete barriers to route the lava…but with sausage.

Ok, that’s done. Now on to the hardest part of this meal, the balsamic slaw.

The Balsamic Slaw:

Ok, don’t get mad but I didn’t take pictures of the process…I’m sorry but it is really simple.

slice your cabbage very thin and place it in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar to the cabbage and mix well, this will help to draw out moisture and help it to take the vinegar in.

Steam some broccoli. Just until fork tender, if they are too mushy they won’t stand up in the slaw.

Slice the other half of your onion very thin and toss all the veg together.  At this point the only thing that’s in there is veg, salt and sugar. Why sugar? Because vinegar tastes like vinegar and the sugar helps to mellow that shit out.

In a small mixing bowl pour your vinegar, pepper, garlic powder and olive oil and whisk. Whisk mightily to combine the ingredients and then pour over the raw slaw.

Mix and taste and add whatever you think needs to be added. You could make this spicy with horseradish or garlic paste, or creamy with greek yogurt, this is a pretty versatile base.

If you can let the slaw sit for a bit to absorb the flavors that would be great. If not, if you simply cannot control yourself…then go nuts and eat it.

 

See! That wasn’t so bad. Want to know the best part? It’s a fast meal, I think this took me 30 minutes to make and I have slaw and sausage for a few days.

Just remember, good food doesn’t have to be scary and it certainly doesn’t have to be hard.

 

 

Ingredient list:

5 sausages

1/2 medium napa cabbage

3 cups of broccoli (chopped)

1 medium red onion

1 medium red pepper

2 cups of balsamic vinegar

3 tbs of olive oil

1 tbs of sugar (another 1/2 tbs if you need to cut the vinegar more)

2 tbs of salt

2 tbs of garlic powder

1.5 tbs of black pepper

 

Mess Hall balsamic cole slaw foodnetwork Homemade Life New York Times sausage and peppers Simple Cooking