Each week I send out a text message announcing the Wednesday menu for the pre-D&D meal. Some people respond; some just drop in; the family members who live in my house join in – and sometimes their friends eat too. This makes the number of servings tough to judge, so recipes which feed a crowd and which make great leftovers come in handy. We also freeze meals for an uncle who lives out of town and enjoys having his godson (me!) send meals up to him in Orlando. It reminds me of when I cooked during Covid for some D&D friends who had lost their jobs and weren’t eating well. I would make extra meals for them to share with room mates during the week: we called it “Love to Go” and it was a good feeling that even when we were social distancing, I could still take care of my friends.
Weather cancelled D&D this week (6/10-6/14) but we still had 10 for dinner. This recipe was quick and made with ingredients we usually have on hand. Plus, kielbasa was a “buy one, get one free” that week so it was a cost-conscious dinner too. Don’t sweat the measurements too much; it’s a forgiving recipe!
I used 4 “ropes” of kielbasa, each weighing 13 ounces – so figure it’s about 3.25 pounds. This will serve 10-12, depending on age and how hungry everyone is. We added tater tots and peas with sauteed onions and Parmesan, plus salad and corn muffins and everybody was stuffed. There were kielbasa leftovers.
Cut the kielbasa into about 1/3-inch slices (diagonal looks fancy). Splash 2 tablespoons oil in your frying pan (I use a tabletop electric skillet for cooking and serving, $20 at Marshalls) and brown these. Add white wine to deglaze the pan, about 1 ¼ cups – the $4.99 chardonnay from Trader Joe’s is great for this. Let it bubble a few minutes to reduce the wine.
Squirt in 5 tablespoons dark mustard. Whole grain mustard is best, but any brown mustard will do. Now you can choose between brown sugar, or my favorite, maple syrup (we have a small summer cottage on a Vermont lake, so maple syrup is a food group in my family.) ½ cup of either or go up to ¾ cup if you are going to grill these after they have simmered in the wine (in that case, mix the syrup and mustard together and brush it on). Remember if you are grilling to presoak your wood skewers in water so they don’t catch fire.
If you are keeping these in the pan like I do, they can simmer almost forever, but we simmer these on low 15-20 minutes because it thickens the glaze. Get fancy and toss on some shopped fresh parsley for color before you serve, or if you have green onions in your fridge cut the onion tops fine and sprinkle them on top. You can use the white parts as well.
These make great leftovers because the glaze thickens when it is cold. Reheat in the microwave or if you air fry to reheat you’ll get a bit more caramelization, which I like. Enjoy!
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