Bought a fresh cabbage from the St. Lawrence market which lasted a good two weeks in the fridge -- these things seem to last forever! It was a large cabbage that I didn't end up finishing. This recipe made about 12 - 14 cabbage rolls. If I had used only the largest leaves it would have been about 10. The cabbage was so fresh that i had no idea what i would make with it when i bought it, just knew that i had to eat it. So this really is homage to the "fresh" cabbage.
This wasn't bad for the first try. I usually get these (made cabbage rolls) from the St. Lawrence market too. I've tried the beef and buckwheat flavours. Ian likes the beef, never the buckwheat. I like both. Sometimes preferring the buckwheat..something about the combination of sweet and sour that isn't exactly true of the beef. Anyway, I basically tried to reverse engineer it with a little help from existing recipes from allrecipes, food.com, and epicurious (the usual suspects).
So the basics are cabbage, meat, rice, tomato sauce, some herbs. Bake it in sauce (braise) and serve. It's basically all the food groups in one thing, which I love. So then when it came time to actually do it, I just winged it, thought about what's inside the ones i like, and I tried to recreate it from feel. (the most rewarding kind of cooking, in my humble opinion)
Surprising though, I think there were as many recipes for how to make the cabbage rolls as there were videos/recipes talking about how to take the leaves off the cabbage while keeping them intact. The gist is to get a big pot of rolling boiling water going, make sure the pot is big enough to completely submerge the cabbage. Turn the cabbage until the root side is up. Then cut out the core in a wide circular shape as deep as your pairing knife will go without puncturing through to the other side. Put the cabbage into the boiling water leaves side down. As the cabbage boils, loosen the leaves with long tongs and pull out and drain one by one. this is the most time consuming part. once done, you are home free.
Rolls:
1 cabbage
1/2 lb each pork and beef (lean/med)
1/2 cup dill chopped fine
1 -2 tbsp herb de provence/italian seasoning
2 - 3 tbsp soya sauce
1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
Pepper - 6 turns on a pepper mill -- maybe 1 tsp
Pepper - 6 turns on a pepper mill -- maybe 1 tsp
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup carrots grated
1 med onion diced/grated
olive oil
olive oil
Sauce:
1 bottle ragu tomato sauce
1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup red wine
6 -8 tomatoes
2 tbsp sugar
1.5 cup water or enough to ensure liquidity of the sauce
Equipment:
Food processor (at least 5 cup)
Slowcooker or oven
1.5 cup water or enough to ensure liquidity of the sauce
Equipment:
Food processor (at least 5 cup)
Slowcooker or oven
What I also did was add cider vinegar which made the sauce a tinge too tart. I will skip this next time :)
I've omitted this from the recipe.
Instructions:
1. Marinade the meat with soya sauce, worchestershire, dill, garlic, herb de provence, pepper, salt. Let it sit while you shred the carrots and onion in the food processor with a little olive oil.
2. Mix the carrot mixture with the meat mixture
3. Mix the sauce ingredients in the processor, blend until smooth
4. Make the rolls. ie put the mixture in the middle of a large cabbage leaf, pat down, fold from the bottom one, then fold the sides to the middle, then finish by rolling the rest of the way till the leaf runs out. make sure to keep the hold tight but not break the leaf
5. Laddle a generous amount of sauce into the bottom of the crockpot. about 1/2 in to cover the entire bottom. Place rolls down tightly packed until full. Repeat until full. Top the entire pot with the rest of the sauce.
6. Cook on low 8 or 10 hours/overnight
7. I heated 6 rolls for good measure in oven for 1 hour at 350 F.
Delish!
by the way, if i were to reverse engineer the buckwheat ones, i think I would use onion, pickled olives, a combo of mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots for the other mixture, maybe use chicken stock for the filling. And the outside sauce... same i guess.
I've omitted this from the recipe.
Instructions:
1. Marinade the meat with soya sauce, worchestershire, dill, garlic, herb de provence, pepper, salt. Let it sit while you shred the carrots and onion in the food processor with a little olive oil.
2. Mix the carrot mixture with the meat mixture
3. Mix the sauce ingredients in the processor, blend until smooth
4. Make the rolls. ie put the mixture in the middle of a large cabbage leaf, pat down, fold from the bottom one, then fold the sides to the middle, then finish by rolling the rest of the way till the leaf runs out. make sure to keep the hold tight but not break the leaf
5. Laddle a generous amount of sauce into the bottom of the crockpot. about 1/2 in to cover the entire bottom. Place rolls down tightly packed until full. Repeat until full. Top the entire pot with the rest of the sauce.
6. Cook on low 8 or 10 hours/overnight
7. I heated 6 rolls for good measure in oven for 1 hour at 350 F.
Delish!
by the way, if i were to reverse engineer the buckwheat ones, i think I would use onion, pickled olives, a combo of mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots for the other mixture, maybe use chicken stock for the filling. And the outside sauce... same i guess.
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