[Sca-cooks] oop ot help cabbage rolls

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Marilyn Traber:

>Help - I want to get a good cabbage roll recipe, one that doesn't use catsup
>or canned soup....a REAL recipe that calls for long slow cooking, layers of
>little cabbage rolls drenched in tomato puree and paste!
>
>All I can find online is infernal cabbage roll casserole, cabbage roll soup,
>and cabbage rolls made with soup and catsup ;-(

I found one that uses tomato _juice_ online. Does that help? I would
tweak the recipe anyway, just on General Principles...

>Polish Stuffed Cabbage (Golubki)
>2 lb. lean Ground Beef
>1/2 cup Rice uncooked
>1 medium Onion Diced
>1 Green Pepper Diced
>2 Eggs
>1 large head Cabbage
>2 qt. Tomato Juice
>PREPARE THE CABBAGE LEAVES:
>The Old timers would freeze the head solid, then peel the leaves from
>the head as they thawed.  The best way  is to cut the core out
>with a knife, then put the hole-where-the-core-was, side down in a steamer
>over boiling water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes and remove.  Several
>layers of the outer leaves should be soft enough to remove from the head.
>When you've removed as many as you can, return the head to the steamer
>to soften more leaves.  Take a sharp knife and remove as much of the
>central vein as you can.
>FILLING: Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl.  Work
>it with your hands until the eggs and other ingredients except the tomato
>juice are thoroughly mixed into the meat.  Now, take a glob of mixture
>and set it in the hollow of a deveined leaf, with the end that was near
>the core towards you.  Fold the end nearest you over the mix.
>Fold the left side over the mix and then the right side. Roll it
>up so that the "seam" is on the bottom. Place in the pan seam side down
>and continue with the other leaves. *
>When you've made the last cabbage roll, pour in the tomato juice to
>cover.  Bring to a boil then simmer for AT LEAST an hour.
>Serve in a bowl with the juice, although these, like spaghetti are better
>the 2nd day.
>  *This is an ideal cabbage roll. 3/4 of them won't go together
>this perfectly, so be ready to make adjustments when making the rolls.
>Variation: V8 juice can be used instead of tomato juice

Gratuitous tweaks, some taken from Jeff Smith, would include:

lay each leaf concave side down, and push it flat with your hand, and
using a sharp paring knife held parallel to your work surface, slice
away each vein as far as it rises above the leaf. In other words,
trim it to as thin as the rest of the leaf. Smith also has a nice
method to fold and seal them: one end you fold over as you roll, like
a spring roll. The other end you simply poke inward with your
fingertip; the stuffing holds it in place, and the roll becomes
self-contained -- the stuffing holds one end, which holds the
overlapped edge of the leaf down, which in turn holds the folded-over
other end down.

Instead of the 1/2 cup uncooked rice, you might use 1 1/2 cups
cooked, and less liquid, maybe 1 1/2 quarts instead of two. One of
those 28-ounce cans of diced or crushed tomatoes or puree, and a pint
or so of beef stock, works well. You can thicken this later with
beurre manie if you feel like it... I'm a known gravy fiend, myself.

A little garlic never hurt anybody, and dried porcini/cep/steinpilzen
mushrooms, added either to the liquid or to the stuffing, are a
wonderful addition...

Maybe some chopped dill added to the sauce at the last minute?

I don't usually bother with the bell pepper, unless I'm using the
same mixture to stuff peppers...

HTH,

Adamantius