Full disclosure before you listen to me about stuff (or stuffing stuff, as the case may be): In my life as a gardener, my cabbage has not-headed more often than it has headed. Therefore, I don't even try to grow cabbage very often. But I do have a hard time giving up on things, and therefore (therefore squared?) I am not about to give cabbage growing advice, but I am about to give cabbage stuffing advice. Because in my life as a cook and eater, I like stuffed cabbage/cabbage rolls and I prefer making it from an improperly headed cabbage.
When making cabbage rolls from a tight little cabbage head, once you get past the outer leaves you have to kind of blanch as you go to get them off without tearing. But when you grow your own cabbage, you have LOTS of outer leaves, and if your cabbage doesn't head up, then you have ONLY outer leaves, and either way, you get to make stuffed cabbage more often than you used to, and you figure out what you like, and also what you don't.
What I don't like is a 1/4 pound blob of dense meat and stray grains of rice wrapped in a frail little layer of vegetable misleadingly called stuffed cabbage. More like thinly veiled pork. Also I don't like sickly sweet tomato sauce on my dinner. Also turning on the oven in the summer. What I do like is below. Basically, the stuffing is twice the rice and half the meat of the recipe I started with, plus about a cup of sauteed cabbage or other veg, and half the sugar. I bet sauteed lentils, mushrooms, cabbage and rice would make a delicious vegetarian version.
(My standard disclaimer - I am not a recipe developer, this is not a recipe blog, I am a (good) home cook and gardener keeping track of the recipes I want to come back to.)
Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (Print Recipe)
Serves about 4
Ingredients:
for the filling
2/3 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 large egg
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lb ground beef or pork
about 1 cup sauteed chopped cabbage (or other vegetable) and onion
for the cabbage and sauce
8-12 cabbage leaves for rolling
1 medium onion, diced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 Tbsp packed light sugar or to taste
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Blanch the cabbage leaves in salted boiling water until wilted, about two minutes. remove and lay flat (can stack)
Make the sauce: heat the oil in a large frying pan large enough to hold the cabbage rolls. Saute the onion without browning until softened. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, raisins, sugar, salt and pepper, and simmer for 10-15 minutes while you make the rolls.
Make the filling: saute the vegetables lightly (this isn't absolutely necessary but adds flavor and cooks out excess water); meanwhile mix the other filling ingredients; add the vegetables when cooked. Divide into 8 portions. (I do this by slicing through the mixture in the bowl as if it were a pizza. Doesn't have to be exact, just gives you a guide how much to scoop out for each leaf.)
Fill the cabbage: working one at a time, place a log of filling in the center of each leaf. Roll it up by half, fold in the sides, and roll the rest of the way. Set each roll aside until they are all done. If some of the leaves are small or torn, layer them together.
Place all the rolls seam-side down in the sauce. Spoon some sauce over the top. Cover the pan and simmer over low-medium heat until the rice is fully cooked, about 35 minutes. (My pan is pretty wide, so I sometimes add more tomato or a little water if the sauce looks sparse. Use your judgment) The meat will be cooked, the issue is making sure the rice is nice and soft. If you have an extra roll, you can test one to be sure, but 35 minutes should more than do it.
Depending on the season and how hungry we are I will serve with just salad or with big hunks of bread as well. We prefer steak knives to really cut through the leaves, but butter knives will work.
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| stuffed cabbage with garden salad and sourdough croutons |
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