Holubchi (Cabbage Rolls)

Take two from the book, cabbage rolls. I love cabbage rolls and I've made them several times in the past. To my surprise, my personal recipe that I just kind of made up by taste is almost identical to the one in the book. I must say, making cabbage rolls takes some work and a bit of time but it's so worth the effort. Actually, the real and only effort involved is preparing the cabbage leaves and that, if anything, just takes patience.

So there you have it, we are officially two for two with the book and these recipes so far are not just good, they are outstanding. I can't wait to make another and considering I have some mashed potatoes in the freezer waiting to be used, I think it might be potato dumplings. We'll see though, there are so many recipes in the book that are truly inspiring so things change fairly quickly.

RECIPE:

Cabbage Rolls:
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb ground beef
1 cup cooked long grain rice
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 TBSP parsley
1 onion, finely diced
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 TBSP salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 large head of green cabbage

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove core from cabbage. Place cabbage in large pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes or just until slightly wilted. Remove from water, rinse with cold water and drain. When leaves are cool enough to handle, cut out the thickest part of the rib and set aside. Be sure to save all of the cabbage leaves that are torn or not suitable for the rolls themselves. Saute onions on low heat until translucent, about 10 minutes and then add the garlic to the pan. Saute another 3-4 minutes and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together meat, rice, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, paprika and the slightly cooled onion and garlic mixture. In a casserole dish, place the torn and unusable leaves of cabbage on the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Place 1 TBSP mixture on cabbage leaf, tuck the sides in and roll. Place the roll, seam side down onto the cabbage leaves in the casserole dish. Continue rolling and placing the rolls snugly together until the dish is full. Pour sauce over all of the rolls and place extra unusable cabbage leaves over top of the rolls, sealing the top. Cover dish with aluminum foil and place in the oven for 1.5 hours. (if your casserole dish is fairly shallow, place the covered dish on a large baking pan in case it drips.)

Sauce:
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
1 TBSP sugar
salt & pepper to taste


Place all ingredients in the blender and puree until smooth. Pour sauce into a large saucepan and heat through.

Makes about 12 cabbage rolls