REAL Cabbage Rolls

So we tried making Moosewood's Stuffed Cabbage, which are fancy-pants rolls stuffed with a sweet ricotta-based filling and no tomatoes or sauce.  They tasted alright, but the problem was that you look at them and think "cabbage roll... mmm.. I want a cabbage roll"... and then they taste nothing like cabbage rolls.  I don't think I'd bother to make them again.

Luckily, we thought our cabbages were a little small, so we bought two - and then only used one, which left one for making some REAL cabbage rolls with.

Here are the cabbage rolls we made tonight (I'll write down this recipe as if we'd made them all homogeneous even though actually the first ones were extra meaty and the last ones were vegetarian... and that was a good way to do it too.  If that's what you want, then separate the filling mix into 2 parts and only add the meat to 1 part).

This looks like a long and complicated process, but it really didn't seem too bad at the time.. especially with a helper to do the cabbage prep while I did the other parts.

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roll Stuff:

• 3 cups cooked brown rice (or use white if you prefer)
• 1-2 eggs (if you do everything in 1 batch, 1 is probably enough, but if you split it into 2 parts then you can just put an egg in each part and keep things simple)
• 1 onion, diced fine
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbs tomato paste (next time I'd probably just skip this unless I happened to have some open already - there's plenty of sauce to use instead)
• Splash of red wine if you happen to have it
• 2 tbs chopped parsley
• 1 lb extra lean ground beef (I bet you could replace this with some diced carrots or something if you want vegetarian rolls instead)
• 1 large head cabbage (or 2 smaller ones)

Method:

1. Cook the rice if you haven't already
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Prep the cabbage:
• bring a large pot of water to a boil
• remove the core by slicing into the base a bunch of times with a paring knife 
• get ready with a couple of pairs of tongs/some scissors/whatever implements you have on hand
• put the whole head of cabbage in the boiling water
• as it softens, remove the leaves 1 by one and pile them up on a plate - this way the outer leaves are taken off before they get too mushy and the other ones cook longer.
• keep going until the leaves are too small to be useful
 


4. Prep the sauce:

• saute the garlic in the oil for about a minute
• add the crushed tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes
• add vinegar, sugar, and worcestershire sauce
• simmer about 5 minutes
• season with salt and pepper and remove from heat
5. Prep the filling:
• saute oil and garlic in a skillet about 5 minutes, until soft (put in the carrots during this step if you're using them instead of beef)
• stir in the tomato paste and wine if you're using them, 1/2 cup of the sauce (or a little more), and the parsley
• mix to incorporate everything then take it off the heat
• add to this the (raw) beef, the rice, and the egg (remember you might want to divide this before adding the beef!)
• mix the filling together with your hands
6. Roll the rolls!

• put some filling in a leaf and roll it up!
• pack the rolls seam down in an oiled casserole dish
• pour some sauce over top of the rolls
7. Bake them up!
• cover the dish with tinfoil (or extra cabbage leaves?) and pop it in the oven
• bake meaty rolls for an hour or veggie ones for about half an hour

Enjoy!