Cabbage Rolls

This is the classic cabbage rolls recipe, the one I grew up with; classic as opposed to my “radical” cabbage rolls which is really a cross between cabbage rolls and morcon except that I used chicken instead of beef. If I am confusing you, take a peek here.

In a nutshell, this dish consists of cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of ground pork and finely chopped vegetables, secured with toothpicks and braised in tomato sauce. The kind of cabbage needed for this recipe is the native repolyo, the round tightly-packed variety with light green leaves.

Ingredients :

1 large cabbage (native repolyo)
500 g. of ground pork
2 tbsps. of finely chopped garlic
2 onions
2 tomatoes
1 large carrot
3 c. of tomato sauce
3 tbsps. of olive oil
1 tbsp. of steak sauce
salt and pepper
wooden toothpicks

Cooking procedure :

Core the cabbage: Imagine the shape of a cone, with the base of the cabbage core as the top of your cone. What you are aiming for is to get rid of the cabbage core (the white hard part) without damaging the leaves. Using a sharp, pointed knife, cut into the core of the cabbage from the bottom. Plunge the knife until you reach a depth equivalent to 3/4 of the cabbage–that is where the core usually ends. Make several cuts until you have gone around the round base. If you did it right, you should be able to pull out the core with your fingers. Place the cabbage in a deep casserole and cover with water. Cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 7 minutes. Remove cabbage from water and plunge into iced water. Drain and dry.

Carefully separate the cabbage leaves. You may not be able to use the smaller leaves; just keep them for another dish. Using a paring knife, “pare” the cabbage stem: This is the thick center part of each leaf. Start at the middle of each leaf and “pare” all the way down. What you want is to make the entire leaf softer and more pliable.

Finely chop one onion; halve the thinly slice the other one. Cut each tomato in eighths. Peel and grate the carrot.

Mix together 1 tbsp. of garlic, the finely chopped onion, grated carrot, ground pork, steak sauce, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper.

Take a cabbage leaf and place about two tablespoonfuls of the ground pork mixture at the center. Wrap the cabbage leaf around the mixture as though you were wrapping a sandwich. Secure with a toothpick. Repeat until all the ground pork mixture has been similarly wrapped.

Heat the olive oil in a large flat-bottomed skillet. Saute the garlic until fragrant. Add the sliced onion and the tomatoes. Saute for about 30 seconds. Pour in the tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the cabbage rolls in a single layer in the sauce. Simmer for about 20-25 minutes. Remove the toothpicks before serving (I forgot to do so and I’m sure they’re so obvious in the photo).

Serve hot.