How I sauced my excellent stuffed cabbage

I made some excellent lamb+pork stuffed cabbages, but didn’t want to serve them with the typical bland, tasteless tomato gloop usually provided. I knew what I wanted it to taste like, so I designed my own sauce, with an eye toward what I’d learned making the New Mexico Green last week with the Hatch chiles dear Cousin Barb had sent from Santa Fe.


3-4 Tbs fat (I used schmaltz)
1 onion chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbs flour
2 ripe red Bell peppers, roasted, skinned, de-seeded, roughly chopped
15oz can whole, or crushed, or stewed (*not* diced) tomatoes
1.5 cups rich stock
1 tsp ground caraway, or 1.5 tsp roughed-up (I used mortar+pestle) seed
1 Tbs siracha
Salt, pepper

1. Soften onion and garlic in fat, 4-5 mins
2. Add flour, stir and simmer until absorbed and maybe browned a bit
3. Blend/process tomatoes and stock until roughly smooth, heat well in micro
4. Add peppers to onion mixture, raise heat, stir to mix and warm, 1-2 mins
5. Add tomato+stock mixture slowly; stir to mix-- you *should* get a gravy-making reaction
6. Add caraway and siracha
7. Lower to simmer for 15 mins
8. Blend/process until quite smooth—should be saucy thick

Hell, Geo, that sauce looks damned good. I'm surprised you didn't use hatch instead of bell. That might have been awesome, too.

If you'd care to share your stuffed cabbage recipe, I'd be greatly appreciative, as I'm sure others would be, too.

Many thanks,

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:If you'd care to share your stuffed cabbage recipe, I'd be greatly appreciative, as I'm sure others would be, too.

=R=

Yes!!

Ronnie,
My stuffed cabbage is pretty similar to everybody else's, I suspect. A few tweaks, that's all. I like the pork + lamb combo, and I think the Chinese technique of vigorously stirring the filling makes for a much nicer 'dumpling.'

I didn't use Hatch chiles Ronnie because I wanted the sweetness of the Bells, and their special flavour in the sauce. Also, I suppose, it was a soft reference to ajvar...

Anyway, here's how I do it. Nothing special, methinks.


Geo

Geo’s Balkan Stuffed Cabbage


2 Tbs fat (I used bacon grease)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lb ground meat, equal parts fatty pork and lamb.
2/3 cup uncooked white rice
½ cup golden raisins,
4 eggs
1 Tbs Hungarian paprika
1-1/2 tsp salt
Pepper

1. Sauté onion and rice until both are mildly golden, add garlic during last minute or so. Remove from heat, stir in raisins and paprika, salt, pepper, let cool. Mix eggs, add to meat mixture, beat/knead in vigorously. Mass should be unified and stuck together. Take a small blob and cook, taste for seasoning. I’ve thought about adding dill and/or caraway, but never got around to trying. The vigorous stirring is something I learned from making Chinese dumplings: it concentrates the filling, making it easier to work with, and nicer to eat.

2. One day earlier, freeze a cored large head of cabbage. Several hours before assembly, remove from freezer and defrost. Peel the leaves off one by one—they’re pretty rugged, so you can use some force. De-vein the outermost leaves—the large vein is hard to roll.

3. Roll in the usual way. Here’s a video of a similar process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QJSMg6QL9w

4. I steamed them quasi-Chinese: squeeze them into a square glass baking pan, place on vegetable steamer in a pot over water, put on lid and steam until cooked, c. 25mins.

5. Sauce and eat!

It all sounds remarkably tasty. Thanks for the recipes.

Sounds great. Have you ever tried sour heads of cabbage?

Puckjam,

I only read about sour-head cabbage a year or so ago. It intrigued me, I must say, so I filed the article away, resolved to try it some time. But your query reveals that it's "not yet."

Have you done it? if so, do you have any advice? a reference? is it worth it? etc etc

Geo

I have done it your way with the frozen head until I found that Rupena's in West Allis has sour heads. Just better with the sour heads. Nowadays, I just order them from the Sacred Heart Church as they kill it and they freeze well. They do a sale at least twice a year. Must call your order in though.

SARMA SALE

Sponsored by Sacred Heart Croatian Parish

$2.25 per Sarma

To place your order, please call Sacred Heart (414) 774-9418 or at the Ushers Office after Mass.

Pick up dates are Friday (Oct. 11) from 4:00pm until 7:00pm or Saturday (Oct. 12) from 8:30am until 11:30am.

Please bring your own containers for pick-up!

HVALA!

Sigh! I live in waaay far upstate NY, about 37 miles south of the border on the Lake Champlain beach. Bit of a drive for me to pick up the sarma! And I bet they don't deliver!

I've got directions around here somewhere about how to do it, so I still might give it a try.

Geo

HI,

At Shop and Save in the Chicago area, they regularly sell sour cabbage for making Sarma. It is usually priced around 99 cents a pound. They come in cryovac bags in the refrigerated section.

They also sell in jars: sour cabbage leaves. It is not a fermented product or at least does not taste like they are fermented. I made a batch of stuffed cabbage, but was not impressed.

Now the fermented cryovac cabbage leaves are in a different league and worth seeking out.

I have considered fermenting my own whole heads. This perhaps a good time to think about this again.

Regards,
Cathy2

C2--

I just spent an hour prowling the net in search of good instructions on how to pickle a whole cabbage head. I found, finally, a useful one--but you have to read all the way through to the end.

Good luck!

Geo
https://agardenerstable.com/2014/02/11/how-to-pickled-cabbages-whole/