Stuffed cabbage

[dockhl]

am I the only one that thinks raisins are a terrible idea? 

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Gawd, no, Pam...........

when I grew up eating hulupki (Slovak) there was no "sweet", just a tomato sauce. And I hate raisins anyway...........

Ack.

[dockhl]

. . . Does anybody else ever make the lazyman-cabbage roll?  Forget the rolling, just layer everything and call it a day? . . .

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In his book Casseroles, Jim Fobel has a recipe that calls for doing exactly that. Works like a charm.

=R=

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It may be blasphemy, but there are times I put together the components in a skillet and do it that way ! Not too bad and yummier than most quick dinners after work !

[dockhl]

my mothers crowd were straight off the boat, slovaks/byzantine catholics, so not all of this applies to the jewish kitchen, obviously,,,,,,,

a few tips i've gotten from my ancestors concerning "halupki" were........

never use lean meat, a 20-30% fat content in your ground beef, (or ground pork, like uncle andy kopchak used), was a must.......

never use minute rice......

never use a crock pot, or the stove top, halupki need to be done in an oven......

don't overstuff the cabbage leaves, it makes the filling rubbery after cooking......

lay the large outside leaves from the cabbage on the bottom of your roasting pan, only use the tenderest cabbage leaves for the rolls....

you can chop up any extra cabbage leaves and use them in the sauce...

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Ditto, JEL, from a different tribe out of Western PA.............down to the Byzantine Catholic thing (were your high masses in Slovak?)

My mom always through in a can of saurekraut, too. Where the heck did that come from?

[dockhl]

One of my favorite stuffed cabbage stories is the time I was in the middle of cooking and realized that I had made enough for around 15 people instead of 3-4.  What do to?  I called Fat Guy for advice:

"Dude, what am I going to do?  I've made way too much stuffed cabbage.  I don't think I'll be able to fit this in the refrigerator!"

"Hold on a second."  <Short pause with talking vaguely audible in the background>  "We'll be over in ten minutes."

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I LOVE this place !

[dockhl]

A while back, while I was low-carbing, I used some cauliflower -- pre-cooked in stock to soften it up -- in combination with the meat to create my cabbage roll filling.  The results were pretty satisfying.  Of course, you don't get the same absorption with cauliflower, but I think it's safe to use just about anything that you like, provided you prep it properly . . .

=R=

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I tried the same thing in a Skillet Stuffed Cabbage and it was surprisingly good. Thanks for reminding me ! (I LOVE rice............ )

[Pam R]

Probably fodder for a whole other topic, if it hasn't been done already, would be the whole concept of cross-cultural culinary memes (another one that immediately springs to mind is the archetypal dumpling/ravioli/potsticker/food-stuffed-in-dough thing, but I know there are tons more).

Briefly touched on here - the pierogi thread.

[dockhl]

Some of my friends and family called stuffed cabbage holishkes

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Mizducky~

I my tribe holuski were a whole 'nother animal, specifically a spaetzle -type dumpling made with veal. Sheesh, this Eastern European border-changing could drive us all nuts !

BTW, my little brother was in Prague to find our ancestral birthplace and found that it is now Hungary---my grandfather (Czechoslovak, on the run from the Austro-Hungarian Empire draft when he was 17 and came to America) HATED Hungarians. What goes around, comes around, eh? Guess they never heard of KARMA.......

[ludja]

...

My mom always through in a can of saurekraut, too. Where the heck did that come from? 

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I've seen quite a few recipes where the the stuffed cabbage rolls are cooked in a bed of saurkraut: click and click

These recipes are described at Hungarian, but it wouldn't perhaps be that surprising to also see the use of sauerkraut in other nearby places...

Edited September 24, 2005 by ludja (log)

[mizducky]

Probably fodder for a whole other topic, if it hasn't been done already, would be the whole concept of cross-cultural culinary memes (another one that immediately springs to mind is the archetypal dumpling/ravioli/potsticker/food-stuffed-in-dough thing, but I know there are tons more).

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So who among you folks here who are up to your necks in stuffed cabbage will accept mizducky's challenge? She has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet of foods which are cross-culturally related ... mizducky, might you offer us your wit and insights if you accept your own challenge? Perhaps Marco Polo?

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Heh. Let me think a little about how best to word the opening salvo.

Briefly touched on here - the pierogi thread.

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Very cool!

Some of my friends and family called stuffed cabbage holishkes

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Mizducky~

In my tribe holuski were a whole 'nother animal, specifically a spaetzle -type dumpling made with veal. Sheesh, this Eastern European border-changing could drive us all nuts !

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Yep, that's one part of the challenge of studying the cross-cultural food thang--when you're talking cultures that live right alongside each other, there's inevitably a bunch of cross-cultural fluidity both in the cuisine(s) and the words(s). But equally fascinating to me is when strikingly similar food memes develop independently in cultures that had no prior contact with each other (at least at the time the foods developed).

Okay, obviously this related topic is calling to me ...

Edited to add: okay--topic is up over here. Enjoy!

Edited September 24, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[JEL]

my mothers crowd were straight off the boat, slovaks/byzantine catholics, so not all of this applies to the jewish kitchen, obviously,,,,,,,

a few tips i've gotten from my ancestors concerning "halupki" were........

never use lean meat, a 20-30% fat content in your ground beef, (or ground pork, like uncle andy kopchak used), was a must.......

never use minute rice......

never use a crock pot, or the stove top, halupki need to be done in an oven......

don't overstuff the cabbage leaves, it makes the filling rubbery after cooking......

lay the large outside leaves from the cabbage on the bottom of your roasting pan, only use the tenderest cabbage leaves for the rolls....

you can chop up any extra cabbage leaves and use them in the sauce...

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Ditto, JEL, from a different tribe out of Western PA.............down to the Byzantine Catholic thing (were your high masses in Slovak?)

My mom always through in a can of saurekraut, too. Where the heck did that come from?

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yep, mass was always in slovak, on easter they blessed the baskets, the women all had doilies on their heads, and wore gloves, the men sat on one side of the church, the women the other side.........

those old timers are all dead now........

most of them worked in a limestone quarry, in marblehead, ohio...........

tough crowd, my grandparents had an outhouse til 1970........

took baths in a #9 wash tub........

ate halupki, and ham at every church function ever.........

also ate a lot of perch out of lake erie..........

they were tough........

[Malawry]

Report back from the field: The stuffed cabbage we ate for dinner last night was totally excellent and thoroughly satisfying. I am normally opposed to raisins like many in this thread, but I do like a few in the sauce for my stuffed cabbages. I usually have a ton of them around (my spouse likes them), but much to my surprise when I went to grab them last night, I was completely out. (How'd that happen? ) So I added some dried cherries instead.

The tomato juice-ketchup-brown sugar combination was just right for the sauce, with the cherries especially. I did have to add a fair amount of water to keep things from sticking/hydrate the rice. We had gefilte fish and a salad with spiced pecans and a apple cider vinaigrette as our first and second courses. Wonderful Shabbat dinner. My dad was especially thrilled.

[ronnie_suburban]

Report back from the field: The stuffed cabbage we ate for dinner last night was totally excellent and thoroughly satisfying. I am normally opposed to raisins like many in this thread, but I do like a few in the sauce for my stuffed cabbages. I usually have a ton of them around (my spouse likes them), but much to my surprise when I went to grab them last night, I was completely out. (How'd that happen? ) So I added some dried cherries instead.

The tomato juice-ketchup-brown sugar combination was just right for the sauce, with the cherries especially. I did have to add a fair amount of water to keep things from sticking/hydrate the rice. We had gefilte fish and a salad with spiced pecans and a apple cider vinaigrette as our first and second courses. Wonderful Shabbat dinner. My dad was especially thrilled.

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Sounds fabulous, Rochelle. A nice menu from top to bottom.

Earlier today I bought supplies for my stuffed cabbage run, which will be tomorrow. We're all really looking forward to it -- stuffed cabbage and football -- a new combination for us but one that does sound promising.

=R=

[monavano]

Report back from the field: The stuffed cabbage we ate for dinner last night was totally excellent and thoroughly satisfying. I am normally opposed to raisins like many in this thread, but I do like a few in the sauce for my stuffed cabbages. I usually have a ton of them around (my spouse likes them), but much to my surprise when I went to grab them last night, I was completely out. (How'd that happen? ) So I added some dried cherries instead.

The tomato juice-ketchup-brown sugar combination was just right for the sauce, with the cherries especially. I did have to add a fair amount of water to keep things from sticking/hydrate the rice. We had gefilte fish and a salad with spiced pecans and a apple cider vinaigrette as our first and second courses. Wonderful Shabbat dinner. My dad was especially thrilled.

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Sounds fabulous, Rochelle. A nice menu from top to bottom.

Earlier today I bought supplies for my stuffed cabbage run, which will be tomorrow. We're all really looking forward to it -- stuffed cabbage and football -- a new combination for us but one that does sound promising.

=R=

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I think this thread has prompted many of us to make stuffed cabbage this weekend. I got my supplies yesterday and am getting ready to boil my cabbage. I'd like to post pics, but having not done that yet I would be grateful if someone would be kind enough to pm me to give me instructions ala "posting pics for dummies"!!

[Chufi]

I once made a whole stuffed cabbage, I think it was a Jane Grigson recipe..

You blanch a whole cabbage, carefully seperate the leaves and then stuff sausage meat between them.. tie the whole thing with string and braise in stock.

I remember it was a lot of work and a bit fiddly to do, but it looked spectacular when it was done.

[Malawry]

You blanch a whole cabbage, carefully seperate the leaves and then stuff sausage meat between them.. tie the whole thing with string and braise in stock.

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How did you serve this? Cut it into wedges?

[Chufi]

You blanch a whole cabbage, carefully seperate the leaves and then stuff sausage meat between them.. tie the whole thing with string and braise in stock.

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How did you serve this? Cut it into wedges?

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yes, but after you cut into it, ofcourse it's nothing but cabbage & sausage mess on a plate

[ronnie_suburban]

I'm happy to report that a) my batch of stuffed cabbage turned out really well and that b) I had some leftover to take with me for lunch today.

I scanned recipes in a few books and then created my own using some of the best parts of the published recipes and a bit of improvisation. I used only beef because that's what I had on hand. Into about 3 pounds of that ground chuck I added about 1.5 C of yellow onion, about 3/4 C of carrot and a few cloves of garlic -- all finely-chopped in the processor together. To the meat mixture I also added 1 C of uncooked, long-grain rice, salt, black pepper and light dusting of paprika.

For the cooking medium I reconstitued a can of tomato paste with about 3 C of beef stock. To that I added a can of whole plum tomatoes (with juice), about 1/4 C of brown sugar, salt, pepper and a generous amount of sweet Hungarian paprika. I wrapped the rolls in standard green cabbage (leaves blanched first), spread about 1/2 pound of sauerkraut on top of them and cooked them in a covered roaster for about 90 minutes, at 350 F.

Once the rolls were cooked, I poured off the cooking liquid, separated out the fat and homogenized it with a stick blender. From there, I reduced it on the stove top by about 25% and poured it back over the rolls.

Here is a pic of the final result:

Thanks to everyone here for the inspiration and the suggestions.

=R=

[Pam R]

Ron - they look fantastic.

Y'all have my mouth watering - but I have no time to make these now! Either we have to stop posting pictures or somebody needs to send me some

[monavano]

I posted my stuffed cabbage here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1018726

[ronnie_suburban]

I posted my stuffed cabbage here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1018726

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Very nice! Have you ever tried doing this with uncooked rice? The reason I ask is that this was my first time not using cooked rice and I liked the results very much. It seems to me -- and I may be imagining this -- that the rice absorbed the flavor of the cooking liquid and made the rolls that much better. In either case, it saved a step, which was nice and the rice turned out completely cooked.

=R=

[monavano]

I posted my stuffed cabbage here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1018726

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Very nice! Have you ever tried doing this with uncooked rice? The reason I ask is that this was my first time not using cooked rice and I liked the results very much. It seems to me -- and I may be imagining this -- that the rice absorbed the flavor of the cooking liquid and made the rolls that much better. In either case, it saved a step, which was nice and the rice turned out completely cooked.

=R=

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I've never tried that, and the rice in fact is "boil in bag" rice Yikes!!

[ronnie_suburban]

I posted my stuffed cabbage here:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1018726

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Very nice! Have you ever tried doing this with uncooked rice? The reason I ask is that this was my first time not using cooked rice and I liked the results very much. It seems to me -- and I may be imagining this -- that the rice absorbed the flavor of the cooking liquid and made the rolls that much better. In either case, it saved a step, which was nice and the rice turned out completely cooked.

=R=

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I've never tried that, and the rice in fact is "boil in bag" rice Yikes!!

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Actually, looking at your pics again, that sauce may be too viscous for cooking rice. I love the idea of the chopped hard-cooked egg, which you used. I think I'll steal/borrow that one next time around.

=R=

[monavano]

Actually I should have clarified The egg was raw, and is used just as a binder. Although, I have made meatloaf with a couple hard boiled eggs!! It really packs in the protien

The sauce thins out a bit, as the fat renders.

Edited September 27, 2005 by monavano (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I know this is an older thread, but, anyone have opinions about freezing the cabbage vs blanching for the purpose of making the rolls?

[cakewalk]

I know this is an older thread, but, anyone have opinions about freezing the cabbage vs blanching for the purpose of making the rolls?

I remember somebody else said it worked like a dream, I just don't know who. There must be another thread on cabbage. I have a huge one in the fridge right now, not sure I have a pot that will contain it, so I had also been thinking about freezing. (But I'll have to empty the freezer first.)