A Better Cabbage Roll

[Alextown]

made these Sunday during the game (I was bored, the Packers weren't playing) and substituted ground turkey for the ground beef. Quite tasty I must say, not as good as Mom's, but usually not much is...

Cabbage Rolls

Cabbage Rolls are made with cabbage leaves filled with ground beef and rice, with tomato sauce.
INGREDIENTS:

12 cabbage leaves
.
Filling:
1 pound ground beef (turkey)
3/4 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup milk
.
Sauce:
1 cans (8 ounces ) tomato sauce
1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water
PREPARATION:

Drop cabbage leaves into boiling salted water; cover and cook for 3 minutes. Drain well. For filling, combine ground beef, rice, onion, egg, and salt, pepper, and milk. Mix well and divide into 12 portions. Place a portion into the center of each cabbage leaf. Roll leaf around filling; fasten with toothpick. Place in a baking dish. For sauce, combine tomato sauce, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, and 1/2 cup of water and pour over cabbage rolls. Bake covered in a preheated 350° oven 40 to 45 minutes. Remove rolls and discard toothpicks. Place pan with juices over medium heat or transfer the juices to a saucepan and place over heat; stir cornstarch and water mixture into the sauce; bring to a boil and cook until thickened.

[Lost Dog]

Okay. You need to sell this better! While, personally, I love cabbage rolls, most readers here don't have parents from eastern europe and/or friends of strange and questionable heritage to have taught them the beauty of the cabbage roll.

Instead, they think "Better Cabbage Roll. Oxymoron," or "The only good cabbage roll is a _______________ cabbage roll." Most people think cabbage is bad. Cabbage good!

So, seeing that I love them, I will be making these. I never really thought about them before, but this looks pretty good and healthy. And, not as hard as I'd imagined. Have you ever tried brown rice?

Also, never admit that you were cooking DURING the game. That's what makes you less of a Viking, Óleifr! For God sake, if you're going to cook during the game, lie about it. Hell, I didn't even watch the game, but I'd never admit it on the internet! Duh!

[Alextown]

lol LD, I never thought I'd have to sell cabbage rolls. I see your point. I did get the recipe from a southern cookbook, says it's a Louisiana favorite, go figure.

Ahhh, the game was boring. I watched the whole thing, just had my hands in crushed poultry. That's manly, right?

One thing I forgot to mention - I did add some oregano and garlic, about 1 tsp of both. I also added about 1/4 cup of bread crumbs, since the turkey is a little wetter than ground beef/pork.



I thought about the brown rice right after I put them in the oven.

[RacerBill]

Admittedly, I was a bit suspicious of the white rice (something I don't keep in my kitchen anymore), but by and large, I like cabbage rolls. I hated any sort of cabbage when I was a kid, then I learned how to cook it (thanks, Alton Brown!). My Mom used to boil it until it was pale and mushy. Blech!

The sugar and cornstarch in the sauce sort of put me off, too.

What constitutes one serving of these? One roll? Three? I don't do this for every recipe I post, but generally if there's one with substantial carbs, I'll go to Fitday and do a quick macro breakdown for it.

Fitday says for the whole dish 2158 calories, 39%F, 28% C, 33% P, if made with brown rice and ground turkey. Not quite as bad as I suspected. Divide 2158 by 12 rolls and you have 180 per roll. Not so bad, especially compared with nachos or other typical superbowl foods. Daytona's coming up next weekend, so that's another opportunity to pig out, right? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[galya]

Dudes, what are you doing talking about and MAKING (dare make!) cabbage rolls if you are not from Eastern Europe? lol

Okay, cabbage rolls are best made with sauerkraut. Hard to sell to an American. I use vine-leaves, much better.
Also, putting tomato sauce and oregano spoils them in my opinion. Mint is the best spice for beef and rice cababge or vine-leaf rolls. Give it a shot.
Also, not using rice at all, just meat, carrots, tomatoes and onions is perfectly fine if you don't have rice in the house at all (like me).

I might show you how to make them at the retreat

[Alextown]

I from Polish and Russian descendants Galya. We made a batch of pierogies this weekend too. Not great for you, but mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Alextown]

and thanks for the calorie breakdown Bill! Guess I was so excited about making them, i left that out too. Btw, I didn't do the cornstarch part. It was fine without it.

[Lost Dog]

I America, we have chili cookoffs. Cabbage roll cookoffs don't seem to have the same flare...

However, Galya, let's have a recipe!

Also, I love saurkraut, but the stuff we have here is only shredded. We'd have to make that part from scratch, too.

I love pickled things. The whole pickle family: cucumbers, eggs, pigs feet, hog jowls, kim chee, etc.

[galya]

I think pickled eggs are the most disgusting thing in the world. Just me. I will try to bring whole leaves for the retreat.

[cappuccino]

[ QUOTE ]

I might show you how to make them at the retreat

[/ QUOTE ]
That sounds like a great idea...we should have a cook-off if my kitchen is ready by then. Brought treats last year and they're already expecting more. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Lost Dog]

I'd love a cook-off!

Maybe we could compile a summit cookbook. We could give them out with the t-shirts and dvds! Oh, wait...

[RacerBill]

A cook-off in Cappy's new kitchen sounds awesome!

I'd love to see your recipe, too, Galya. I suspect some of those ingredients are going to be really tough to find in the average American grocery store, though.

The town I live in is populated mainly by descendants of Eastern European immigrants (not me, though). We have a Slavic festival every year, with lots of great food, and the local bakery sells cabbage rolls (along with their famous povitica).