Cabbage Rolls

Laura and I have been looking for a recipe for this Romanian dish or years. I recently learned that in other countries the “same” dish is often called Sarma and the English term would be stuffed cabbage. Armed with that information I was able to find a variety of recipes to try. I’ll document some resources here and construct a recipe that works for us. I’ll keep it under the Romanian term because that is the one we are trying to replicate and is how we think of the dish even if our final recipe ends up being more generic than the traditional Romanian variety.

Here are links to some existing recipies:

• Sarmale 1
• Sarmale 2
• Sarma
• Stuffed Cabbage
• Multiple Eastern European Stuffed Cabbage recipes

Working Recipe (adapted from from Sarmale 1):

Ingredients

• 1 whole head cabbage, about 4 pounds
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 finely chopped medium onion
• 2 minced garlic cloves (1 tsp granulated garlic)
• 2 ½ cups raw rice
• 4 cup hot water
• 1 ½ pounds ground pork (turkey)
• 2 slices crustless white bread
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup sauerkraut juice reserved from drained sauerkraut (¼ cup vinegar)
• 10 black peppercorns (1 tbsp ground pepper)

Directions

1. Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. Place the cabbage had back in the water to soften inner leaves after removing the softened ones from the outside. You will need about 18 leaves.
2. When leaves are cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through. Chop any remaining cabbage and set aside.
3. In a large skillet, saute chopped onion, garlic and rice in 3 tablespoons olive oil, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent. Add hot water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes or until rice has absorbed all the water. Let cool.
4. Place pork in a large bowl. Quickly dip bread in water, squeeze to remove excess water and add to meat along with onion-garlic-rice mixture, combining thoroughly. Add dill, thyme, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons water. Mix completely but lightly so as not to toughen the meat.
5. In a medium bowl, mix 3 cups water with vinegar, remaining chopped cabbage from step 2 and set aside.
6. Place about ¼ – ⅓ cup of meat mixture on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.
7. Using 2 tablespoons of the remaining olive oil, coat a large, lidded Dutch oven or casserole dish.
8. Cover with a layer of stuffed cabbages. Pour sauerkraut juice-water mixture over all.
9. Heat oven to 375° Transfer to oven and cook 1 ½ hours. Then add sliced tomatoes, cover and cook another 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue cooking another 15 minutes.