Stuffed Cabbage

Submitted by SarikaKisSzentem

"Catering is my hobby. Believe it or not! Especially so when I cook for some of our church dinners. This is one of my recipes that is requested so many times. The reason this recipe uses RAW RICE is because it absorbs the flavor of the other ingredients more readily than cooked rice. The rule of thumb when it comes to seasoning your meats is this. One teaspoon of salt per pound of meat. This neither makes it undersalted nor oversalted. Learned this when I went to culinary school. Hope you will try it; at least once. We usually serve potato salad with this, although mashed is wonderful also."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 5mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 head green cabbage
• 59.14 ml short-grain rice (I use River Rice)
• 340.19 g ground pork (ground twice)
• 113.39 g ground chuck
• 4.92 ml salt
• 3.69 ml black pepper
• 1 egg
• 4.92 ml Hungarian paprika (I use Szeged)
• 340.19 g onion (yes - 3/4 lbs.)
• 59.14 ml olive oil
• 680.38 g Heinz ketchup
• water

directions

1. Core out the cabbage.
2. Bring water to boil in a good sized pot.
3. Place cabbage in so cut side will be down in pot.
4. Let simmer several minutes and one by one remove leaves. Pile them on top of each other so that the steam will continue to soften them a bit.
5. When cooled, remove the hard vein of cabbage with a knife so that the leaves are about the same thickness. You should have 18 to 20 leaves.
6. Pick out the 15 nicest and set the rest aside. It may come in handy for "repairs" of the other leaves. Then slice thin. This suggestion was taken by one of the readers.
7. Peel and dice onions.
8. In a medium frypan, place olive oil and the chopped onions. Saute on medium low until the onions have softened quite a bit. Shut heat off.
9. To the onions now add the rice (uncooked). Stir and let cool. The rice will absorb some of the flavor of the sauteed onions.
10. In a large bowl, add the meats, seasonings, egg and cooled onion/rice mixture. Mix well.
11. Divide meat mixture into 15 portions.
12. Place meat mixture in the center bottom portion of the cabbage leaf. Roll up and tuck in the cabbage at both ends.
13. Now retrieve the sliced up left over cabbage and place in on the bottom of a 4 quart ovenproof pot. Layer the rolls on top of this and pour about 2 cups of ketchup on top.
14. Add water so that the rolls are covered by at least 1/2" of water.
15. Cover with lid or foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours 15 minutes.

Reviews

[Jimijoe 43]

I made this recipe for a pot luck at church. I doubled the recipe and everyone loved it! 2 changes I made: I substituted celery salt for the plain salt, and used loose sausage instead of the ground pork. Growing up in a Polish household, I ate quite a few stuffed cabbages and this was a treat - it really took me back to a simpler time!

 

[DA G.]

Since we love cabbage, I wrapped these twice in the cabbage leaves. It makes them super firm as well when serving. The only thing I did different from the recipe was to use a 28 oz. can of TOMATO PUREE instead of the ketchup. (less salt and sugar that way). Otherwise, very easy to do/follow.

 

[FB4082]

Having revisited this recipe, i have one suggestion ... Wait to chop up the extra cabbage until you finish making all of your rolls. If you tear a leaf or end up with a hole or short end, you can use pieces of the 'extra' under the main leaf like patches. Excellent recipe!

 

[curtis1155]

I cooked 20 of these this morning. Just polished off the last one and downed a beer and grilled jalapeno with it. I'm in heaven. Headed to HEB for more ingredients. Bravo!