Swedish cabbage rolls (kaldolmar)

Submitted by Andreacute Grisell

"A classic Swedish dish. This is the recipe from the late Tore Wretman (1918-2003), the actual inventer of Swedish gastronomy. According to him, it's his grandma's recipe, and the source is his memoires "Mat och Minnen", Bra Bockers Forlag, 1987. Since Tore always was asked, at every occasion, what his favorite dish was, he decided to always answer "kaldolmar", which - with his own words - was as close to the truth as one could get!"

 

• Ready In: 1hr 30mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 medium white cabbage or 1 medium preferably savoy cabbage, as fresh as possible
• 170.09 g ground beef
• 170.09 g ground pork
• nutmeg (optional)
• 118.29 ml milk (for the meat)
• 2 eggs
• 1 onion
• 59.14 ml round-grain rice (e.g Avorio)
• 118.29 ml milk (for the rice)
• salt
• white pepper
• 29.58 ml sugar or 29.58 ml light syrup
• 44.37 ml butter
• 473.18 ml beef stock (or sauce)

directions

1. Remove the stem from the cabbage and poach the head in boiling salted water for a few minutes.
2. Separate the outer leaves and remove any coarse stalks.
3. Let cool.
4. Rinse the rice and boil soft in the milk for about 20 minutes.
5. Let cool.
6. Finely chop the onion and sautée in the butter until transparent.
7. Let cool.
8. Mix meat, eggs, onion, milk, spices and rice.
9. Put about two ounces of the mixture on each cabbage leaf and roll to small dolmas (rolls).
10. Place them on a greased tray.
11. Put the sugar or syrup on top together with a little melted butter.
12. Bake in the oven at 175 degrees C/ 350 F for about 30 minutes; add the gravy or sauce, raise the heat a little and bake for another 20-30 minutes.
13. Serve the rolls with boiled or mashed potatoes (maybe enriched with cream and butter) and Farmors Gurka ("Grandma'sCucumber"): Thinly sliced cucumber marinated in strong vinegar, sugar, salt and parsley.
14. (Personally, I'm not very fond of the sugar/syrup in the recipe, so I use to exclude it, but that's only because I'm against sweet ingredients in main courses in general).

Reviews

[kranzler]

I just finished making these cabbage rolls and they look perfect. I am letting them finish cooking in some homemade beef broth; then, I will add a tomato sauce with cream fraiche. Can't wait to try these with the cucumber salad and yukon gold mashed potatoes!