Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

In the summer of 2001 I was in Finland touring and staying with a dear friend. For 3 months my friend and I laughed, drank wine, sat out in her fabulous garden and COOKED! A lot!

I taught her many of my recipes and she showed me how to make many of her own creations but best of all she taught me many fabulous Finnish dishes. One of my absolute favorites was Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.

The Finnish way to make the rolls is to make the stuffing with cooked white rice, onions, cream, egg yolks, salt, pepper and uncooked ground beef and drizzled with melted butter and maple syrup. It is then served with a sweetened lingonberry jam. The Russian variation of the rolls is done by making a creamy tomato sauce that is poured over the rolls before baking them.

I have, over the years, made some changes to the way I prepare my rolls. No cream, no tomato sauce and no jam. I often use sour cream in place of the cream but I also use strained yogurt. Another major difference is, I cook the onions and ground beef to make the stuffing. I like the looser consistency to my stuffing that precooking the meat brings. I also usually use brown rice instead of white rice. This is a personal choice. You can, of course use white rice for your rolls.

Making these rolls are a labor of love because it is a time consuming process. But I have to tell ya, the look of happy-joy on Fuzzy's face (my husband) when I tell him I'm making them, it's totally worth the work.


What you'll need:

400g ground beef

2 cups brown rice, cooked

2 egg yolks

3 tbsps strained yogurt or sour cream

1 large white cabbage, cored

2 medium yellow onions, diced

1 small red onion, diced

1 small leek, finely sliced

2 green onions, finely sliced

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp dried oregano, separated

2 tbsps butter

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsps, paprika powder, separated

Salt, to taste

White pepper, to taste

3 tbsps good maple syrup

1 teaspoon molasses syrup

1/2 cup strained yogurt or sour cream


Okay, here we go!

Using a very sharp knife, core your cabbage. Don't abuse your leaves too much, you what nice, big pieces to work with. You'll need a large pot, big enough to hold the cabbage with some wiggle room. Fill the pot half way with water and salt. Place the cabbage, cored side down, into the pot and put on medium heat a cook until the leaves begin to loosen. Watch this carefully, you do not want to ver cook the cabbage.  When the leaves are at a workable tenderness, drain off the water and sit the cabbage aside and let it cool. The time it takes all depends on the tightness of the cabbage.


Now it's time for the stuffing. In a large skillet, place your butter and vegetable oil on medium high heat. Add the onions, leeks, green onions, garlic and half of the oregano. Sautée until the onions become transparent. At this point, lower the heat and add the maple and molasses syrups and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Remove the onion mixture from the skillet and set aside. In the same skillet, brown the ground beef. When it is cooked, stir in onion mixture and half of the paprika powder, the remainder of the oregano, stir in the cooked rice and add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and set aside to let it cool, slightly.

In a bowl, wisk the egg yolks and then whisk in your strained yogurt or sour cream. Mix this into your cooled stuffing.

Prepare a very lightly oiled baking dish to place the rolls and set your oven at 175C

On a clean surface, gently peel a cabbage leaf, being careful to keep it whole. If you find that the middle stem is too thick, thin it slightly with a sharp knife so that it is flexible enough to roll.

Place a generous dollop of stuffing into the bottom center of the leaf and roll the leaf, while also folding in the sides to make a nice tight package. Place it into the baking dish, seam side down. Do this until you've used all of the stuffing. I like to reserve about a tablespoon of the stuffing to use as garnish.


Use the remainder of the paprika powder to sprinkle over the top of the rolls and if you reserved the tablespoon of stuffing, sprinkle that over the top as well. Cover and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, uncover, tilt the pan slightly and with a spoon gently spoon the released juices over the rolls and place them back into the oven uncovered for another 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.


These are positively delicious! As I said, they are time consuming to make but oh, so worth it!

Now...

Go, eat!!

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