stuffed cabbage or pepper recipe?

Mrs Bissli

Tue, Sep 29 2009, 6:10 am

I do stuffed peppers or courgettes or grapevine leaves but the filling works equally well with cabbages or others.

1lb turkey mince
1lb lamb mince (actually I cheat a bit and get a package of pre-seasoned uncooked lamb kebabs from the butcher--I prefer Oriental ones from Menacham's if you're in London)
1/2 cup parboiled long rice (not the boil-in-the bag variety, can be brown rice but not basmati)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
a few garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 egg
2tbsp cold water
seasoning: salt, pepper, all spice or cinnamon, cumin, paprika, chopped parsley or cilantro/corriander leaves (you don't really need this if you're using pre-packaged lamb kebabs)

First pour boiling water on rice, let soak for 20min and drain water well. Sautee onion and garlic with a small amount of oil till transparent but not browned. Mix everything well. This is best done if you put everything in a biggish ziplock bag and just knead with hands, otherwise a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon will do.

Soak and take out salt if using grapevine leaves. Core the vegetables first (if using courgettes or peppers). If using courgettes, cut in 3-4 across, then scoop up the inside to leave thin walls. (best done with an apple corer--WARNING IT'S REALLY POTSCHKE!!). Pour boiling water on the cabbage head to make it easy to remove individual leaves (may have to do a few times as you peel along the layers). Stuff the vegetables. Leave just a small amount of space on the top for the filling to expand (mine doesn't expand that much as I don't use too much rice and rice has been presoaked). Lay them in a single layer in NON-METAL oven-proof casserole.

For sauce, mix 1 tin of tomato sauce with 1/3 cup wine (can be red or white, use water if not using wine), 3 heaping spoon of apricot jam, and freshly ground pepper. I also add about 1tbsp onion soup mix AND crumble a bit of dried mint leaves but this is probably not necessary.

Pour sauce on top, and bake loosely covered at medium 170C oven for about 1.5hrs. Time and temperature do not have to be acculate--just make sure it doesn't dry out and the meat is cooked through. This freezes and reheats beautifully.

bonitag1

Tue, Sep 29 2009, 7:46 am

Here's a repost of a recipe I posted a while back for stuffed cabbage:

I posted this a long time ago, so I copied and pasted it here (with a couple of minor corrections):
Posted: Mon, Sep 24 2007, 1:07 pm Post subject: re: ISO tried & true stuffed cabbage recipe

This is the recipe I've been using for many years. Its a little fancy, and it does have raisins (you can leave them out but I think they add a nice flavor), but hey, its for yontov, I only make it a few times a year and my family loves it.
Ingredients: beef bones, 1 or 2 large heads of cabbage with big, whole outer leaves, 2 tbsp oil, 2 sliced onions, 1 large can whole tomatoes (3 cups), 2 or 3 lbs. of ground beef (yields 20 to 30 rolls), 3 tbsp. uncooked rice per lb. of meat, 4 tbsp. grated onion per lb. of meat, 1 egg per lb. of meat, 3 tbsp. cold water per lb. of meat, 3 tbsp. honey (plus additional to add to taste), 1/4 cup lemon juice (plus additional to add to taste), 1/2 cup raisins.

To get cabbage leaves pliable: either freeze cabbage overnight or pour boiling water over cabbage to cover and soak 15 minutes (Check with your rav about proper way to check cabbage) (Alternative: microwave whole cabbage until outer leaves soften.)
Remove as many large leaves carefully as you need. Make an inverted v-shaped cut to remove thick core at base of each leaf. Stack the leaves on a plate until needed.
In a large dutch oven heat the oil, brown the onions, and add tomatoes, salt and pepper, and the beef bones. Cook on low heat for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix together the ground beef, raw rice, grated onion, egg and water. Place some meat mixture in the middle of a cabbage leaf, fold in the sides, and roll from bottom to top, tucking in as you go. The resulting roll will have the shape of a fat blintz. Place roll carefully seam-side down in the dutch oven, on top of the onion/tomatoes/bones mixture. Repeat for as many rolls as you wish to make. You can stack the rolls on top of each other in the pot. Cover the pot and cook over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, occasionally spooning the sauce over the top layer of cabbage rolls. Add honey, lemon juice and raisins and cook for at least 30 minutes longer. Taste the sauce and add additional honey and lemon juice until the flavors are balanced. Yum!