As a child I spent a lot of time with my grandmother who had heavily influenced Polish and Hungarian cooking styles. It took me a long time to really appreciate these cabbage rolls since I didn’t like sauerkraut as a child. Since then, I’d like to think my tastebuds have matured. Her original recipe was never written down on paper since she refused to let anyone else have the recipe and she knew it by heart. I searched the internet for ideas on meat to rice ratio. A cup seemed to be what was the going ratio, so I gave it a try. I do remember the original recipe calls for 4 pound of meat. I guess she was feeding a small village sometimes. She also froze the rest very successfully. This recipe below is way more than enough. I usually freeze the rest.
Ingredients:
- 1 LB ground pork
- 1 LB ground beef (fairly lean, (I use 93%)
- 2 Large heads of cabbage (preferably with larger leaves)
- One large onion (chopped and sautéed)
- 7 cloves garlic (also chopped and sautéed)
- 2 Jars sauerkraut (drain out most of the water or else the rolls can become salty)
- 1 cup uncooked rice (I use brown rice)
- 2 tbsp black pepper
- 2 cans of tomato sauce with no salt added
- 3 tbsp of chopped parsley
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Get out your dutch oven (stock pot also works) and put some sauerkraut in the bottom. Like maybe a cup. We layer the kraut.
Boil cabbage leaves to get them soft and remove with tongs. (you can always freeze them the day prior and let them thaw the next day so they are soft and wilted. Let’s be honest, a lot of us don’t have that kind of freezer room. I sure don’t.
Combine the meat, rice, black pepper, garlic, onion, parsley and half a can of tomato sauce.
Once leaves are workable, roll up uncooked ingredients in cabbage leaves and place on top of the first layer of kraut. Once the bottom of the pot is full, add some kraut for filling and add another layer of cabbage rolls. keep doing that until the pot is full or you run out. Add remaining tomato sauce on top of everything and toss in the oven for 75 to 90 minutes.
