Cabbage Rolls

I don’t make cabbage rolls often, but when I do, my family really appreciates it.
I got 16 leaves off of one cabbage, but stuffed only 11 leaves with the filling I had. I lined the top and bottom of my casserole dish with the leftover leaves.
My mother would use a really huge casserole pot, line the bottom with chicken thighs, and put 2 layers of cabbage rolls on top of the chicken. The chicken added an awesome flavour to the overall taste. She would bake this for hours. We would have a loaf of fresh bread with the cabbage rolls, what a wonderful Sunday meal!
I didn’t line my casserole dish with chicken in this recipe, but it can certainly be done. What about lining the bottom with a rack of ribs? Hmmm, now there’s a thought.

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Cabbage Rolls

Course: Dinner

Ingredients

• 1 large cabbage
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 large onion
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 pound raw ground meat beef, pork or mixed
• 1 cup uncooked rice use a longer cooking rice so it doesn’t over puff
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• ½ cup chicken stock
• 2 cups tomato puree or juice

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Cut core out of cabbage. Put whole cabbage in microwaveable dish with a bit of water and microwave on high for 2 minutes at a time until outer leaves are soft and tender enough to roll with. Repeat until all leaves are removed.
• In a large skillet, heat butter and sauté the onion and garlic, then add the paprika, salt, pepper and oregano. Stir in ½ pound of ground meat, and lightly fry. Stir in uncooked rice, add chicken stock and cook on medium for 10 minutes. Don’t worry if rice is not fully cooked. Rice will continue to cook while in the oven
• Mix the other ½ pound ground meat with the egg then mix with cooled meat and rice mixture.
• Stuff mixture into cabbage leaves, leaving enough room to roll.
• Place leftover cabbage leaves on bottom of casserole dish with a little tomato sauce. Place the rolled cabbage into casserole dish, pour tomato puree over cabbage rolls and cover top with more left over cabbage leaves.
• Cover casserole dish with a lid and bake at 350°F for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
• Serve with sour cream.
• **(When adding sauce do not go higher than ¾ above height of casserole dish or liquid may bubble over.
• If liquid goes below ¼ of pot add more tomato juice or puree. Extra sauce will be for pouring over servings)
• Note: do not store anything made with tomato sauce in aluminum foil. The acid in the tomato badly reacts to the aluminum resulting in black tomato sauce and holes in the aluminum foil.