Cabbage rolls with barley

I was in Siewierz yesterday. In Siewierz (in case you don’t know it, it’s a town on the Warsaw–Katowice road), there’s a shop on the market square that I reckon is the best greengrocer’s in the world. If you ever find yourself there, it’s right next to Biedronka.

Why the best? It ticks every box: everything is fresh, everything is top quality, the prices are very reasonable and the people who serve you are exceptionally, almost unbelievably nice (though at first glance you might think otherwise. As we all know, appearances can be deceptive).

In summer you can buy blueberries by weight (they usually come all boxed up elsewhere), superb mushrooms or the very best tomatoes. Everything is huge, gigantic, and best of all they only sell what’s in season. Meaning whatever is naturally growing at the time, presumably in fields somewhere near the lands of Siewierz (yes, yes, the good people of Siewierz like to boast that theirs was once an autonomous duchy).

So, passing through Siewierz yesterday, I decided to pay my favourite greengrocer a visit. It made little sense, really, since I was going away for the weekend and wouldn’t even have a chance to cook. But there you go.

It ended the way you might expect. Charmed by the selection, and possibly even more by the prices, I bought:

• a huge head of broccoli
• a kilo of “field-grown” tomatoes (from a field, I mean, rather than a greenhouse)
• chives
• and a great big Savoy cabbage.

That cabbage was enormous. Did they have a smaller one, I asked. Sadly not, came the reply. How much for the cabbage, then? How much for this here cabbage, I ask? That’ll be 2.40. Per kilo, I asked? No, for the whole thing. Well, if that’s for the whole thing… Take a look:

Actually, if you really want to know: top-quality tomatoes at 1.90 PLN a kilo, chives for 1 PLN, Savoy cabbage for 2.4 PLN and a head of broccoli as big as the cabbage for 2.4 PLN. Not bad, eh? I must be rather too used to Warsaw prices. I find this quite extraordinary.

What impressed me most, though, were these bags full of hot chillies in all sorts of colours (yellow, green, red, orange). Simply gorgeous. And since, as you’re sure to know, I adore spicy food, I decided to buy some. Only they came in half-kilo bags. Half a kilo.

So I asked whether I could buy a smaller quantity.

“I’m sorry, that’s how we sell them. But hang them up on a string and dry them. They’ll last all winter, and dried chillies keep all their flavour.” So I gave in. Take a look and compare them with what you can get in a supermarket, for instance:

I don’t want to mislead you, but there must be about 50 chillies there, if not 60. The price (are you holding on to something?): 5.40 PLN. For the lot. I love that greengrocer’s in Siewierz. And lest you get the wrong idea, it isn’t just the prices. The prices, yes, but above all the outstanding quality and freshness.

I wanted to buy a pumpkin too, but the only ones left weighed 15 kilos apiece. Luckily, common sense prevailed on that one.

Well, having bought all this stuff, I had to do something with it, particularly as I was going away for the weekend. So this evening I set about making cabbage rolls. Different from the ones I’ve shown you before, my fairly classic deluxe cabbage rolls with rice. I decided to use barley groats instead of rice this time. It makes the rolls more delicate.

I also put some vegetables and some of my hot chillies in the filling (leave them out if you dislike spicy food. They don’t actually make the rolls hot, they just give the flavour a nice edge). What’s more, most of you probably know cabbage rolls in tomato sauce, and may well like them that way. I’m not keen on sauces with cabbage rolls. I much prefer them on their own (or perhaps with bread).

But I’d bought quite a few tomatoes, firm ones with a good strong flavour. So I decided to experiment with adding sautéed tomatoes to the filling. The result? Stunning. Absolutely killer 🙂 They were delicious. I heartily recommend them. So let’s get started. The recipe for barley-stuffed cabbage rolls is long, admittedly (though I’ve set it out in steps), but it isn’t particularly difficult. You just have to get yourself properly mobilised (or motivated, as I’m sure you know). Right, to work. Give them a try.

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 30–40 minutes

Cooking time: about 2 hours

Serves: 10

Calories: heaps of them, as befits a “little pigeon”

Ingredients for an original Polish dish:

• Savoy cabbage (large)
• about 800 grams minced turkey thigh (you can substitute minced pork)
• about 250 grams smoked bacon (in one piece)
• one and a half boil-in-the-bag portions of barley groats
• 4 tomatoes
• 7 medium shallots
• a 5 cm piece of leek (the light green part)
• 4 small pieces of different-coloured hot chillies (optional if you don’t want a little heat in the rolls)
• 1/3 of a medium courgette
• half a block of lard
• olive oil
• a tablespoon of nutmeg
• a tablespoon of ground black pepper
• salt

Recipe for these little birds for dinner:

Making cabbage rolls is a fairly involved process. So I’ll take it point by point:

1. I cooked two bags of barley groats (I used 1.5 for the filling). Follow the instructions on the packet (usually you boil the barley in salted water for 15 minutes).
2. I finely chopped the shallots and fried them in olive oil over a medium “flame” (on my hob, 5 on a scale of 1–10). When they were almost done, I added finely chopped pieces of different-coloured hot chillies (about a 7 cm length in total. Leave them out if you don’t want that extra edge). The shallots should soften without burning.
3. I put the mince in a deep bowl, added 1.5 bags of barley and seasoned it with pepper, nutmeg and salt. I mixed it all together. I added the fried shallots and chillies (I lifted the shallots out of the pan, leaving the oil behind). I mixed again.
4. I peeled the tomatoes (here you can see how to peel a tomato quickly and easily) and diced them on a paper towel (I removed all the seed cavities and cut the tomatoes on the towel to absorb as much juice as possible). I finely chopped the courgette and leek too.
5. I sautéed the vegetables (tomatoes, leek and courgette) in the same pan I’d used for the shallots, adding a little salt and pepper. About 6–7 minutes, to let the water evaporate. I tipped the sautéed vegetables into the bowl with the meat and shallots.
6. I thoroughly mixed the meat and vegetables and set them aside.
7. Now for the fun part. I tackled my giant Savoy cabbage. I cut out the thick core so I could take off the leaves, then gently peeled them away one by one (trying not to damage them). I washed them in the sink and put them in the biggest pot I own in batches (a few at a time, as many as would fit).
8. I boiled water in the kettle and poured it over the leaves in the pot. I left each batch in the boiling water for about 3 minutes (the whole cabbage took me 5 batches). Then I lifted the leaves out and laid them on paper towels to dry. The idea is to soften them enough that you can wrap them around the meat without their breaking.
9. Once I’d worked my way through all the leaves, I got out a large pot and put half a block of lard in it. I let the lard melt a little over low heat.
10. I cut the rind off my piece of bacon, along with the fat, and lined the bottom of the pot with it (the pot with the melted lard). I cut the rest of the bacon into large dice.
11. I started making the cabbage rolls. I’d take a Savoy leaf, lay it on a wooden board and cut away the woody bit. Then I’d put about a generous spoonful of filling (the meat, barley and vegetables) on it and roll it up. Each finished roll went straight into the bottom of the pot.
12. Once I had a layer of rolls in the pot (depending on their size, mine fitted 4–5 to a layer), I tucked pieces of bacon between them and put another layer on top.
13. I got about 20 cabbage rolls in all (medium-sized, as I don’t like very large ones).
14. Finally, I laid a few more cabbage leaves on top to cover the rolls completely. I poured in about half a litre of water (hot from the kettle, just enough to come halfway up the pot, not all the way to the top).
15. I cooked them over low heat for about 2 to 2 and a half hours. The rolls should simmer gently. You can turn off the heat and try them then, though of course they’ll be at their best the next day (or even after two days). Enjoy!