Cabbage rolls de luxe

As you know by now, what I eat on any given day often comes down to chance. Today was a perfect example. This morning a friend sent me a message that inspired me to eat a light breakfast (hmm, no, that wasn’t breakfast. A snack at best). Normally I’d probably have scoffed some eggs, or at least a ham and tomato sandwich. But there you go, I had to pull myself together.

Much the same with my late lunch, early dinner, whatever you want to call it. I open the fridge and see… hmm. Right, a cabbage. How did a cabbage get into my fridge? Probably because Ania (one of the fans of my page on Facebook) has been pestering me for stuffed cabbage rolls for a while. And presumably, at some point in the shops, I spotted this neat little Savoy cabbage, not too big. I can’t remember when (recently, I think).

And today I noticed it. All right then, cabbage rolls it is. I was missing a few ingredients (most of them, actually), but somewhere I found the strength to haul my carcass to the shops. No idea where that strength came from, seeing as all I’d had was that grapefruit, a large coffee and two glasses of water.

Cabbage rolls, or gołąbki – “little pigeons” in Polish – are a long story. I like them (my dad makes them often, really good ones, better than mine, I’d say). It wasn’t always so. Hard to believe if you look at me now, but I used to be as fussy as my daughter is today (I hope she doesn’t end up overweight like her dad). At first I wouldn’t eat cabbage rolls at all. Then I’d eat them without the wings (yes to the meat, no to the cabbage). Next came the cabbage-only stage (“Don’t give me that horrible lean meat, just the lovely fragrant cabbage”). Now that I’ve grown up, I eat the whole bird. But I have one rule: never any sauce. I can’t stand cabbage rolls with any sauce at all, and if it’s tomato sauce I won’t even look at them. I want them plain, straight out of the lovely fatty water they cook in. And that’s how I recommend you try them.

Making cabbage rolls, like everything I do, is easy. Ridiculously easy. It does take a bit of time, though. At least 50 minutes or so to prepare, followed by about 2 hours of cooking that pretty much takes care of itself. And the nice thing is, cabbage rolls are best reheated at least once the next day. So you can make them once and eat them for 2–3 days (keeping them in the fridge in between, of course), and they just keep getting tastier.

And why cabbage rolls de luxe? Maybe because I usually make them without mushrooms. And definitely because I do always put a fair bit of work into them. That’s de luxe by Primitive Kitchen standards.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 50 minutes

Cooking time: about 2 hours

Serves: I got about 12 cabbage rolls, so… one person? Over three days, mind

How many calories? The little pigeons coo that this is a dish of love, and people in love don’t count calories

Ingredients for cabbage rolls with meat and mushrooms:

• 430 grams of freshly minced turkey thigh (that’s how big the piece was. I use turkey thigh for cabbage rolls because it isn’t dry, and it’s poultry, so in theory… actually, no, it isn’t healthier)
• a thick slice of bacon (about 3 cm)
• a medium Savoy cabbage (I bought it precisely because it was medium-sized. A big one won’t fit in my pot at all. Savoy because I like my feathers a little more tender)
• 7 medium button mushrooms
• 1/3 of a block of lard (ugh, hot lard in a frying pan just stinks. My primitive nose is used to hot olive oil)
• a bag of white rice (I think that’s 150 grams)
• one large onion
• salt
• ground black pepper
• hot paprika
• ground nutmeg
• a tablespoon of sugar

The recipe (practically a production line):

I don’t boil the cabbage whole as tradition dictates. Unfortunately I haven’t got a pot big enough to take even a medium cabbage whole. Well, I have, but it doesn’t work on my induction hob. So I start by cutting out the, er… core. Carefully, so as not to damage the cabbage, then I peel off the leaves. Gently: they aren’t soft, so they can tear, and I need them whole. Once I’ve taken the whole cabbage apart, I put the leaves in that pot that’s not on speaking terms with the hob, add half a tablespoon of salt and pour boiling water over them from the kettle. I boil another kettleful and top it up so pretty much all the leaves are covered. I set them aside.

I put the meat in a deep bowl and season it with pepper, nutmeg, salt and paprika. By eye: enough to give it some flavour, without overdoing it. I set that aside too.

I cut the peeled mushrooms into very small pieces and fry them in olive oil until golden. Takes a few minutes. While they’re frying, I finely dice the onion. I tip the cooked mushrooms into the meat with all the good stuff from the pan (fat included). I mix thoroughly.

In the same pan I used for the mushrooms, I melt 1/6 of the block of lard. Once it’s melted, I put the onion in and sprinkle it with a tablespoon of sugar. I want it nice and translucent. When it gets there, I add the rice, stir well and, after about a minute, pour in a cup of boiled water. I turn down the “flame” (to 4 on my scale of 1 to 10). While the rice cooks in the pan, I get the pot ready for the cabbage rolls.

In the bottom of the pot (a fairly large one, because there’ll be about 12 rolls and I’ve got to hide somewhere) I put 1/6 of the block of lard, then line the base with a few slices of bacon. I cut roughly half the bacon I’ve set aside for this dish into smaller pieces and keep them to tuck between the rolls.

Meanwhile, if the rice has absorbed all the water, I add another half-cup or so of water and carry on cooking. That buys me some time to get the cabbage leaves ready (the rice should cook for about 15 minutes). I pour the water out of the pot with the leaves and start lifting them onto kitchen paper (to avoid flooding the worktop). From each leaf I cut out the thick central rib, if there is one. I stack the leaves with the biggest ones ready on top. I have a rule that the biggest specimens go in the bottom of the pot.

By the time I’ve dealt with the leaves, the rice and onion are ready. I transfer them to the bowl of meat and mix thoroughly again. I adjust the seasoning if the filling is too bland or tasteless. Now for the important bit. Time to assemble the birds.

I take a cabbage leaf and about a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of filling. I try to wrap it up tightly, and one by one the little pigeons go into the pot. I pack them in snugly, tucking pieces of bacon in after every 4 rolls. When I’ve used up all the filling, I should have a few smaller leaves left to cover the birds with.

I pour warm water into the pot, enough to come about 1/3 of the way up the rolls (judged by eye), and put it over a low “flame”. Before serving them for the first time, I cook them for at least two hours. Cabbage rolls de luxe, ready to go. I serve them on their own or with bread (I can’t stand cabbage rolls served with potatoes). Enjoy!