A Momma Who Cooks: Cabbage Rolls

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Cabbage Rolls

Do y'all do the traditional eat your cabbage and black eyed peas supper for New Years??? We do!

This recipe is a traditional Lebanese dish we make year round but one we always have on New Years for good luck!

My family's recipe for cabbage rolls-

Start by blanching your cabbage to tenderize the cabbage leaves

Put your whole head of cabbage in boiling water, as the leaves tendorize, pull each leaf off

Set them aside and let cool

This is my platter after I finished my whole head of cabbage

Couple of tips- use tongs to pull the leaf away from the head and then use knife to cut the leaf off at the core. You might need to cut the core out during the process to make it easier

Then while you let your leaves cool, prepare the mixture you are going to stuff them with.

I used 1.5 lbs of ground sirloin to 1 cup rice. Season with salt, garlic powder, lemon pepper, red pepper, and cinnamon. Mix well adding cold water while mixing it together to make it moist.

Here is my stuffing.

Then prepare your cabbage leaves by cutting the hard white stem out of the leaves

Cut out that middle hard part

And the big leaves you can cut in half

Then once you have all your leaves and mixture ready, prepare you pot you are going to cook them in.

Line the pot with the big dark green outer cabbage leaves.

*many traditional Lebanese recipes line their pots with lamb bones but I do not*

Mostly bc I cook them/ like them how my mom makes them and she doesn't!

So then you roll your cabbage leaves!

Lay a leaf out, line it with a decent amount of stuffing

Fold outside edges in and roll

*there is no right/perfect way to roll, you learn how to do it your way just by doing it and seeing what works best for you!

Then just place cabbage rolls in pot stacking them close together and place garlic cloves around the pot (I did 4)

Cover in chicken stock and add water if you need, you want liquid about an inch over the rolls

Then I place a plate over all of it to hold them all down while it cooks

Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and let cook for a good 1 1/2 hrs, most if the liquid will cook out. Remove plate and squeeze fresh lemon and let cook another 15 mins or so.