Porcupine Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
Porcupine Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

This is a take off from Joan Nathan’s Ultimate Stuffed Cabbage – couple a modifications….

Reduced volume –
one pound of ground beef;
half a head of green cabbage;
other items to suit.

Produced twenty stuffed cabbage rolls; original recipe with two pounds cites 24 stuffed rolls. I’m guessing my fork sized rolls are smaller, eh?

The meat stuffing – nothing particularly spectacular – mix together and refrig until ready to use.

(Pre-cooked and cooled) about half-cup of white rice.
One pound / 450 g fresh ground chuck – about 15% fat – raw
Half a medium onion finely diced
Salt & pepper to taste
Two tablespoons / 30 ml ketchup.

The sauce is the key to this dish:

One large onion thinly sliced, sweated down in (olive) oil
Then add
Two cups / 500 ml cored and rough chopped fresh tomatoes – juice/seeds/skins included
Salt and pepper to taste
Quarter cup / 50 ml ketchup
Quarter cup / 25 g light brown sugar
Quarter cup / 30 g raisins

Simmer about 45-60 minutes – use a stick blender mid-way to smooth out the sauce – but “zero lumps” is not required or recommended.

Add water as needed to maintain about two cups / 500 ml volume.
(add lemon juice just before pouring over cabbage – see below)

Dish Preparation / Assembly
Originally the recipe called for freezing the cabbage overnight; then a full day’s thaw.
I presume this is to “wilt” the cabbage leaves, thus enabling the “wrapped roll” bit.
Freezing/thawing the cabbage did not work; very bad idea. The thicker inner leaves did not cook soft; any leaf with a stem/spine required a sharp knife to cut and discard – inedible.

So, core / de-stem the cabbage, strip the leaves, blanch until soft the “ole fashioned way” in salted boiling water.

Preheat oven to 350’F/175’C

Spoonful of meat/rice mix, roll up cabbage; into 11x17 inch (28x45 cm) baking dish.

Add two tablespoons/60 ml fresh lemon juice to cooled sauce, pour over cabbage rolls.

Bake covered (alum foil) for 90 minutes
Uncover, check liquid level, add water/wine if needed
Bake uncovered additional 30 minutes.

The raisins add a zing to the sauce – DW has already scheduled this sauce for “chicken trials” – it is good.
 

QSis

Grill Master
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
This is similar to the way we make golumpkie, ChowderMan, although your sauce is very different from what we do.

Sounds great, though!

Lee
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
one could complete a career documenting just the really good cabbage rolls (g) - it's a versatile technique. my grandmother used venison in one of her versions.

anyway . . . the sauce was a major hit with DW - so yesterday was a "re-make th e sauce and try it with chicken"

I would have preferred to let a bit more time go by, but SWMBO'd said NOW!

ever have the experience of making something a second time and being disappointed?

that falls into the "yeah, NOT" category for this sauce.

I was out of garden tomatoes, so I used my stash of frozen "stewed tomatoes" from the garden. this particular batch had diced green pepper.

thawed - about 1.5 cups / 355 ml
sweated the onion
added the stewed tomato
up to a boil
add brown sugar & raisins & ketchup
simmer - about 2-3 hours
pureed midway through

the chicken was pre-packed thighs; de-skinned
pan oiled; slow roasted covered about 2 hrs at 250'F/120'C

add lemon juice, pour over chicken
increase oven to 375'F / 190C for about 30-40 minutes - makes a nice sugar crust.

the dish was pronounced superb and I was directed to put the recipe in the "Favorites" folder. basically like barbequed chicken chunks but with a twist to the sauce.

try it, you'll like it!
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
Every time I've made cabbage rolls, I have always just used raw rice. It's a pretty long cooking time, and my rice comes out tender. Most of the time, however, I see people's recipes call for cooked rice.

I'm just wondering why. Does it have something to do with not wanting to reduce the sauce too much or maybe not wanting the uncooked rice to swell and ruin the shape of the rolls?

I'm not knocking the idea of using cooked rice, just curious as to why :mrgreen:.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
my experience using a mix of rice and "ground meat" - various apply - is pretty close to your description. but here's what always bugs me:

if any little rice tidbit sticks out - it does not cook or it dries out - either way it turns into a hard chunk of something-I-don't-want.

now . . . a huge amount of 'the problem' depends on the dish and it's prep - given enough sauce, it's all a-swimming and less a problem.

otoh, school cafeteria style porcupines - meal balls made with uncooked rice and oven baked - always had unpleasant surprises.

as did my family's "meatloaf" if rice was used....

DW is fond of (left over) rice as a side - so around here there's no downside to "cooking up" some rice <g>
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
I see. My cabbage rolls are all a-swimming, so I don't have that problem.
 
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