An all-time-favorite winter/fall meals. Though making cabbage rolls takes a bit extra time, it’s price each minute. Cabbage leaves are filled with rice and meat and cooked in garlic-lemon inventory. Cabbage ribs are saved to arrange a really scrumptious mutabal on the facet.
Elements
1 cabbage
2 cups medium-grain rice
1/2 pound floor beef/lamb
3 heads garlic
Juice of three medium lemons
2 potatoes
1 tablespoon ghee
1/2 teaspoon Bharat (Syrian Spice Combine)
1 tablespoon floor cumin
Salt and pepper to style For cabbage mutabal
3 tablespoon plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon tahini
2 cloves of mashed garlic
Salt to style
Instructions
1. Wash the cabbage and trim its stem. Making ready the cabbage leaves is the longest step so you possibly can put together the stuffing whereas doing it. Fill an enormous pot (bigger than the cabbage) with water half-wise, then warmth. When the water begins to boil, add the cabbage stem-side down and switch the warmth right down to low. The objective is to loosen cabbage leaves with warmth and have the ability to take them off one after the opposite. Test each minute or so to see when you can take some off. This additionally is dependent upon the kind of cabbage. Don’t let the leaves cook dinner. You simply need them to loosen up and strip them off.
2. When all cabbage leaves are stripped, blanch them for a few minutes in boiling water till they’re tender and rollable (however not mushy. You simply need to have the ability to roll them). Keep away from boiling them loads in order that they begin to cook dinner.
3. Drain cabbage leaves promptly and rinse with very chilly water, then put aside to chill.
4. To arrange the stuffing, boil three cups of water. Add the boiled water to the rice in an enormous bowl and put aside. After 7 minutes, wash the rice in chilly water and drain. add floor meat, ghee, half a teaspoon of salt and spices and blend nicely (sure, you need to use your fingers!)
5. To stuff the cabbage, minimize the massive leaves in half or extra. Items shouldn’t be bigger than 6’*6′. Discard the ribs if they’re powerful and received’t mean you can roll the leaf. You do not want to chop smaller leaves. Don’t throw away the powerful ribs. As a substitute cube them and throw them within the pot with the rolls.
6. Take one cabbage leaf and unfold it on a tray with tough facet up. Add 1-2 tablespoons of stuffing to the leaf in a line parallel to the leaf ribs. Depart about one inch of each side of the leaf with out stuffing. That is to be sure that stuffing doesn’t escape throughout the cooking course of.
7. After you add the stuffing, roll the leaf tightly and put it apart. Don’t fold the edges. Repeat for all remaining leaves.
8. Clear the potatoes and slice them into half an inch slices (you should not have to peel them), then prepare on the backside of an enormous pot.
9. Wash the garlic and separate the cloves. Then prepare the cabbage rolls on high of the potatoes sprinkling the unpeeled garlic cloves in between the layers. Don’t neglect to throw within the diced cabbage ribs.
10. Cowl with water and add cumin, salt and pepper. Press the rolls with just a little weight simply sufficient to maintain the rolls from floating. You need to use a cooking stone or a few ceramic dishes. Cowl the pot leaving just a little gap for steam to flee from. After the water boils, flip the warmth right down to medium low and depart it to simmer.
11. Test for doneness after 30-45 minutes. You’ll want to add lemon juice quarter-hour earlier than the cabbage is finished. (you possibly can take one out and style if the rice is finished).
12. Serve the cabbage rolls scorching and garnish with garlic gloves and potato slices. Syrians prefer to pop the gloves of their moth and suck the candy paste. You may also serve a bowl of cabbage inventory on the facet.
13. With the cabbage ribs, you possibly can put together a really scrumptious cabbage mutabal. Simply add plain yogurt, tahini, mashed garlic, and salt to the diced ribs. Combine nicely and serve with flat bread subsequent to cabbage rolls.
Makes 4-5 servings
Supply: SYRIAN COOKING
