My earliest memories of cabbage bear no resemblence to the maligned tales of boiled to near-death grey-white leaves common to anyone who's choked down dinner cooked by elderly Anglo-Saxon relatives. Far from the horrors of wartime recipes, or the gastronomic warfare of 1985's cabbage soup diet; they involve family and a great sense of where food comes from.
My Oma makes a magnificent blaukraut, with red cabbage, cloves, green apples and salt, sugar and vinegar to taste. I've yet to perfect the dish myself, I doubt I will, considering the old dear has a good sixty years of cooking on me. It's one of the dishes I secretly hope she'll whip up whenever I visit, along with the other Deutsch classics she has up her short sleeves.
My Dad used to grow cabbages in his vegetable patch during winter. When they weren't being attacked by snails, they had to be closely guarded against attack by my younger brother, who liked to "help" by pulling them out - all of them - and hosing and boxing them whilst Dad was at work.
Whilst I remember having cabbage rolls for dinner as a child, my main memories of the vegetable involved it being lightly steamed as a sweet yet savoury side, or served as saukraut alongside meat-laden meals. Thanks to the protective culinary web provided by my family it wasn't until I went to boarding school that I realised just how bad it could be when cooked incorrectly. Luckily common sense prevailed and those nightmare-inducing experiences didn't turn me off it for life. These days we don't have it that often, but when we do it's generally served as part of a greater good rather than by itself on the edge of the plate.
For this dish, I've adapted a sauce recipe from Iain Hewitson's "Never Trust a Skinny Cook", the title of which I take as gospel in my own waistline pursuits*. I figure he's probably making enough money through his website subscriptions to warrant me doing a bit o' culinary shoplifting from his cookbook, especially considering the number of man hours I've put into watching him and Mr Moon of a quiet weekday afternoon.
*(N.B. This mantra, of course, does not apply to chefs, who create food for a multitude of reasons, the vast majority of them less trustworthy than the Daily Telegraph.)
Ingredients
Sauce
Olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sambal olek
2 tins whole tomatoes, smashed up a bit with a knife
1 tin water
Balsalmic vinegar
Sugar
2 anchovies, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, grated, to assemble
Filling
400g minced beef or lamb (whichever you prefer)
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 stick celery, finely diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh chopped oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1/4 sauce mixture reserved from above
Salt and pepper to taste
Wrapping
1 small savoy cabbage (this time I used Chinese wongbok because procuring a whole, non-cut Euro cabbage on Sunday afternoon proved beyond my hunting and gathering skills... I don't recommend it as the flavour is negligable and the leaves are too watery and yeah, the whole thing is pretty blah actually.)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees celcius
Sauce
1. Take a large heavy frypan and slosh in enough olive oil to cover the bottom, then heat over a medium flame.
2. Throw in the onion and cook, stirring, until softened. Add the garlic and sambal olek and cook until fragrant.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, water, anchovies and sugar and balsalmic vinegar to taste. Stir well, then reduce heat and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally, until thick. Remove sauce from pan and set aside.
Wrapping
1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil
2. Plunge the entire cabbage into the water for several minutes until it begins to soften. Remove, drain and then strip the whole leaves from the outer layers working inwards. Set aside.
Filling
1. Add another slosh of olive oil into the same pan used for the sauce (don't bother washing it, ya sook). Add the mince and cook, stirring, until browned.
2. Add the celery and carrot, stir. Add the white wine and cook for a minute or two, stirring.
3. Add the oregano, tomato paste, reserved sauce and seasoning to taste, stir and simmer over a low heat for ten minutes.
4. Remove from heat and set aside until cool enough to handle.
To Assemble
1. Take one softened cabbage leaf. Place 1 tablespoon filling at one end of the leaf, leaving a lip to fold over. Fold over lip and sides, then roll, tucking edges in as you go. Set aside and repeat with remaining leaves and filling.
2. Take a square oven-proof dish and pour half the sauce into the bottom. Place the cabbage rolls on top. Pour over the remainder of the sauce and top with cheese.
3. Bake in oven for twenty five minutes or until cheese is golden brown.
Serve with steamed rice and the satisfaction of knowing you've just turned a much-maligned vegetable into a mouth party. Well done, you. TAKIN' IT BACK!
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