Stuffed Cabbage

My first encountered with stuffed cabbage was when my husband told me that, when he was growing up his grand mother, who was originally came from Eastern Europe used to make this dish. Excited to please him, I've made the Hungarian stuffed cabbage, boy!!! he was so happy... and my son and I love it too. After that,  I've  made so many different kind of stuffed cabbage from Hungarian to Turkish and use any ingredient imaginable, including tried  to be exotic (tried to make it as balinese style, it was disastrous!) Here is my version of stuffed cabbage

I hope you'll like it too.

For cabagge rolls:

1 pound ground chuck

1 small onion, grated or finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced 

1 tablespoon zatar

1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley

2 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaf

1/2 cup cook rice 

1/3 cup plain bread crumb

salt and pepper

6 large cabbage leafs, blanched to soften

For simple tomato Sauce:

1  28OZ canned fire roasted crushed  tomatoes

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 medium size onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

olive oil

salt and pepper

First make the tomato sauce:

• in a large pot or pan, saute onion with olive oil in medium heat until translucent, add garlic and saute for another minute
• add tomato, tomato paste and the chicken stock to the pan, season with salt and pepper and  continue to cook until you see it start to bubble a long the edge of the pot or pan
• turn the heat down to the lowest setting, let the sauce  simmer while you make the cabbage roll

Preheat oven to 375F

Now make the cabbage roll

• in a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for the cabbage roll, mix with your hand but don't over work them
• lay 1 cabbage that has been soften on a kitchen board, take a hand full  of ground beef mixture and start to roll as you would make  Asian spring roll
• continue with the rest of the cabbage leafs

In a braiser with lid (if you have one) or use a shallow large pan, add half of the tomato sauce. Arrange  all of the cabbage roll into the pan and pour the rest of the sauce on top of the cabbage rolls. Cover the pot or pan with aluminum foil, put the lid on and cook in the oven and for 2 hours.

* serve by itself or with crusty bread to mop the sauce