Cabbage Rolls with Ground Beef and Rice in Tomato Sauce
Wrapping all kinds of fillings in leaves is a culinary tradition found all over the world. Take dolma (every nation pronounces it a little differently): most often these are small portions of filling wrapped in a grape leaf.
Similar dishes are mentioned in ancient Arabic and Persian sources. Something very close is made in the Balkans and in Bulgaria. Sarma, sarmi — vegetables or leaves (grape or cabbage) stuffed with a filling of rice and meat (lamb, beef, pork and so on). The funny thing is that almost every book on a national cuisine flatly states that dolma comes exclusively from “its own” region. Then again, the sheer number of recipes and variations may well prove that the dish is truly international.
The national cuisines of Eastern Europe rarely cook with grape leaves. The vast majority of recipes are holubtsi — “stuffed cabbage”, if you like. That said, counterparts exist in many cuisines. As far back as Ancient Greece, one of Aristophanes' comedies mentions “pork in cabbage leaves”, and that was almost 2,500 years ago.
Holubtsi are usually cabbage with a meat filling, and there is also a simple recipe for lazy cabbage rolls. You can come across versions with buckwheat, corn grits or pearl barley (very tasty, by the way), as well as with lamb, beef and even hare. For some reason a filling is thought of as meat with additions, although the meat can be replaced with fish, mushrooms or chicken. The local word for it, “farsh”, like the English “forcemeat”, comes from the Latin farcio — to stuff. Cabbage rolls with rice can be made with leaves of fresh white cabbage or with fermented leaves — cabbage ferments beautifully as whole heads. In fact, cabbage rolls can be wrapped in almost any suitable leaves: young beet greens, savoy cabbage and so on.
For all the amazing variety of cabbage roll recipes, it so happens that hardly anyone cooks them at home by one particular recipe. Or rather, the general principles are followed, but the kind of meat and rice, the cabbage and spices, and the proportions of the filling are usually “by eye”. The rolls can be boiled, baked or braised.
A very tasty way to cook them is to fry the cabbage rolls and then braise them in tomato. Some time ago, for certain reasons, I had to cut down on pork and fatty food in general. We learned to make many home dishes with beef and veal, and most people, unless told in advance, don't even notice the “wrong” meat.
That's how our pork cabbage rolls one day turned into beef cabbage rolls. It would seem nothing could be simpler — just swap the meat. But beef is a little trickier to cook than pork. There are some subtleties.
Today's recipe is cabbage rolls with rice and ground beef. The rolls are stuffed with a ready-to-eat filling that needs no further cooking. So everything after wrapping the filling in the cabbage leaves comes down to cooking the cabbage and the sauce well.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Cabbage
1 head - Beef
0.4 kg - Rice
0.5 cup - Onion
2 - Carrot
1 head - Vegetable oil
6-7 tbsp - Tomato (paste, juice or tomato pulp)
to taste - Spices: sugar, salt, ground black pepper, sweet paprika, dried aromatic herbs (savory, oregano, basil), ground coriander
to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Who said the most important thing about cabbage rolls is a good filling? Yes, of course, the filling matters a lot. But if the meat and rice filling doesn't turn out quite right, you can eat it with ketchup — so says a friend of mine who could eat even plastic plates with ketchup. But if the cabbage is badly prepared, the cabbage rolls are ruined.
- The cabbage is what matters. You need a small head of cabbage, very firm and dense — “glassy”, as people say.
Removing the leaves from a cabbage for cabbage rolls is very easy. You can boil the whole head, or use a simple method of peeling the leaves off a dense head under running water. Then the leaves —
cabbage for cabbage rolls— can either be boiled or steamed in a bag in the microwave. Cool the prepared cabbage leaves and trim off the thick protruding stem.
- Trim the beef (veal is even better) of membranes and fat, wash it and put it through a meat grinder. Set the ground beef aside for now.
- Separately, cook the rice until done. You need fluffy rice with small grains. Everything as usual: bring 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan and cook 0.5 cup of rice in it. Cook without salt or spices. This ratio of rice to water gives you fluffy cooked rice. By the way, the proportion may vary slightly depending on the kind of rice. Let the rice cool.
- Peel and finely chop one onion. In a sauté pan with a lid, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and fry the onion until nicely golden. It's even worth braising the browned onion for 5-7 mins under the lid over low heat — then it gets especially tasty.
- Add the ground beef to the fried onion. Fry the meat and onion over medium heat, stirring often.
- After 3-4 mins, add the spices. Salt to taste. As for spices, I advise adding more than you would to taste. Firstly, the filling will get rice that was cooked without salt or spices. Secondly, the cabbage leaves are unsalted too. Thirdly, the cabbage rolls will be more aromatic and flavorful. For spices I recommend 0.5 tsp of sweet paprika, black pepper, ground coriander and a mix of dried aromatic herbs typical of “Mediterranean” cooking.
- Fry the meat with the spices for 5 mins, then cover the pan and braise the meat and onion over low heat for 20 mins. By then the ground meat will be cooked. If needed, you can add a little water to the meat, literally 2-3 tbsp.
- Add the cooked rice to the ground meat. Stir and braise the meat and rice under the lid for about 10 mins. Let the finished rice and meat filling cool a little. Not necessarily to room temperature — just enough not to burn your fingers.
- People often complain that when they shape cabbage rolls, they end up with leftover leaves or filling. It happens. Lay the prepared cabbage leaves out on the table and spoon the filling evenly over them. I'm sure nothing will be left over! Wrap the filling in the cabbage leaves and transfer to a large plate.
- In a large deep frying pan, heat 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Place the prepared cabbage rolls in the hot oil in a single layer (!).
- Fry, turning often, until the cabbage is lightly browned on all sides.
- While the cabbage rolls are frying, make the tomato sauce. In a separate frying pan or small saucepan, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil and fry the second onion, peeled and finely chopped. Right away add the peeled carrot, finely grated. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add 0.5 tsp of sugar.
- When the onion and carrot are soft and slightly browned, add the tomato. The amount of tomato is up to you. There are options here. Of course, the pulp of fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded, is preferable. Unfortunately, that's not always possible. Canned tomato pulp works well. You can also use good natural tomato juice or tomato paste.
- Once the tomato is in, thin the sauce with boiling water if needed and simmer under the lid for up to 10 mins. The onion and carrot need to cook through. The sauce shouldn't be too thick.
- Pour the prepared tomato sauce over the fried cabbage rolls with rice. After adding the sauce, turn the rolls over so the sauce spreads evenly. Braise in the sauce for 10 to 30 mins. The cabbage should cook through and become as soft as you like. If the sauce seems too thin, you can remove the lid and let the excess liquid evaporate.
- Serve the cabbage rolls with rice and beef on plates while hot, 2-3 per serving.
- If you like — and many do — top them with fresh sour cream and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Personally, I like to season the finished cabbage rolls with freshly ground coarse black pepper.
| Yield: | 4 servings |
| Calories: | 150 |
| Prep: | 60 mins |
| Cook: | 60 mins |
| Ready in: | 2 h |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | Ukrainian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.4
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