Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Cabbage Rolls

This is of a Ukrainian (some say Polish, others say Slovenian) background even though I am not one or any of my closest relatives by affinity or consanguinity. This is just something I learned how to cook over the years of eating at the cafeteria in our building. The cook is not a Ukrainian. He is a Chinese married to a Caucasian. The cafeteria changed management since then and the quality of the cabbage rolls served has deteriorated.

Of course I started cooking it for my officemates after that. We stopped completely going to the cafeteria as the current owner has no customer service. Over lunch one day, my officemate who was married to someone who had a bit of Ukrainian blood brought sour cream to go with the rolls. She said cabbage rolls were supposed to be served with sour cream. Well, I happen to be a Filipino so I will cook it the Filipino way. We took turns cooking this recipe but I could tell mine was the best.

1 lb of medium ground pork
3 pieces of fresh chorizos
1 onion chopped coarsely
dash of ground pepper
dash of cayenne powder
salt to taste
dash of garlic seasoning powder
1 tsp of dried parsley
1 cup half cooked rice
514 ml stewed tomatoes
400 ml tomato sauce
¼ cup of apple cider vinegar

1 head of medium cabbage

In a pan, cook the ground pork and the fresh chorizos until brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook the rice like you would when cooking fried rice for about 5 minutes. Set aside. (The rice would still be 3/4 cooked :-))

In a deep saucepan, boil about 6 cups or more of water. Core the cabbage and put it in the boiling water. Peel off the cabbage leaves one by one as they soften making sure that they do not tear or break in the process. Trim the thick spine at the back of the separated leaves for easier wrapping.

Put about 3 tbsp of the mixture in the center of the leaf. Wrap like you would wrap a shanghai lumpia.

Arrange in a slow cooker. Top with stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce and the tiny pieces left of the cabbage and cook it for 4 hours. You can also use a sauce pan but once it boils, turn your heat to the low and cook it for 1 hour.

3 comments:

cathy said...

tagal naman,mabubulok na yong cabbage ko. hehehe

ting-aling said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ting-aling said...

Ayan na Ca T. I'm afraid you'll have to wait for another 4 hours.