The name of this dish in different cuisines of the world sounds different, and it, like all other culinary inventions of mankind, has its own history. For example, dolma is almost the same as stuffed cabbage, only the filling is wrapped in grape leaves. This option is common in southern Europe, North Africa, from the Middle East to Central Asia.
So, if you want diversity, just replace the cabbage leaves with grape leaves, not forgetting, of course, add a certain national flavor to the dish.
There are German cabbage sausages in world cooking - a kind of cabbage, where cabbage is present in the stuffing itself.
In Belarus, they love to cook stuffed cabbage from minced meat with potatoes. In Chile and other Latin American countries, corn filling and other products are wrapped in corn cob leaves.
Russian cabbage rolls appeared in ancient Russian cuisine, but in those days, minced meat was not known to our ancestors. Gutted carcasses of pigeons were wrapped in cabbage leaves so that they would not overcook when baked on a fire and the meat of small game kept its juiciness. A little later they were baked in sour cream, lingonberry or cranberry gravy. It was this dish called cabbage rolls.
Later, cabbage began to wrap porridge, vegetables, mushrooms. This stuffed stuffed cabbage was a success in the peasant kitchen, which was significantly different from the dishes of the boyar and merchant.
With the advent of minced meat in our kitchen, the inner content of cabbage changed, and the name remained the same. Naturally, semi-finished products from minced meat and other minced ingredients quickly became popular, and even erased the line between dishes of nobility and servants.
How to cook stuffed cabbage, to give it a new unusual flavor? That's what we do.
Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce - the basic technological principles
In modern Russian cuisine, cabbage rolls are a common name, and each housewife can use the products her family prefers as a filling. Let us try to list the most well-known types of fillings, considering that the cereal part must necessarily be present in its composition: Minced meat, rice, onions, carrots;
Mushrooms, pearl barley (buckwheat), vegetables;
Potatoes (instead of cereals), minced meat, browned vegetables;
Egg, rice (bulgur), onions;
Poultry, chopped, dried fruits, cereals;
Stuffing, pumpkin, groats (millet);
Nuts, cereals, mushrooms.
With this, the options for making up the filling are, of course, not exhausted, and the examples given here should serve as an idea for creating your own recipe. Do not forget about the principle of compatibility of products and a balanced healthy diet.
Traditional stuffed cabbage in the filling contain minced or cutlet meat, not less than half of the total mass. Replacing one type of meat with another, in one or another recipe, every time you can achieve a new taste. In addition, the meat part of the filling can be boiled, stewed, baked. Old Russian cuisine has always been famous for its rationalism and homelyness. Often in the pies and other dishes fell remnants of yesterday's dinner. Why not use yesterday's stew or sausage in a fresh and hot second dish?
In cases when cabbage rolls are prepared for a lean or dietary meal, the meat is replaced with nuts or mushrooms, fish or seafood, since these products are equivalent to meat proteins in calories. But mushrooms and nuts are difficult to digest by the body, so their weight should be significantly reduced in the filling. Onions and carrots, in addition to taste, give juiciness stuffing. Rice, barley, millet, buckwheat, bulgur, besides filling, serves as a binding component.
Now go to the cabbage. If you don’t like the procedure for preparing a head of cabbage, separating leaves, then simply chop it finely and add to the mince, respectively, reducing the number of other vegetables. But the stuffing wrapped in the leaves, gives the dish a completely different, not unkempt appearance, and in this form the cabbage rolls may well appear on the holiday table, and not just at the daily family dinner.
There are several ways to prepare cabbage leaves, but choose the most convenient and economical of them. Take the biggest head of cabbage. Cut the cabbage in half along the transverse line. At the top of the leaves are easily separated. Semi-finished products when using parts of the sheet will have a small size, but this will reduce the time of their heat treatment, and the cabbage rolls themselves will look beautiful and neat. At the top of the head of cabbage leaves softer and more tender. Wrap the stuffing in them, separating them from each other. But first, put the upper part in a colander, cut it down, place a colander or strainer in a saucepan with boiling water, and heat it up. As steaming leaves, remove them, layer by layer. The lower part can be used for pickling, cooking salads, cabbage soup and so on. The leaves at the base of the head are dense, thick, with coarse streaks, and it is extremely inconvenient to wrap the stuffing for the cabbage rolls in them, and throwing such juicy pieces is not economical.
Practically any cabbage and leafy vegetables are suitable for cabbage rolls, but pay attention to their density. Thicker and stubborn leaves are steamed to soften. They can also marinate or slightly beat off with a wooden hammer. Most often for the preparation of semi-finished products using white cabbage. But other varieties are interesting in the preparation of dishes: Beijing, Savoyard, leaf lettuce, chard (leaf beets).
Wrap the stuffing in the prepared leaves in an envelope or tube, bending the edges. Formed cabbage rolls must fry in a frying pan, if you do not cook them in the oven. Lay the seam down in the heated oil. Ruddy crust formed during frying will help to maintain a beautiful even shape. In addition, in semi-finished form, cabbage rolls are stewed in a sauce much faster, and it turns out tastier.
The final touch in the preparation of cabbage - sauce. Of course, it is important to choose the ingredients for the filling, which will be harmoniously combined with each other, but the sauce is the very product that will hide or underline all the disadvantages and advantages of any dish, even if you wrap plain bread in cabbage leaves. The sauce is everything! If all the stages of cooking cabbage are fairly conservative, then when choosing a sauce, you can let go of the culinary imagination - let it work in full force.
In every kitchen of the world, every nation has its favorite and traditional sauce recipe. Take, for example, tomatoes: you can make a sauce in the Mediterranean or Mexican style, you can try the cabbage rolls with Asian tomato sauce, use different bases, and the old dish will get new unusual flavors.
1. Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce with sour cream - a classic recipe
Ingredients:
For semi-finished products:
Pork and ground beef 900 g
150 g rice
Carrots 120g Cabbage 750 g
Onion 180g
Tomato paste 30 g
Sour cream 400 g
Margarine, cream 150 g
Pepper
Bay leaf
Coriander
Carnation
Salt
Flour 60 g
Broth or water 750 ml
Spicy greens, fresh
Cooking:
Boil rice until half cooked. Chop the carrots and onions, passe the vegetables until soft. Add rice and sautéed vegetables to mince, season with spices. Mix well the mass, hold for half an hour in the refrigerator, covered with foil.
Add flour to the remaining browned vegetables, lightly fry. Combine the tomato paste with sour cream and broth, pour the liquid into a saucepan. Simmer for 7-8 minutes. Season with spices and chopped greens. Ready sauce wipe through a sieve until a homogeneous sauce of medium consistency.
Fry the cabbage rolls in a frying pan and put them in a baking dish. Pour the sauce and simmer in the oven. To prevent the dish from burning, place it in a pan with water.
2. Cabbage rolls in Savoy cabbage tomato sauce - an unusual recipe
Ingredients:
Quail (breasts) 6 pcs.
Onions 200g
Pepper
Salt
Cabbage leaves 6 pcs.
Butter, creamy 120 g
Muscat
Raisin, red 80 g
Boiled rice 180 g
Orange 200 g
Chile (powder)
Soy sauce 30 ml
Honey 50 g
Cognac 75 ml
For the sauce:
Ketchup, tomato 300 g
Sweet red pepper 1 pc.
Chile green 1 pc.
3-4 shallots
Vegetable oil 50 ml
Flour 25 g
Oregano
Garlic
Allspice
Cilantro (leaves)
Ground cloves
White broth 0.5 L
Mustard (seeds)
Preparation:
Chop the breast into small strips. Orange dipped in boiling water for a minute. Cut the orange rind into strips, and add chili, ground nutmeg and soy sauce to the juice. Heat the cast iron pan, fry the minced meat. Add chopped onion, fry it with meat until transparent. Put the butter, melt it. Pour into the pan orange juice, mixed with soy sauce and honey. Wait until the liquid has evaporated half and becomes golden. Pour in brandy and bring a long burning match. Take care when flaming meat: there should not be flammable objects near the pan. Burn cognac, standing a distance. When the flame goes out, combine the meat with rice and raisins steamed in boiling water. Stir. Cabbage leaves slightly repel, cut off the thick base. Wrap the stuffing in them.
Transfer the semi-finished products to a baking sheet and bake until golden brown.
Begin preparing the ingredients for the spicy tomato sauce.
Spicy green pepper, freeing from seeds and stem, cut into very fine straws, chop shallot and cilantro, cut red pepper into cubes.
Heat the oil and fry the flour. Put the spices in the pan. When fragrant, add ketchup and broth. Taste, salt. Simmer the sauce until thick, and at the end add the sliced vegetables and herbs. Serve the ready sauce with the cabbage rolls separately, in the sauce-pan, or pour the cabbage rolls, serving them in plates.
3. Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce with vegetables and rice - vegetarian cuisine
Ingredients:
Zucchini 250g
Carrots 300 g
Onions 200 g
Vegetable oil
Salad pepper 150 g
Spice
Boiled rice 400 g
White cabbage
Sugar
Celery (root) 120 g
Tomato juice
Salt
Flour
Parsley and dill
Cooking:
Prepare a large head of cabbage as described in the basic technological principles.
Wash and peel all vegetables, chop peppers, carrots and onions with a thin straw; celery and zucchini root cut into small cubes. Chop the greens. Put the third part of the onion, carrot and celery aside, to make the sauce.
In a deep hot frying pan, fry the vegetables alternately, adding a little vegetable oil. Combine them with rice, season with spices to taste, salt a little. Wrap the finished stuffing in cabbage leaves, put the semi-finished products in a saucepan.
Add some oil to the pan again and pass the vegetables set aside to make the tomato sauce. Bring carrots and onions until soft, add flour, mix, and after 3-4 minutes, pour in tomato juice. Stew until thick. Add spices, a couple of teaspoons of sugar, salt. Prepare the sauce thoroughly with a blender and pour into a saucepan, covering them with cabbage rolls. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Stuffed cabbage cooked according to this recipe can be served cold or preserved for the winter.
4. Cabbage rolls in Beijing cabbage tomato sauce with mushrooms and pearl barley
Ingredients:
Chanterelles 1.5 kg
Onion, 0.5 kg (net)
Garlic 2 cloves
Butter 180 g
Salt
Peking cabbage 2.0 kg
Pearl barley 150 g
Cream (20%) 300 ml
Flour 90 g
Allspice
Bay leaf
Tomato puree 100 g
Parsley 100 g
Preparation:
Barley soak in water at night, cook in plenty of water until ready. Pekinese cabbage disassemble into individual leaves, cut the base. Lightly repel.
Sort fresh mushrooms, prepare them and fry with butter and chopped onion. At the end of the frying season with salt, garlic, spices and chopped parsley. Chanterelles can be replaced with any forest mushrooms or even greenhouse mushrooms, only then add dried white mushrooms, ground into powder, for the aroma, in the process of frying. Cool the mushrooms and pass them through a large grid of the meat grinder. You can finely chop them before frying so as not to use the meat grinder. Combine the components of the filling, barley porridge and fried mushrooms with onions.
Wrap the stuffing in cabbage leaves with an envelope. Fry, stacking semi-finished products on a pre-heated pan.
Prepare the sauce separately. Fry the flour by adding a small amount of butter. Pour in the cream, continuously stirring the sauce with a whisk, then add the tomato puree and spices. Try the taste. Strain the sauce. Pour them cabbage rolls and stew for about ten minutes. Serve garnished with chopped parsley.
5. Cabbage rolls in pork and liver tomato sauce
Ingredients:
Pork neck 800 g
Pepper and salt
Liver 400 g
Butter 100 g
Buckwheat 200 g
Onions 250 g
Red carrot 300 g
Oil, vegetable 150 ml
Cabbage leaves
For the sauce:
Cream 300 ml
Leek 100 g
Tomato paste 80g
Eggs 2 pcs.
Greens to taste
Black pepper
2-3 garlic cloves
Paprika 30g
Salt
Cooking:
Cook buckwheat porridge, as usual.
Cut the liver and meat into medium sized pieces and fry separately until cooked. Chop onions and carrots, passe. Combine meat, liver and browned vegetables. Grind them with a blender to a paste, adding butter. Add buckwheat porridge to meat.
Wrap the prepared stuffing in cabbage leaves. Fry the semi-finished products to a ruddy color and put them on a platter.
To make the sauce, beat the eggs into a fluffy mass and pour in the hot cream, whipping the mixture with a whisk. Add spices and tomato paste while whipping. Place the saucepan with the sauce on the stove. Do not stop stirring, bring the sauce to a boil. When it acquires a creamy consistency, add chopped leeks and spicy greens.
When serving, pour cabbage rolls with hollandaise sauce.
6. Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce with chicken breast, rice and eggs in chard
A little help: chard - leaf beets. It is popularly called the "Roman cabbage", so the early leafy culture may well serve as a "wrapper" for cabbage. You can also use the young leaves of ordinary table beets.
Ingredients:
Chard leaves 40 pcs.
Crumbly rice, boiled 400 g
7 boiled eggs
Chicken breast, boiled 800 g
Green onions 200g
Sour cream, fatty 150 g
Ground pepper
Garlic
Salt
For the sauce:
Tomato juice 500 ml
Mustard, Russian 40 g
Honey 70 g
Chile 15g
Salt
Carnation
Ground coriander
Flour 60 g
Oil, vegetable 90 ml
Cherry - 1 pc. per serving
Spicy greens - for decoration
Cooking:
Dab leaves with boiling water, remove the stems. Combine boiled rice with finely chopped eggs, breast and onions. Fill the filling with sour cream and spices, mix. Wrap the stuffing in the leaves with small rolls.
For the sauce, fry the flour in a pan with butter. Pour in tomato juice. Bring mass to a thickening, stirring with a whisk. If lumps form, wipe through a sieve. Add honey, mustard and spices, adjust the taste, and bring to a boil again.
Put the semi-finished products in the pan, pour the sauce and simmer for ten minutes. Serve, decorated with greens, slices of eggs, cherry.
Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce - useful tips
- Meat during heat treatment loses up to 40% of the mass, and the weight of croup increases twice. This nuance must be taken into account in the process of cooking stuffed for cabbage, so that it does not work out that grits will prevail in the stuffing.
- Tomato sauce has a distinctive sour taste. Add some sugar to it to improve the taste. The aroma of cloves, coriander, cardamom is also well combined with tomatoes.
- Add garlic to the sauce at the very end of cooking. Overcooked garlic has a completely different smell, and as such it degrades the taste of the dish.
- Spices and roots with a pronounced aroma should not clog the taste of the main ingredients of the dish. Use too spicy seasonings carefully, without fanaticism.
