Stuffed Cabbage is a great meal for cold winters evenings. The northern European version, which is traditionally made with white cabbage, can tend to be a trifle on the heavy side but this version, which is made with Savoy Cabbage, is light and full of nutty flavours.
ingredients:
for the stuffed cabbage
250 g minced beef
250 g minced pork
75 g bacon chopped
1 large onions finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
.5 bunch parsley finely chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon paprika powder
pepper freshly ground
for the sauce
1 large onions finely sliced
200 ml beef stock
150 ml white wine
1 dessertspoon juniper berries crushed or 3cl gin
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs thyme
2 teaspoon corn starch
pepper freshly ground
servings
method:
stuffed cabbage
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the cabbage leaves and blanch for 3-4 minutes. Remove the cabbage leaves and plunge them into iced water. Allow to cool for 3-4 minutes before draining on a clean tea towel.
- Gently fry the chopped bacon, onion and garlic over a medium heat.
- Place the minced meat, parsley, paprika, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix gently. Add the egg, onion, bacon and garlic and mix again remembering not to compact the mixture.
- Divide the mixture between the 8 cabbage leaves. Fold the sides of each leaf over the mixture and starting at the stalk end, roll each leaf into a neat package. Fix with kitchen twine or cocktail sticks. Kitchen twine is best.
- Heat some oil or clarified butter in a large pot and fry the stuffed cabbage on both sides until they start to brown. Remove and place on a plate.
sauce
- Add the sliced onion to the pot and fry until golden brown. Add the beef stock, white wine, crushed juniper berries, thyme, bay leaf, salt & pepper and bring to the boil.
- Mix the corn starch with a little cold water and add to the pot.
- Bring to the boil again, turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes. If you want to add an extra glance to the sauce, mix in a large knob of cold butter.
- Return the stuffed cabbage packages to the pot. Cover and simmer gently for 20-25 minutes.
- Serve with mashed potato and a sprinkle of chopped parsley .
