“Sarmale” forcemeat rolls in cabbage leaves recipe

 

Also see Sarmale Recipe for another way of making this Romanian dish.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 kg pork meat minced (or pork and beef-equal amounts)
110 g rice
leaves of Cabbage
2 dried onions (medium size)
two tablespoons pork lard
broth / tomato paste 100 g
454 g Sauerkraut
pepper to taste
salt (a tablespoon)

 

Preparation:

 

It you chooses to use fatty pork meat (leg, ribs, neck) it should be passed through a time grinders to mince it. Or, pork and beef in equal amounts can be used. Rice should be cleaned and washed. Added the rice, the minced meat, very small cubes of onion, pepper, salt, and chopped bay leaves into 100 ml of water and mix well. It's very important to have the addition of water filling.

 

Sheets of cabbage are cut into selected sized pieces so that the meat can be packed easily.  The cabbage leaves are cooked until they are pliable.  In your left hand or right hand place a sheet of cabbage; close to your wrist location add a large tablespoon of the meat/rice mix but leave a large enough space so the cabbage leave can be fold over it. Fold the cabbage from the back near your wrist over the mix followed by folding over the left and right sides of the cabbage leave. Then roll the cabbage leave and finally push the front part of the cabbage leave inside with your finger or thumb.

 

First, added the sauerkraut to the bottom of a large pot about a 3 cm layer. Put the “Sarmale”( forcemeat rolls in cabbage leaves) into this large pot, in a concentrically pattern as successive layers in the form of a snail.  Add water (so that you cover the filled cabbage), tomato paste and two tablespoons of lard.  After they first start to boiled, cook the filled cabbage at a gentle boil over low heat for 2 hours.

 

Optionally, after having cooked for two hours on the stove, the drained filled cabbage can be cooked another 20 minutes in the preheated oven at 180 degrees celius.  This reduces the water content and concentrates the flavor.  Additionally, Bacon can be added to the top and should be baked long enough so that the bacon is done.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography
Gourmet literary album - Bucharest 1982
Gourmet literary album  Bucharest 1972
Cookbook - Didi Balmez,Technical Publishing, Bucharest 1978
Cookbook - Bucharest 1960