Sour Cabbage Rolls

I have decided to embrace my Ukrainian heritage. It has contributed to the shape of my butt, my tendency to want to stuff people with totally uneccessary food and, I'm sure, will someday result in an impressive moustache akin to the one sported by my great aunt Mary.

Truthfully, some of my clearest and fondest memories of childhood are of my two grandma's kitchens: one Ukrainian and the other German Mennonite. As a child it seemed to me that (either) grandma's kitchen was always a sea of bums in aprons and dresses, bending over the counter, mashing potatoes or stirring gravy. I can recall family meals where all the women spent hours in the ktichen, my mother and grandma and aunties all busy hovering and tasting and turning and stirring and the air thick with good smells and steam. When I was old enough to help meaningfully, I too joined the sea of apronned fronts and hovering bums.

I am extremly fortunate that a large part of my Ukrainian (and German Mennonite) heritage revolved around food. When I am over tired of the ubiquitous, and sometimes contrived, dishes of cuisine of the moment: Spanish, Moroccan, Modern Australian, French.... I have something comforting and peasant-simple to fall back on. Something decidedly un-trendy and satisfying.

I would have a hard time choosing my favourite Ukrainian treats. There are so many:

Holubtsi - rolls of cabbage filled with rice and meat and baked in a tomato sauce or miniature Holubtsi of sour cabbage leaf stuffed with rice and onion and brushed with butter;

Varenyky - (or pyrohy, depending on the part of the Ukraine you come from. Or, If you are Canadian, "perogies")- little dough dumplings filled with garlic mashed potatoes and cheese and swimming in sour cream or, my absolute favourite, sewwt operogies filled with blueberries or plums and swimming in sweet cream;

Pampushky - little triangular doughnuts filled with sweetened crushed poppy seeds;

Nalysnyky - delicate little crepes filled with a hot cottage cheese, cream and dill filling.

In recent years my love for traditional Holubtsi rolls of fresh cabbage leaves aound meat and rice filling with tomato sauce, and the baby, no bigger than your thumb, sour cabbage rolls has merged into one.  If you cannot find sour cabbage where you are, which is likely as I have never found it outside of Alberta and Saskatchewan (due to the large Ukrainian populations there), you may have to make your own. It is basically a whole head of cabbage that has been "sauerkrauted". You might find it at stores in neighbourhoods that are home to lots of Ukrainian or Croatian families. If you can't find it, you could try making your own, although, like puff pastry, I always use bought so I won't be much help to you there.

Sour Cabbage Rolls (Holubtsi)

This recipe makes a LOT - but they freeze well, so you may want to do a smaller batch or separate this batch into 3 or 4 and freeze them for extra meals.

Rolls:

• 1 whole head SOUR cabbage (about 3 pounds)
• 2 pounds ground beef
• 3/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup raw rice, cooked and cooled
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Sauce:

• 1 800ml can crushed or pureed tomatoes
• 1/3 cup strongish beef broth
• 1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

When handling a whole head of sour cabbage, the souring solution can rritate your skin, so wear food grade latex or rubber gloves.

Remove cabbage from wrapping (in the sink, it will be very wet) and carefully peel each leaf away from the head. Cut the thick center stem from each leaf, separating the larger leaves into two pieces. The smaller leaves can be left whole but, depending on the thickness of the centre rib, you may want to pare it down.

In a large steel bowl combine meat, rice, egg, , chopped onion, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Dampen your hands, take a small portion (3 Tbsp) of meat mixture and roll it in your damp hands to make an oblong/oval shape. place at one edge of a cabbage leaf piece and roll the leaf around it, tucking the open ends in toward the center.

Place each roll seam side down in a large roasting pan or lasagne pan. (If you are left with extra leaves, you can line the bottom of the pan with them and put the rolls on top, or stuff them down the sides of the pan.)

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over cabbage rolls. The sauce should almost come up to the tops of the rolls withiout totally covering them. If there is not enough sauce to reach this level, add water until the appropriate level is reached.

Bake, loosely covered with foil, in a 350 farenheit oven for 1 to 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the dish. If you're unsure as to the appropriate length of time, my mother's rule is to assume they are done when the sauce has been bubbling well for 30 minutes.  If the sauce looks like it's getting so low it might burn, add a little more water, just enough to avoid burning. When they come out, the sauce volume should be drastically reduced.

Serve with a little of the sauce in each dish.

As a variation, I have been known to add sauteed musrooms to the meat mixture.

Comments

[jodi Wood]

How do you make sour cabbage?

[Richard W.]

Thanks so much for this wonderful article! I will definitely try this soon! I'm in Ontario, so no luck finding sour cabbage in stores here of course. I did find an explanation with recipe by a Bosnian person on how to sour cabbage here:

http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m020203.htm

Thanks so much again!
Ric

[Lyn]

Richard,
Thanks for that. I've never been able to find instructions on my own!

[Sandra MacCoul]

I want to make cabbage rolls using sour cabbage but I live in the United Arab Emirates and I cannot purchase one here. How would I go about making a cabbage sour?

Cheers,
Sandra

[TanyaC]

Hi, just made my sour leaf cabbage for the year and I live in Kelowna, BC.
Take heads of cabbage and blanche them in boiling water. Take out leaves and put in cold water. Cut out the rib and cut into pieces that will make cabbage rolls. Pile them into a crock or food grade pail. In a stock pot boil 20 cups of water with 1 cup of pickling salt (coarse salt) and 2 tbsp sugar. Let cool and pour over cabbage leaves. Place clean towel over top, a glass plate and weight. Let sit in cool area for 8 days. Each day take off towel and plate and rinse off scum. After the 8 days you have your leaves. Good luck
Tanya

[Geoffrey Wiseman]

Actually, Richard W., depending on where you live in Ontario, I've seen Sour Cabbage in the Dominion at Vic Park and Danforth, if that's appealing.

[rick]

Do you have a recipe for pampushky? I remember my mother making them when I was a child. Sadly, I do not remember the recipe, and my ex-wife kept all of my mother's hand written cookbooks. I do remember that my mother would make them late at night and then hide them in the freezer, or they would be eaten before they had even cooled.

[TanyaC]

Hi Rick,
This recipe for pampushky is from Traditional Ukrainian Cookery by Savella Stechishin.
Rich Basic Sweet Dough
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water,
2 packages dry granular yeast
3/4 cup scalded milk, lukewarm
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
3-4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Grated rind of 1 lemon
4 1/2-5 cups sifted flour
Method:
Dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water, sprinkle the yeast over it, and let it stand until softened. Combine with the lukewarm milk and 3/4 cup flour. Beat well, cover and let sponge rise with the sugar. Beat the whole eggs and egg yolks together along with the salt. Combine with the butter-sugar mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla, lemon rind and sponge. Add the flour and knead in the bowl for about 10 minutes. This dough should be soft. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Punch down, knead a few times, and let rise again.
Poppy Seed Filling
1 cup poppy seed
1/3 cup honey or sugar
1 teaspoon lemon rind
1 egg white
Method:
Pour boiling water over the poppy seed and drain. cover with lukewarm water and soak for 30 minutes or longer. Drain over a fine sieve. Grind the poppy seed, using a coffee grinder. Add the honey, grated lemon rind. Beat the egg white until stiff and fold into the mixture.
Roll your dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into small rounds with cookie cutter and place a teaspoon of the poppy seed mixture. Seal the edges securely and place on lightly floured board. Let them double in bulk. Leave them uncovered to form a crust on the dough. they will absorb less fat when fried. Fry in canola oil at 375 degrees F. for about 3 minutes, turning them over to brown evenly on both sides. Drain on absorbemnt paper. Sprinkle with granulated sugar mixed with cinnamon.

If you live in Edmonton, go to Uncle Ed's Restaurant and they have them frozen to buy with different fillings.
They are worth the effort.

[Tara Zieminek]

Out here in Edmonton, Superstore carries sour cabbage. You might want to check with your Superstore in Ontario and ask if they can bring some in.

[Dolores Carlson]

The Sour Cabbage Rolls recipe is exactly the one I was looking for! It's going to smell like Baba's kitchen in my house shortly. In Kenora, Ontario we have sour cabbage heads in the Real Canadian Wholesale grocery store.

[Sheri]

I've made lots of sour cabbage and it's much less expensive than the bought ones if you can find them..take as many heads of cabbage as your container will hold (I use a crock). Hollow out the core of each head, fill it with pickling salt, and place it core side up in the crock. When all the heads are in, partially fill a large baggie with water and place it on top to hold the heads down, then gently pour warm water down the side until all heads are covered. In about a 6 weeks you will have sour cabbage. Freeze them, and the leaves will fall off easily. I usually do this in the fall when cabbages are inexpensive.

[Jerry Daszko]

I just found this recipe doing a Google search. My parents were both Ukrainian (both have passed away), from the West of Ukraine (which the most astute amongst you will have already guessed by the spelling of my last name). I treasure recipes such as this , which remind me so much of my childhood. It's amazing to think the recipes which are most nostalgic to me now are the ones I used to moan about as a kid (with the exception of pyrohy, which I have ALWAYS loved)! I grew up in Chicago, which has a large Ukrainian community, but even there we could never find whole pickled cabbage. Now I live in Sacramento CA, which also has a very large Ukrainian community (mostly Baptists and Pentecostals, interestingly), but I can't find it in any of the many Ukrainian groceries around here, or in San Francisco (which has a not-insignificant Ukrainian community). I do envy the Ukrainians in Alberta and Saskatchewan, it would be interesting to be in a community where nearly everybody is at least somewhat familiar with your personal "soul food" recipes! Now that I'm thinking about it, I just might plan a summer vacation in Winnipeg in '09!

[Geoffrey Falk]

Thanks for the recipe. I am of German Mennonite heritage and this is essentially the recipe that I remember my mother making. I live in Toronto and I was lucky enough to find a sour cabbage in the Metro store at Front and Church last week. They do not always have it. The label says "St. Jacobs Foods, New Hamburg, Ontario."

[Jeannie]

Indulge yourself - get the Le Creuset. I held off, then broke down and bought one when it was on sale - you'll use it over and over. There is something very satisfying in handling heavy, quality cookware, and you won't regret the investment! For anyone with broken knobs - Le Creuset sells replacement stainless knobs and screws. Careful handling an tightening will keep your pot looking like new.