Stuffed Cabbage

Not the best photo - I was taking this on my phone to post to Facebook and never realized the stir it would cause!

Over on Facebook I have a small but loyal and very wonderful following. Not too long ago I posted photos of cabbage rolls I was making and the response was just crazy. Everyone wanted a recipe. I put one together as best I could and shared it. Then, this really great thing happened ... a terrific lady from Welcome Home wrote and asked to share the recipe on her own Facebook page. I agreed, of course, what are recipes if they aren't for sharing? She told me I may get a few new followers. Well, my readership and "Likes" doubled in three days' time!

She's a bit like my mother who seems to know when I'm not doing so well no matter what face I put on.  I'll be having a not-so-good day with blogging or the like and am ready to throw in the towel, and there she is sharing that recipe again without my even having said a word. Then more followers come and I just love that because we get to talk about food and good stuff.

Before I share my recipe I want you to go on over to Welcome Home, the website or the Facebook page, and say "Hi!" for me.

Around these parts these are called one of 3 things: Cabbage Rolls, Halupki, or Stuffed Cabbage. When we would pick these up at a local market (Jerry's Deli used to be so much more than beer!) they were called "halupki" so it's what I've always called them.

This is the long and short of it - if you're confused, let me know and I will try to explain better.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Makes 20

Ingredients:

1 large head cabbage
2 pounds meatloaf mix (ground veal, beef and pork)
1/2 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1 small green pepper
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt + more to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 can tomato sauce (8 ounces)
4 ounces water
2 cups cooked white rice (I used broken Jasmine rice today - it was all I had on-hand)

Directions:

1. Freeze cabbage overnight. This will help it to be more tender and the leaves will come off easier.
2. Cook cabbage covered in water until tender. This will not take very long after freezing - about 30 minutes.
3. Cool cabbage.
4. Blend together onion, garlic and green pepper until very smooth. Put into a large bowl and add salt and pepper.
5. Add meatloaf mix to onion mixture and mix well with hands. Add cooked rice to this and mix again until well distributed.
6. Remove cabbage leaves from head and trim the thick stems by slicing part of the stem off horizontally to make it thinner and more even with the thickness of the rest of the cabbage leaf. Leave the very green larger leaves for later.
7. Lay out leaves and portion meat mixture according to how many leaves you have. I made very large halupki today and got 20 from this mixture.
8. Starting at the stem end, place the meat on the cabbage leaf in the shape of a small loaf. Start rolling up and pull in the sides then roll until completely sealed.
9. Place each roll in a baking dish - 9 x 13 is most common - until all leaves and meat is used.
10. Mix tomato sauce and water and pour over rolls.
11. If you have leftover cabbage leaves (the larger outer ones) cover the rolls with these and then with foil.
12. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes to an hour depending on how large the rolls are. Serve with any sauce that develops from baking.