KT-Did-It: KT Cooked It: Gołąbki

In a previous post, I talked about my Polish heritage, visit to Poland, desire to learn to cook some traditional Polish food, blah blah blah. My first dish was a cold summer beet soup. Now that the weather is finally season-appropriate, I wanted to make something warm and cozy. So now you're asking yourself "what the heck is a gołąbki?" Gołąbki (known in the vernacular as "golumpki") is a cabbage roll made from slightly boiled cabbage leaves used to wrap a mixture of minced meat, onions, and barely or rice. My mom made them when I was growing up, and I didn't have the same appreciation for them then as I do now (what kid likes cabbage???). I asked my mom how to make them a few months ago, and it seemed pretty easy. With a grocery bag full of ingredients, I headed home to make dinner, and here is how I did it!

What you need:

1 large head of white cabbage

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1/2lb lean ground beef

1/2lb lean ground pork

1 small can of condensed tomato soup

1/2 cup cooked brown rice (or white rice or barely)

Salt, pepper, dill to taste

First, I cut the cabbage in half and removed the core. I placed the cabbage in boiling water and allowed it to cook until it was tender, which took about 20 minutes. I could see the leaves starting to come off, and took that as a sign that it was almost done boiling. I set the cabbage aside in the strainer and allowed it to cool. After it was completely cooled, I pealed the leaves off, setting aside the 8 largest leaves. I kept a few other leaves whole, and then chopped the rest of the cabbage.

While the cabbage was cooling, I took 1 cup of chopped onion and browned it in the skillet with a little olive oil. Then I added the pork and beef to the skillet to brown. I also added garlic salt and pepper to the mix, about 1/2tbl of each. After the meat cooled, I added one whole egg to the mix. Then, I separated the mix into two bowls. In one bowl I added the 1/2 cup of cooked rice (oh yeah, I cooked the rice while the cabbage was boiling!), and to the other I added the left over cabbage that I chopped up. The reason that I did this was because I try (operative word) not to eat much grain and I also love cabbage, so half rice/half extra cabbage gołąbki seemed reasonable consider Eric doesn't have the same feelings about cabbage...

Finally, it was time to roll my mix into the leaves. This took a little trial and error. I added ~1/2c of

the mix to the center of the leaf, folded the bottom up slightly, then the sides, and then rolled.

After rolling my 8 cabbages (4 of each mix), I laid the left over unchopped leaves of cabbage onto the bottom of my baking dish. I laid the rolls on top, with the open side down to hold everything in place. Next, I poured the can of tomato soup on top. I didn't water it down, but I'm sure that would have been ok. Also, the next time that I make these, I will also add a can of chopped stewed tomatoes. I also added about 1tbl of dill weed to the top. Finally, I cooked my dish for 30min at 350degrees.