Savory Sunday-Stuffed Cabbage

Today was a day of some really good Polish comfort food. It's getting colder out again so it was a perfect day for some warm, meaty goodness.  It was always know as "Stuffed Cabbage" to me until I met Bartek and then it became "Gołąbki" ("golumpki") to me. I've made it a few times before and this is the first time I've written down my recipe.

Gołąbki

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. olive oil

Small/medium onion, minced

1 head of cabbage

1 lb. ground beef

1 lb. ground pork

1 1/4 c. cooked rice

1 1/2 tsp. garlic, minced

Salt & pepper, to taste (about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp each)

1/2 tsp. dried parsley

28 oz can of tomato sauce

1/2 c. beef broth

Sour cream, optional

Makes approximately 15 stuffed cabbage rolls.

Set the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat up olive oil in a small pan over medium heat. Cook the onion until its translucent. Set aside to cool.

Put a large pot of salted water on the stove top and bring to a boil. While it's heating, cut the core out of the cabbage.

Boil for 4-5 minutes. As the leaves loosen, remove each leaf with tongs and place on a paper towel to dry. 

Once you've removed all of the leaves you want, cut the stem off of them so it's flat with the rest of the leaf.

In a large bowl, combine beef, pork, rice, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley. 

In a separate medium bowl, combine tomato sauce and beef broth. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the bottom of an 8x11 baking dish. 

Form egg-sized and -shaped balls of the meat mixture. Put the ball at the very end of the cabbage leaf and fold it up like a burrito-- Turn the ends over the meat on both sides and roll it. And the stuffed cabbage leaves to the baking dish with the seam down.

Pour the rest of the tomato mixture over the cabbage leaves. 

Bake for 1 hour and cool for 5-10 minutes. When you scoop the cabbage leaves out of the dish, make sure to drizzle some of the tomato sauce over the top and serve with a dollop of sour cream