Cabbage Rolls......................Devine!

Finally, after weeks and months of begging....................the Chef decided today was the day to make cabbage rolls for dinner. I think most of you remember this as the meal he served at Rondo's to all the lucky ones but never ran it as a special or put it on the menu because it was just Cabbage Rolls! Well, I for one am happy to have this fine dish to celebrate our Thanksgiving Day Dinner!
Ron has recently decided to grow a beard and the jury is out as to whether or not he is going to keep it!

OK, to get right to it the Cabbage Rolls are dead easy. The secrets are to make in advance a lovely creamy tomato sauce and use leftover rice or cook 3 cups. (It is better to use brown rice - trust me on this one, and not the easy/quick cook stuff).

TOMATO SAUCE
2 cans of tomatoes, puree them with the stab blender. Season to taste (salt/pepper/little bit of Franks Red Hot). Add a few tablespoons of Sour Cream and let cook slowly for an hour. You can add a little bit of cabbage water at a later point if you think it has thickened too much.

CABBAGE
Before you start working on the Cabbage, get out a non-reactive roasting pan.
Get either one large head of cabbage (white or savoy) or mix it up with some Kale which is abundant this time of year.

Boil a large pot of water (seasoned with Salt/Pepper). Peel of the outer leaves and place in boiling water. Let them cook for five mins. Use them to line the bottom of your roasting pan.
Now, with the Kale or the rest of the cabbage - peel off the leave and blanch them until they are that lovely green color like you see in the photo above. Set them aside.

MEAT/RICE MIX
2 onions, 6 cloves of garlic. Saute gently in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add to 1 pound of ground turkey and 1 pound of ground pork/beef. Chop in a decent amount of parsley and salt/pepper.
Add in cooked rice.
The Chef's TIP here: Fry up a small piece of this meat mixture to see how it tastes. If necessary adjust the seasoning!

Lay out your cabbage leaves on a clean work surface and place a decent amount of meat/rice mixture into the center of the cabbage leaves. Roll up the cabbage leaves, tucking in the sides as you roll up. Ron shows his true skill here and told me that I would have been much better at this task if I had ever been a dope smoker!

When finished you should have one or wo layers of little cabbage rolls in your roasting pan.
Cover with tomato sauce and let cook for one hour at 350 F.
These ALWAYS taste better the next day but a little longer in the oven will not hurt them.

The Chef likes to put a dollop of sour cream on his and we serve it with a nice loaf of crusty bread! I think a Pinot Noir would go nicely with this, and will ALERT you later on as to how it all washes down!

That is all the WiseWords for today,

WiseMóna