ARIANA'S KITCHEN
Hello my tres beautiful friends!! Did you miss your Romanian chef? ; ) Well I'm here and I want to share with you guys my delectable recipe of .... SARMALE aka - ROMANIAN STUFFED CABBAGE!!! MMMMMMMMM lipsmacking!!!
Here goes!!
SARMALE
- 1 Whole head of cabbage
- 1 finely chopped medium onion
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 minced garlic cloves
- 250 g rice
- 700 g minced meat
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cubes of beef stock
- 10 black peppercorns
- 4 bay leaves
- 4 tablespoons of tomato paste
PROCESS:
Remove core from cabbage. Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and cook for ten minutes until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. You will need about 20 leaves.
When the leaves are cool enough to handle, use a knife to cut away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through. Chop any remaining cabbage and set aside.
In a large skillet, sauté chopped onion, garlic and rice in 1 tablespoon olive oil, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent. Add hot water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes or until rice has absorbed all the water. Let cool.
Place the minced meat in a large bowl and add the with onion-garlic-rice mixture, combining thoroughly. Add salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons water. Mix completely but lightly.
Place about 50 g of meat mixture on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the right side of the leaf to the middle, and then flip the left side. You will have something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create a neat little roll.
Using the remaining olive oil, coat a large, casserole. Cover with a layers of stuffed cabbage rolls. Add water mixed with the stock, just enough to cover. If you have any leftovers from the cabbage, chop it and add as a layer on the top to keep the moisture in.
Place casserole over high heat and bring to a boil, lower heat to medium-low, cover and simmer about 20 minutes. Here you can either transfer to oven (heat oven to 180 degrees C.) and cook 2 hours or let it simmer for 1 1/2 hour. Then add the tomato paste dissolved in a little bit of water, cover and cook another 30 minutes.
BON APETTIT MIS AMORES!!
*** A recipe has no SOUL, as the cook you must bring soul to the recipe ***
SMOOCH SMOOCH,
ARIANA
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