After seeing a lot of deconstruction happening lately in a cooking community, I’ve decided to deconstruct something of my own.
To experiment, I pushed off Anya von Bremzen’s recipe from Please to the Table. Dishes from this book taste exactly like what mom used to make back in Moscow when she did all the cooking and I was too young to pay attention.
Golubtsy, golumbki, gołąbki, holubky, or sarma, dolma, or kåldolmar, or báicài juǎn. Considering I came across at least forty different names for these cabbage rolls they seem to be native to more than one location on the globe. Here they are, cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice, deconstructed lasagna style.
Did I like the result of my experiment? Very much so! Easier to make, easier to eat, and — no cabbage waste. Besides, in traditional rolls, there was never enough cabbage for me against the meat.
This time, I picked the largest cabbage from the counter and used it all — large leaves, small leaves, thin leaves, tough leaves.
WHAT WENT IN
— 1 large cabbage, shredded
— 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
MEAT MIX
— 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
— 1 large onion, chopped
— 1/2 lb ground beef
— 1/2 lb ground pork
— 3/4 cup long-grain rice
— 2 Tbsp ketchup
— 1/2 cup beef broth or water
— 1/2 bunch chopped dill, tough stems remove
— 1/2 bunch chopped parsley, leaves only
— salt & black pepper, to taste
m m TOMATO SAUCE
— 1/4 cup vegetable oil
— 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
— 2 cups beef stock
— 3 Tbsp tomato paste
—2 Tbsp ketchup
— 2 teaspoons brown sugar
— black pepper, to taste
BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
— 1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
— 1 1/2 Tbsp flour
— 1 cups milk, hot
— salt, black pepper, nutmeg, to taste
THE PROCESS
1. Blanch shredded cabbage in a large pot of boiling salted water. Drain well.
2. Sauté onion in butter until lightly browned. Let it cool and mix with the rest of the meat mix.
3. Cook flour in oil until lightly colored.
4. Slowly add beef stock to flour, stirring constantly to prevent clumps from forming. Bring to a boil.
5. Add the rest of the tomato sauce ingredients to the flour.
6. For béchamel sauce, lightly color flour in butter. Slowly add milk whisking it constantly. Season to taste.
7. Spread about 1/3 of tomato sauce on the bottom of 9”x13” baking dish. Over the sauce, distribute about 1/2 of the cabbage, cover it with the meat mix. Then, another layer of cabbage. Top it with béchamel and the rest of tomato sauce. Finish with Parmesan.
8. Bake in a 375°F oven covered with aluminum foil for about 40 minutes. Uncover and add another 10 minutes, until the top blisters a bit.