Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls -Lahanodomathes

Lahanodolmathes:  Greek Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I was not planning on making these today but it seems I broke my cardinal rule and ran out of one of my main pantry items, which I should NEVER not have on hand!  Canned tomatoes!  If it were summer, I would be able to rely on fresh tomatoes, but alas it is very early spring and fresh tomatoes just are not worth buying now!

So the planned spaghetti sauce with ground meat and tomatoes was out and plan B had to be hatched. I had in the refrigerator left over head of cabbage (from my corned beef and cabbage made for St. Patty’s day) and Greek stuffed cabbage rolls came to mind.

Created mostly in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, they are rolls made of cabbage and stuffed with various meats, vegetables and grains like rice and barley and boiled, baked or stemmed.  . Cabbage rolls come in various styles and tastes depending on the spices used and ingredients and my favorite is the Greek style or Lahanodolmathes!

These are very easy to make and if making them for a large group you need a little extra time to roll them all. Otherwise it is a simple meal and very tasty.  The key for mine is the DILL.

•1 pound of ground beef
• About 8 large cabbage leaves
•1 egg
•1/2 cups rice
• 4 tablespoon chopped Dill
• 2 teaspoon salt
 1 teaspoon minced garlic
•freshly ground black pepper (I always like allot)
•1 small onion, finely chopped
•1 teaspoon olive oil

FOR POT

Gr Beef, rice, egg, onion, basil,, garlic, salt/pepper

•1/2 onion chopped in 3 pieces. 1 carrot chopped in three pieces and 4 leaves of broken pieces of cabbage unable to be used in rolls
•water to just cover the rolls

Outer leaves of Cabbage

Boil a large pot of water and place the cabbage large leaves in for about 3-4 minutes until soft enough to roll and yet not break apart.

Combine all ingredients up to the ½ onion, carrot and cabbage pieces.  Mix well and use the tools given to you – your HANDS! So mixture is soft and all is incorporated well.  Roll into a ball about the size of a golf ball and smooth out into a log shape. Lay out the cabbage leaf and place the log in the middle.  Fold the two outer sizes in to over-lap the edge of the meat log. Roll cabbage leaf length-wise until the end.  In large pan lay the rolls seamed down tightly next to each other.

Place an inverted plate on top of rolls. Cover with water and bring to a boil and then turn heat down to a simmer and cook on low for about one hour.  Remove plate and place rolls on plate and serve with Avgolemonono Sauce 

AVGOLEMONO EGG-LEMON Sauce:

3 egg yolks
 1/3 cup lemon juice

 1 cup hot cabbage broth

Whisk the yolks and slowly add the lemon juice.  Keep whisking and add slowly (not to cook eggs) the broth. 

TIPS:

To make is easy to get the large leaves off the cabbage head in tack, stab the middle of the cabbage with a long tonged fork.  Lower into boiling water and simmer a few minutes Remove the outer leaves as they become tender and repeat the same action to get the leaves off easily.

The Sauce is excellent on chicken breasts and stuffed grape leaves.

When placing a plate on the pot (inverted) please make sure there is room around the edges so it does not get suctioned down and then it becomes almost impossible to get off.  ((Believe me it was a terrible experience!)

As always be your own Creative Dump Cook and change this recipe to what YOU have on hand