Cabbage rolls - general principles and methods of cooking
There are a lot of recipes for cabbage rolls - almost all popular cuisines of the world have in their arsenal recipes where they roll up minced meat in cabbage or grape leaves and stew in sauce. And although the technology of cooking is almost the same, but the final result depends on the tastes of the chef. Each country tries to appropriate the origin of the dish.
The Greeks say that it is still from ancient Greece, but they also prepared something similar in Russia. True stuffed millet porridge with meat, and it was called “galushy”. And the word “stuffed cabbage”, most likely, got us from the French. They called so fried stuffed pigeons. With the arrival of French cuisine in Russia in the 18th century, our “inventors” began to grill “false pigeons” - wrapped in cabbage leaf stuffing. As for the dolma - small envelopes of grape leaves, in which beef or lamb with rice is wrapped, Turkey and Lebanon are competing for the right of superiority in its origin. The Persian word dolmeh means “stuffed”, or stuffed. Another variant of the name Sarma is “wrapped”.
Stuffed cabbage like in every family. Someone likes to stew them, someone roasts them, and then bakes them in the oven. Sauces can also be very different - from French Bechamel, to spicy Chinese. Even if you cook them in a banal bouillon cube, stuffed cabbage still will be delicious. Yes, and in the stuffing put - who in what garazd.
Cabbage rolls - food preparation
Appearance and taste of a dish depends largely on the quality and type of cabbage. To get a neat stuffed cabbage, and the stuffing did not fall out through the holes, the cabbage must be properly prepared. Choosing young cabbage of late and medium varieties, pour the head of boiling water. Beforehand, it is better to cut a stalk, and add a little acid — citric acid or vinegar — into the water - this will keep the sheet dense, it will not break when stuffing.
The heading should be tight and even, preferably without creases and cracks. Disassemble the head of cabbage on the leaves and leave to cool. Then cut off the sealed parts. It is advisable to boil the rice a bit - bring to a boil and hold for a couple of minutes. Then filter and mix it with minced meat. Pay attention to the sauce - it must be saturated, so that as a result we will not get a watery dish. Cook better in a thick-walled pot. Bottom we lay cabbage or grape leaves. Cabbage rolls - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Cabbage rolls - a classic Russian recipe
Who doesn't like stuffed cabbage in our country? Probably, there is not a single family in which these delicious envelopes filled with minced meat are not prepared.
Ingredients: minced meat (500 grams), onions (2 pieces for mince and 2 pieces for gravy), rice (1-1.5 cups), water (1 glass), salt, pepper, head of cabbage.
Sauce: sour cream (500 grams), tomato sauce (3-4 spoons), onion, vegetable oil, carrots (1 piece) water, pepper, salt.
Method of preparation
Boil the rice in salted water and drain. Cool and mix with minced meat, louom, salt and pepper.
Prepare the cabbage - cut the stalk into the head of the cabbage, lower it into the boiling water for a few minutes. Separate the softened leaves and form the basis for the cabbage. Young, early cabbage just need to dip in boiling water - the leaves just scatter themselves.
Winter varieties have a little boil, removing the leaves gradually. You can also warm up the head in the microwave - just put the cabbage for a minute and also gradually remove the leaves. As an option - bake in foil in the oven, but in this case, the upper parts will be slightly roasted, and the billet acquires a specific smell. If your cabbage has been frozen, heat treatment is not required.
We lay out the stuffing on the prepared sheets and wrap it in an envelope, starting from a thick edge. Put everything tightly in a saucepan, fill with a small amount of water and set on fire.
Sauce: Fry onions and carrots in oil in a pan, add tomato sauce and some water. Pour the cabbage rolls with sauce about 20 minutes before the end of cooking. Serve with sour cream and greens.
Recipe 2: Cabbage rolls with buckwheat and minced chicken
It turns out very interesting, be sure to try. In this case, it is better to fry the first stuffed cabbage in vegetable oil, and then stew in sour cream. With chicken minced meat, the dish will be softer or softer, but you can cook it with beef.
Ingredients: minced chicken (500 grams), salt, pepper, onion, sour cream (1 cup), bay leaf, vegetable oil, medium head of cabbage.
Method of preparation Boil buckwheat for 5 minutes. Drain the water, recline in a colander. Mix with minced chicken and onion roasted in vegetable oil, salt and pepper.
We sort the cabbage on the leaves, if necessary - pre-scald it. In the middle of the cabbage leaf lay the stuffing and fold the envelope. Fry the envelopes in vegetable oil, put in a deep pan and add water and sour cream. Salt, season the peppers and add the bay leaf. Simmer for about 40 minutes.
Recipe 3: Dolma (grape leaves)
Real dolma is only lamb. However, we are also our own culinary specialists, that we can replace products of our own accord. In general, who does not perceive lamb - with the same success can use beef.
Ingredients: fresh or pickled grape leaves (250 grams), beef or mutton mince (300 grams), vegetable oil (70 grams), onions (2 pcs.), Short-grained rice (small cup), dill greens , mint, salt, pepper.
Method of preparation
Wash the leaves in cold water. Marinated leaves are soaked for an hour in water and then dried. Heat up vegetable oil in a saucepan for onion roasting. Leave a little under the lid to stand. Add to the rice rice, spices, salt and pepper. Dolma differs from stuffed cabbage in a smaller size. Doves turn out small and neat, make sure that the leaves do not unfold.
Put the pan with dolma on the fire, sprinkle with vegetable oil, and cover with a plate. Cook on low heat for 45 minutes. Pour with sour cream, mayonnaise or sauce. The perfect Oriental gravy is natural yogurt mixed with minced garlic. Instead, you can use kefir, yogurt, yogurt. Sour-milk sauce makes dolma an even easier dish.
Recipe 4: Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
If you are on a salt-free diet and want to diversify your diet, try cooking with curry and ginger - they help burn fat.
Ingredients: beef (300 grams), white cabbage (150 grams), celery, carrot, chicken egg (2 pcs.), Curry, lemon juice (1 tsp.), Olive oil. For gravy: kefir (100 grams), ground ginger (half a teaspoon). Method of preparation
Blender chopped cabbage, carrot and celery. Stir and add to mince along with eggs and curry. We form golbtsy: in the prepared sheets of cabbage we spread the filling in the center and wrap in tight envelopes. Coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil and firmly place the cabbage rolls. For gravy, mix the kefir and ginger and pour over the top. Bake in the oven at a temperature of 220-260 degrees.
Recipe 5: Cabbage rolls with mushrooms
Another recipe for a lean diet. You can take mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, but also mushrooms with rice as a filling for cabbage leaves - the perfect combination. It is tasty, useful, easy.
Ingredients: cabbage (10 steamed leaves), rice (4 tablespoons), mushrooms (200 grams), onion (1 piece), tomato paste, salt, vegetable oil.
Method of preparation
Boil the leaves to semi-soft state in salted water. Boil rice so that it remains crumbly, cook mushrooms separately. Shred the onion and fry it in the pan. Add mushrooms and combine with rice. Add some salt. The finished stuffing wrapped in cabbage leaves and shift to the stew pan. Stew for 40 minutes, add tomato paste and spices. Serve with greens and sour cream.
Cabbage rolls - useful tips from experienced chefs
Cabbage rolls are prepared according to a certain technology, but different sauces can be used.
For example:
- sour cream with chopped greens and garlic passed through the garlic;
- kefir with herbs and salt;
- mix in a blender mayonnaise with onions. Add a bunch of parsley and pickled cucumber, lemon juice.
