Cabbage rolls are wrapped in cabbage leaves of meat or vegetable minced meat. This dish belongs to the Eastern European cuisine. The name of cabbage rolls varies depending on the country. For example, in Germany cabbage rolls are called cabbage sausages, and in England this dish is called cabbage rolls.
Cabbage rolls have excellent taste, but not every housewife loves to cook them. Especially cooking stuffed cabbage scares novice cooks. They have a lot of questions, among which is “which rice is better for cabbage rolls?”, And it is far from the last place in this list. So which rice is better to give preference when preparing cabbage rolls?
How to choose rice for cabbage
In order to get delicious stuffed cabbage, housewives with great culinary experience are advised to cook them from rice, which during cooking gets a creamy texture, but remains firm inside, that is, cooked to the state of “al dente”. These qualities of rice provide starchy substances - amylopectin and amylose. Such rice perfectly absorbs not only water, but also the aroma of spices. In addition, due to its creamy texture, it is able to hold the stuffing in cabbage rolls, so that it will not fall apart. In addition to all of the above, this cereal cooks pretty quickly, which can also be attributed to the benefits. In this case, cabbage rolls will be not only tasty, but also more useful. After all, the smaller the dish undergoes heat treatment, the more biologically active components that are beneficial for the body are stored in it.
Rice has the described qualities, which is most often used for making risotto. The most common varieties of such rice are: arborio, niallo niallo and carnaroli. The first grade of rice, that is, arborio, is the easiest to find in Russia. By the way, if the store sells rice with the inscription “for risotto”, most likely it is an arborio.
If a suitable rice cannot be found, it is possible to use ordinary round rice for cooking cabbage. It is advisable to boil a small amount of rice before cooking the cabbage to check how long it is boiled. If the cooking time of cereal exceeds 20-30 minutes, then it is better to hold it in water for about 1-1,5 hours before boiling to add to the cabbage rolls.
Rice with long grains for cabbage is not very suitable. With such rice they turn out dry. By the way, some cooks replace buckwheat rice. In this case, the dish gets an additional zest.
Tricks of cooking delicious stuffed cabbage
- Cabbage rolls are best cooked from young cabbage of soft varieties. The leaves of such cabbage are more plastic. If you still use old cabbage, then you should take a small head of cabbage. They need to boil whole, pre-cut stalk.
- It is necessary to add undercooked rice to the stuffing of cabbage, otherwise it will eventually become porridge. Place the cereal in a saucepan and cover it with water so that it only slightly covers the seeds. When rice absorbs all the water, you can remove it from the stove. By the way, it is desirable to mix rice with minced meat in such proportions: for 1 part of the cereal there should be 3 parts of rolled meat.
- For cooking stuffed cabbage you need to use only high quality minced meat. Please note: the stuffing should be moderately bold. Stuffed cabbage to cook well from mixed beef - from beef and pork.
- Cabbage rolls are often boiled in broth, but they are much tastier and more tender if they are stewed in sauce. Just add tomato paste, pomegranate juice or kefir in a dish with cabbage rolls.
