Syrian Stuffed Cabbage

I thought pigs in a blanket was a sausage or hot dog wrapped in dough, redneck style.

This looks cool though.

Yeah, your grandmother was a meeping MORON.

lol you meepgot.

makes me think of tamales from the old country.

I like the attention to history and beef, but cabbage is dead to me unless it associates itself with a Reuben - where all things leafy with vinegar taste coalesce with meat, dressing and bread in my belly space.

Really though, it is an intriguing cross of flavors. Like Jon, I prepare my pigs in blankets of bread, redneck style. This could be a neat dish to prepare for our occasional "Matt wants to make strange ethnic food" nights. They happen quite often, so this entry may come in handy soon.

Thanks.

I take it you cook a good deal of the meals in your home. Me too. I actually cook almost all of them and I enjoy it.

Great recipe. Thank you.

"Golumpkis" as far as I understand Polish means "doves." It has to do with cabbage looking like wings when you unravel one.

Yours indeed looks like a Syrian version, the European version has no red cabbage, tomatoes or anything else in the outside stew.

Nice post, W. Thanks for the recipe.

Dude im coming over to put your delicious foods and wife in ma mouf.

Another variation on the nomenclature is Pigeons, which according to the translaction of the Pollack name, would make sense (little Doves).

Some households omit the tomatoes and use Sauerkraut to flavor them up. Many variations on this old-world dish. Time consuming, but keeps on supplying once you cook off a pot.

phlebas -I have heard of this type of bread/meat combo while out of state. I think the nickname is pretty local to my area.

I do love to cook. I picked it up early by working in the kitchen with my Grandmother and asking an endless stream of questions. I cook about 90% of the meals for my family and I enjoy doing it. My Wife, for all of her finer points, is a horrible cook but that just makes us more compatible, I guess.

If you try this recipe, you'll be quite surprised at how you won't taste a vinegar flavor in it. There is just enough in there to act as an acid to tenderize everything. The flavor is very sweet and the smell of cinnamon mixed with the smell of the maters and cabbage cooking will drive you crazy with want while it's cooking.

dre -NP

Crack -Thanks man. I have eaten a couple of Polish versions and they are good but a bit plain IMO. I've also had an Italian version that was interesting and included basil and oregano with a tomato based sauce. This one will probably always be my favorite but I'll always be looking for other versions to try. I get a bit nerdy when it comes to to the kitchen, so I'm sure I'll be reading up on some of these other versions before I hook these up again.

caladbolg -Bring beer.

bigdin -I've heard them called pigeons by little, old, Polish women - so you might be onto something there. I have never tried it with kraut but it sounds like it could be pretty tasty. Considering the Eastern European influence on the traditional dishes of those that move to that area, kraut makes sense as an evolved version of the dish with a Germanic twist. HighFive.

There is a Polish guy at work who brought these in for us to try once. He called them pigeons as well. Still taste good but.

Golombki

But you meeped them up and made them all terrorist-y

I hate the smell of cooking cabbage.

Down here, this is a pig in blanket. The czecks round make a variation called kolaches and my favorite are full of meats but they're also available with fruit.

This is a kolache and it is delicious.

Hey, you cook your pigs in the blanket your way and I'll cook them mine.

Man those look way tasty, anything with pig parts in it of course.

The level of detail and your photographic journalism of the process is remarkable, please tell me some of the history was taken from other sources.

Hope your new employment status doesn't put a damper on your ability to create such deliciousness. Hopefully you just have more time to experiment.

I'm gonna try this and call it what I want. Thanks for your efforts and sharing.

All you people talking about pigs in a blanket and then showing pictures of or describing something wrapped in bread are obviously describing a different foodstuff than something wrapped in cabbage. So you can go ahead and stop telling him that you call that pigs in a blanket. Because you don't. You call something else pigs in a blanket and you apparently have no word for what he made.

1. there's no pork in Wotak's recipe - therefore it can't be PIGS in anything
2. blanket != cabbage FFS

Blankets are warm and cozy and enveloping. Cabbage is not.

^^

Could a warm, moist meep be considered a blanket? Could you stuff it with a pork-n-rice mixture?

thanks, a very tasty, hmmm, a very personal and very old slowfood recipe ... and i especially like the easy to comprehend way, you wrote it down - Syrian Stuffed Cabbage. i'll remember two (new) wise advices: ' put a heavy dinner plate in the bottom' + 'Place it in the pot with the loose ends down.' some thoughts on variations: eg here im middleEU we( )'d often use [in private fast cooking] unblanched leaves -- eventually bound with a thread or held together by a tothpick. cinnamon is great -- for digestion, too -- and meepin can be added for the same reason (all short-fry in fat, infuse water/bouillon) big leaves of frostbitten collard [coleworts] (if available) can be used for wrapping, too. tip: then cut away from the collard leave stems about the outer half, which is protruding otherwise: so its faster cooked and less inflating afterwards.
[in your recipe you use] vinegar ... : lactic acid fermentation -- balkanese and turkish people here prefer and use for almost the same big-pot-dish a pickled whole-leave cabbage (done just like sauerkraut) -- the local (trade-)name here is 'sarma'. this leads to 'dolma' and ... changed word origins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolma ... and from there different (allofthesameorigin steppe/desert-turko) wrapping recipes are evolving (eg with grape leaves). back to everyday cooking: i always try to consider at first the quality of the cabbage heads when buying -- for not the big ones are best. easily the heads can grow to exorbitant weight, but its only the wasted() nitrogen of an unreflected farmers use of soil, which all the 'brassicas' can easily feed on for their mega acceleration of growth. therefor i always check for any growth-cracks in the thick stem bottom -- 'bio'-quality (for better taste) is imho no must, but preferably almost always. so, if there are not any cracks inside at the bottom, where the plants stem was cut, i (we) will not stink for ... days. cheers k ps: my little one is 7 month right now and tonight he really enjoyed with us some of the boiled cauliflower (but of course without the heavy meeper-fried roll-crumbs). we will smell it soon ... ;-)

some thoughts on variations: eg here im middleEU we( )'d often use [in private fast cooking] unblanched leaves -- eventually bound with a thread or held together by a tothpick. cinnamon is great -- for digestion, too -- and meepin can be added for the same reason (all short-fry in fat, infuse water/bouillon) big leaves of frostbitten collard [coleworts] (if available) can be used for wrapping, too.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine eating this without the cinnamon in it. That's the perfect spice for the flavor mix you get with this recipe. I will try to add a bit of meepin. I love the flavor of meepin and it's a great addition to many dishes. I'll experiment with that the next time I make this.

I love collard greens and I imagine they would make a tasty wrap. A bit bitter and more like grape leaves. That's also something I think I'll try and probably wouldn't have even thought of had you not mentioned it... come to think of it, Kale would also be a great wrap.

tip: then cut away from the collard leave stems about the outer half, which is protruding otherwise: so its faster cooked and less inflating afterwards.

Good to know, thanks.

[in your recipe you use] vinegar ... : lactic acid fermentation -- balkanese and turkish people here prefer and use for almost the same big-pot-dish a pickled whole-leave cabbage (done just like sauerkraut)

Pickled? or do you mean fermented? I have never made sauerkraut but, from what I've read, it's traditionally prepared by fermentation in a crock.

Could you talk some more about this?

i always try to consider at first the quality of the cabbage heads when buying -- for not the big ones are best. easily the heads can grow to exorbitant weight, but its only the wasted() nitrogen of an unreflected farmers use of soil, which all the 'brassicas' can easily feed on for their mega acceleration of growth. therefor i always check for any growth-cracks in the thick stem bottom -- 'bio'-quality (for better taste) is imho no must, but preferably almost always. so, if there are not any cracks inside at the bottom, where the plants stem was cut, i (we) will not stink for ... days.

This is a good point that I did not cover. My Grandmother always told me to pick medium sized heads of cabbage and make sure they had smooth stems (hearts). She never explained why, just that they were the best tasting. What you say makes sense.

Thanks for the suggestions and information. I really appreciate it!

My Norske' Granny called these "Gwumkes", but they look much the same and I've been looking for the recipe since she died & her file box of secrets was tossed by some idiot cousin...

Thanky!

I will try to add a bit of meepin. I love the flavor of meepin and it's a great addition to many dishes.

Yeah

Thanks for this, Rawtaks. I look forward to trying it!

Awesome. You're going to love it.

I'll definitely be making this at some point in the not-so-distant future.

Bookmark'd

This post is a thing of beauty Wotak, thanks for sharing. I plan on making this as soon as I get a stockpot of sufficient volume. I really like that you included a quality rice also. I'm a big fan of Jasmine rice myself, but that would be too sticky for this recipe. I hope (like a lot of others I see) that you can post some more of your recipes. I'd really like a good one for rabbit if you've got one.

I wish people would stop bringing Wotak's recipe posts back to life, because every time they do I walk around bumping into door posts and things daydreaming about giant pots of awesome smelling goodness. I swear, it's way worse than meep.

Cabbage rolls are serious business here in Saskatchewan.You can't go to a wedding or grad dinner without them as part of the buffet. I grew up with a German variation of the cabbage roll. The meat mixture is 50/50 beef and pork. We used sour cabbage instead of fresh. The rolls were braised in the oven in a baking dish with beef stock. The Ukrainian and Polish families around here prepare them the same way with fresh or sour cabbage and use tomato sauce rather than stock.

Grape leaves instead of cabbage. They're not as brittle as cabbage, but still kinda tough. You don't have to boil the grape leaves to wrap the burger, but you still gotta cook it long time to make the leaves as tender as a pedophiles daydreams.

I have an awesome stuffed grape leaves recipe. That variation is Greek, and is very good. I like the slightly bitter flavor of the grape leaves but the smaller rolls are a pain in the meep to prepare.

I only trust Dolmas made by lesbians in Eugene, Oregon. There is a huge story behind this, but I won't tell it now.

Tamales from the old country. what are you from mexico? hurry some one call INS