CABBAGE ROLLS

Ingredients

• • 1 large cabbage(with)• 
• 1 1/2 lb  ground beef (you can sub ground pork for half if you like)
• • ¾ cup instant rice
• • 1 egg
• • 1 stick of butter, melted
• • 1 cup freshly chopped parsley (loosely packed)
• • 1 medium onion sliced thin
• • 1 28oz jar of crushed tomatoes
• • 1 cup homemade beef stock 
• • 2 tsp salt
• • 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• • ½ tsp cayenne pepper 
• .1 Teaspoon of garlic powder
• 
  

• Instructions

• Take out a nice sized cooking pot and fill it half way with water
• Salt it well and bring it to a boil
• Turn down the heat to a simmer
• While you’re waiting for the water to boil, put the ground beef, rice, egg, melted butter, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, cayenne, in a large bowl.
• Mix until very well combined
• Now that your water is simmering away, it’s time to get the cabbage ready. Make sure you have a large bowl of cool water near the stove to place your cooked cabbage leaves in. 
• First cut out the core, really get in there. You want the leaves to come off easily
• Rince the cabbage well
• If the outer leaves look a bit ragged, feel free to peel them off and use those to layer the bottom of the pan
• Now, taking a pair of tongs, gently lower the WHOLE head of cabbage into the pot of simmering water. I
• You will quickly notice that the outermost leaf is beginning to soften and magically come off! Let the leaf continue to simmer for about 45-60 seconds
• Once the leaf is nicely pliable, take it out with the tongs and place it in the bowl of cool water to hang out for a bit
• Keep repeating this process, gently and carefully rotating the cabbage in the pot until all the leaves are done. If you ripped a few, that’s okay! We’re still going to use them as mentioned above.

Assembly

To assemble your stuffed cabbage rolls, you will need to trim the leaves a little bit. To do this, begin by

1. Cutting off the tough stem
2. Then run your knife along the stem to make it thin and pliable
3. ***If you don’t trim the stem you won’t be able to roll the cabbage or chew thru it.
4. Take the meat mixture and divide it into even portions. If you have 10 or more nice cabbage leaves, you should make 10 portions of meat mixture. so....10 little cute stacks.
5. Take a leaf and lay it down so that the leaf curls towards you (not wrong side out)
6. Take a portion of meat and lay it in the leaf closest to the stem
7. Shape the meat into a long loaf. This will make it easy to roll
8. Now roll the leaf over once, tuck in the sides, and roll it over a second time
9. Be sure not to roll these too tight or they will pop during cooking!
10. Now that you have your rolls assembled, it’s time to get them in the pan.
11. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
12. Line the bottom of the pan with a few failed cabbage leaves
13. Sprinkle on half of the onion slices
14. Spoon half the crushed tomatoes over the top and season with salt and pepper
15. Layer half of the rolls (Usually 5-6 can fit nicely) and top them with the other half of the sliced onions and crushed tomatoes
16. Season again with salt and pepper
17. Now pour in the beef stock and lay the cabbage rolls on the pan. 
18. Cover with a tight lid or foil paper and put in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes
19. Once the timer goes off, take the pan out and check the rolls. if they are not cooked to your liking cook another 15 minutes.