Mincemeat stuffed cabbage rolls

There are some dishes
in Romania that served as inspiration for festivals, most of the time with
double purpose: to pass down traditional dishes and recipes from one generation
to another, and create an event that would benefit the community. There are
several suchlike events in Romania: the festival of sausages, of pies, cheese,
trout, pancakes and of course, cabbage rolls.

Ștefan Baciu, 11.10.2015, 14:17

There are some dishes
in Romania that served as inspiration for festivals, most of the time with
double purpose: to pass down traditional dishes and recipes from one generation
to another, and create an event that would benefit the community. There are
several suchlike events in Romania: the festival of sausages, of pies, cheese,
trout, pancakes and of course, cabbage rolls.

Two cabbage roll
festivals are taking place in Romania in September, one in Salonta, now in its 7th
year, and another one in Praid, with a tradition going back 20 years. Apart
from prizes for the most delicious cabbage rolls, the festival in Praid has,
along the years, seen prizes being awarded for the smallest, the biggest and
the most original cabbage roll. The biggest prize-winning roll one year was of
nearly one meter long and as thick as one’s arm.

A traditional meal in
all the Balkan countries, though claimed by each country, cabbage rolls are
original from Turkey where they were called sarmak. In Turkey, the original
recipe consisted of minced beef mixed with rice and raisins all wrapped in vine
leaves, but in other countries the vine leaves have been replaced with cabbage
or sauerkraut, and the meat was replaced by pork, chicken, or even fish. A
traditional recipe in Bukovina, a province in northern Romania, is called
‘cabbage roll nest’, with filling or wrapping of different types. The filling
is pork, beef, chicken, goose, or mushrooms. In spring, vine leaves, dock, horseradish,
beet, and lime tree leaves are used for wrapping. Wrap the rolls and boil them
in enough water to cover. Then add tomato paste or juice boil them in the oven
at low heat for about two hours, pouring water or white wine from time to time.
The cabbage roll nests should be taken carefully out of the pot and placed on a
plate. Add cream on top and a slice of polenta by their side.

The
traditional Romanian recipe for cabbage rolls uses sauerkraut wraps and pork.
For that you need one or two heads of sauerkraut of medium size. Place cabbage
leaves in cold water to take out excess salt. You need 1.5 kg of pork, mixed
with one cup of rice and two finely chopped onions; cut off the thick veins of
the cabbage leaves to wrap them more easily around the meat. Then we place them
in the pot together with some dry thyme, a bit of tomato juice, cover them in
water and boil them at low heat for a couple of hours. Add some bacon as for
the smoky flavour. Serve hot with cream on top, some polenta and, why not, a glass
of red wine. Enjoy!