Hungarian recipe – Stuffed cabagge
Stuffed Cabbage is the National dish of Hungary. It consists of tightly rolled bundles of meat and rice held together by soft cabbage wrap. The rolls are piled on a bed of silky sauerkraut. Cabbage and sauerkraut combined make a mellow dish.
Hungarian recipe – Stuffed cabagge (Szabolcs style)
Ingredients – serves 4 / takes 120 minutes :
- 1 cabbage
- 1 jar or packet of sauerkraut (do not use canned sauerkraut)
- 500 g pork mince
- 200 g Hungarian paprika
- sausage
- 200 g smoked, fatty bacon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp pepper corns
- 100 g rice
- 2 garlic cloves, mashed
- 2 tbsp oil or lard
- 2 cups sour cream
- a pinch of sweet marjoram or oregano
Rinse 1 large head of cabbage and the sauerkraut in cold water. Place the mince, the uncooked rice, paprika, garlic, salt and some oil in a mixing bowl. Mix well using your hands. Remove the core of the cabbage. Leave head whole. Place in large pot of boiling water to wilt the outer leaves. You will be able to gently pull off whole cabbage leaves. Trim off thick centre vein of cabbage leaves. Make a pile of leaves on your workstation. Shake excess water off. Place 2 tablespoons of meat and rice mixture on a leaf (starting at the thick end) and roll it up and tuck in ends with your finger. Make as many as you can. Arrange the rolls in cooking pot.
Put a few chunks of sausage and szalonna here and there between the rolls. Cover the rolls two-thirds full of water, arrange rinsed sauerkraut on top, sprinkle over the pepper corns and the sweet marjoram on top, COVER and cook slowly for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the rice is tender.
Serve with fresh sour cream on top, good crusty bread and cold beer!
