Traditional Hungarian stuffed cabbage (töltött káposzta)

I smile every time I remember my daughter’s reaction. She was three years old when she saw stuffed cabbage on the Christmas table and screamed ‘YUCKY’.  However, after she tried it, she realized how delicious it was. Ever since then, she makes sure that it is on the Christmas menu every year.

Stuffed cabbage is a popular winter dish in Hungary even though our ancestors didn’t make it. It is a dish that was inspired by the Turks. They called it szárma from the Turkish word sarma. However, many of us today can’t imagine Christmas without it. My mom made it every year. 

I don’t think it is an accident that stuffed cabbage is a Christmas dish.  You can surely serve it any time of the year but it is the perfect dish for the holidays.  In the old days, families butchered their pigs and the meat was ready to be used by around this time. Also, there weren’t too many vegetables available except for a few like cabbages and onions. Not to mention that the dish can be kept in the cold for a couple of days. In fact, it tastes the best after a few days. This was an important consideration too. Christmas went on for days back in the old times. According to traditional customs, people were not allowed to work during the celebrations.

The recipe is not too difficult, though it is time-consuming. Just remember you won’t have to cook for 3 days afterwards! There are many variations of this recipe but this is how I make it. Please feel free to experiment with it.

What you need

Meat stock:

For the cabbage rolls:

Preparation

Meat stuffing

 

Making the dish.

Preparing the base of the dish. Sauté the onion in oil on medium high heat for 10 minutes or until translucent. Add bacon if you desire and cook for 5 more minute or until the bacon looks crisp. Add paprika, stir for 1 minute. Add a little cold liquid (have it ready) and stir. Add 1 lb of the sour kraut. Mix. Set aside.

Preparing the cabbage leaves. Fill a larger pot with cold water and start boiling it. This will be used to soften the leaves. Take the leaves off the cabbage gently one by one. When the water boils, add the leaves in the boiling water one at a time for a few minutes. Here we are parboiling the cabbage leaves so make sure they get semi soft but not mushy. (Omit if you have sour cabbage leaves). 

Preparing the rice. Bring 1 cup of rice in 1 cup of cold water to a boil. Turn the heat down to low heat and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Preparing the stuffing. In a medium sized dish, mix the cooked rice from earlier, crushed garlic cloves, marjoram, 1 egg and the meat together. Set aside.

Assembling the stuffed cabbages. Fill the cabbage leaves in the middle with about 1 heaping tablespoon of stuffing or more if leaf is bigger and fold them on all four sides so the stuffing is tucked inside the leaves nicely. Be careful you don’t fold them too tight because the mixture will expand a little. You can close the leaves with a toothpick if you want but it is really not necessary.  This may sound like a difficult task but really what you do here is you tuck the filling inside the leaves and fold each side onto the stuffing so it is nested inside the leaves. Please, see the pictures for clarification above.

Place the assembled cabbages on top of the prepared sour kraut mixture from earlier one by one, fitting each leaf snug next to each other. Place the remaining 1 lb sour-kraut on top of the stuffed cabbages. 

Pour the meat stock over the stuffed cabbage leaves. Make sure the liquid covers everything in the pot. Bring to a boil and turn the heat down. Cook on very low heat slowly covered for 1 ½-2  hours or until the cabbage and the stuffing are cooked.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the stuffed cabbages on top of the sauerkraut along with sour cream, sliced kielbasa and hot red pepper flakes or Erös paprika.

Text, photos, recipe by twincitiesherbs.