Menu boredom won’t totally trash you, but it’ll certainly grind down your enthusiasm for fumbling together yet another meal.
Thanks primarily to weeks of unspeakably bad weather, circumstances and necessity have forced many of us into a pattern of repeatedly serving up whatever works, all too often soups and stews and stews and soups. Over and over and over again.
Now, though, thanks to Lake Stevens cook Karen Hume, we have a monotony breaker she found for us in Guideposts Magazine.
Like many of its old, time-honored counterparts, while it’s not quick to fix, it is an easy-fix dish, and affordable besides. In other words, a time-taker, but no piggybank breaker.
As far as seasonings go, aside from a little onion, there are none. But nothing says we can’t zip up either the filling or the sauce, or both, with smidgins or pinches of garlic and basil, oregano, thyme or other favorite herbs.
Let’s thank Karen for sharing:
GOLABKI (STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS)
1large head cabbage
Water
1/2cup chopped onion
2teaspoons canola oil
11/2pounds ground beef
1/2pound ground pork (or veal)
2cups cooked brown rice
1egg, beaten
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Sauce:
2cans condensed tomato soup
21/2cups water
Core cabbage and place in a large pot of rapidly boiling water; cover and cook 5 to 8 minutes, until soft enough to pull off leaves; repeat until all large leaves are removed.
OR, core cabbage, place in a dish with 1/2 inch of water and microwave until the large leaves are softened. Repeat as necessary.
Saute onion in the oil until transparent.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the meat, rice, egg, salt and pepper; add onion and mix well. Place a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture on each cabbage leaf; tuck sides over filling while rolling leaf around filling.
Repeat until all meat mixture and cabbage leaves are used.
Chop remaining cabbage and place half on the bottom of a Dutch oven. Layer cabbage rolls over the cabbage, then cover with remaining chopped cabbage.
For the sauce, in a mixing bowl, combine the soup and water; stir until smooth, then pour over cabbage rolls. Cover; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 11/2 hours.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
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