I hate to say it, but my mother was not such a great cook.  But there were a few dishes that she made that were outstanding – sweet and sour meatballs, noodle kugel (when she remembered all the ingredients), chicken fricasse, and stuffed cabbage.  Sadly, her stuffed cabbage recipe has been lost. But I have found one that very closely resembles it and is just as delicious…Aunt Myrna’s Cabbage Rolls from Monday Morning Cooking Club.  This is basically their recipe, I only made some slight changes in technique.

One thing I definitely agreed with them on is to cook this a few days before serving it, to let the flavors blend and grow.  My mom would say the same thing.

After placing all the rolls in the sauce, I covered it with the leftover leaves to help seal in the moisture while it cooked. It worked quite well.

Stuffed Cabbage

very slightly adapted from http://mondaymorningcookingclub.com.au/recipe/aunty-myrnas-cabbage-rolls/#

1  green cabbage

  SAUCE

2  onions chopped

1/4 cup canola oil

1 can condensed tomato soup

3/4 cup pureed tomatoes

1 tin diced Italian tomatoes

juice of 2 lemons

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

  FILLING

1 lb ground beef, grass-fed if possible

2 – 3  cloves of garlic

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup cooked long grain rice (about 1/2 cup raw) (I used brown rice)

1  onion, grated

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2  eggs lightly beaten, from Powers Farm

Directions

Core the cabbage and place in a large pot of cold water so that the cabbage is fully submerged. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the stovetop and allow to cool in the water. Remove when cool, separate the leaves and cut out the thick stalks with a knife.

In a large saucepan, fry the onion in the oil over low heat until soft, around 20 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Set aside until needed.

 Using a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic with the salt to form a paste.

To make the filling, put the beef in a medium sized bowl. Add the garlic paste,  rice, onion and pepper. Season generously. Add the eggs and combine.

To make the parcels, lay 1/4 cup of the filling in an oblong shape in the centre of a cabbage leaf. Fold in the ends and then roll up like a parcel.

Place into the sauce, seam side down. Continue with all the filling and cabbage leaves, placing the rolls snugly side by side in the sauce. Any unused or torn leaves can be rolled up and stuffed into the gaps in the pan. Make sure all the rolls are covered with sauce. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 3 hours, basting from time to time. If the cabbage rolls start to dry out, add more water to cover.

Place in the refrigerator when cool and reheat to serve another day. Enjoy!

Serves 8.