Cabbage Rolls (Golabki)
While Pirogi is considered the national dish of Poland, the Golabki will rank in the top five. A delicious pork and rice filled cabbage leaf, simmered in a seasoned tomato broth.
My mother was French Canadian, but I recall her mentioning that a fair number of Polish people lived in the small Ontario town where she grew up. She said there were certain parts of the city where you could walk down the street and smell garlic cooking. To be sure, someone there would likely have been making what some consider as very close to the national dish of Poland, stuffed cabbage rolls, known as Golumpki, or more commonly, Golabki, or technically, Gołąkbi. The word means "pigeon” and was so-called because the compact shape and the folded leaves of the cabbage leaf resembles, allegedly, the shape of a pigeon with folded wings.
What I find interesting is that if you search for this recipe on the Internet, many, if not most of them write about how it was passed down from their mother, grandmother, or even great grandmother. Many recipes even make that as a titular statement, like Nana's Golabki (there are many). It seems that cabbage rolls among the Polish is sort of like red gravy is among the Italians. And everybody has their own take on how to prepare the dish. But they are all variations on the same theme: ground pork and rice, mixed with seasonings that include marjoram and garlic, with added onions, rolled up in cabbage leaves and baked in a sauce, most commonly, but not always, tomato.
My mother wrote her recipe down but even though I have a number of recipes from her in her own handwriting, I cannot find this one. I'm heartbroken because I have fond memories of this dish growing up. She made it dozens of times. And, I'm pretty sure she used Campbell's Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup in the sauce. I didn't do that, but is seems many Polish Nana’s do based on the recipes I’ve seen.
This is a close approximation of the dish I had many times, and one I repeatedly asked for when visiting home from college. After going through the exercise of actually stuffing and rolling the cabbage leaves on my own, I now know what a labor of love that really was.
The hardest thing about this recipe is preparing the cabbage. A lot of recipes I read have you boiling the entire head and peeling off leaves as they cook. I thought that would make a very large mess, seemed an easy way to get burned and I don't think that's what my mother did. So, I started by coring the head of cabbage and then removed as many of the broad outer leaves as the head yielded and quickly blanched them, 2-3 leaves at a time. At some point, you'll reach the white, inner part of the cabbage and the leaves are too small to be used, which is why my recipe calls for two heads of cabbage. But you will not use all of them.
Cabbage Rolls (Golabki)
Ingredients
- 1-2 large heads of green cabbage
- 2 lb ground pork
- 2 cups cooked white rice
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 tsp finely minced garlic
- 3 tbsp dried marjoram
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1 tbsp dried rubbed sage
- 1 14.5-oz can petite diced tomatoes (like, Hunt's)
- 1 15-oz can tomato sauce (like, Hunt's)
- fine sea salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- salted water for blanching
- non-stick cooking spray (like, Pam)
Instructions
- Core the head of cabbage using a sharp paring knife. Remove the large outer leaves of the head of cabbage that will be suitable for stuffing and rolling. Go to the second head of cabbage if needed.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Have a colander nearby with something underneath to catch the runoff water.
- Put as many leaves in the water as your vessel will hold at a time, and par-cook each leaf until it is malleable, about 3 minutes. You'll need to use tongs to submerge the leaves and turn them over for even cooking. Remove each leaf to your colander and allow them to drain and cool. Continue this in batches until all of your leaves are par-cooked.
- In a skillet over medium high heat, melt the butter in the olive oil, and then sauté the onions until they are well caramelized, about 15 minutes.
- Add the minced garlic at the end, and sauté for another minute, stirring constantly so the garlic does not burn. Set the skillet aside and allow to cool.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the two eggs and all of the dried herbs except for one tablespoon of marjoram. Blend well.
- Crumble the ground pork into the egg mixture. Add the onions and garlic. Add the rice. Using wet hands, mix the whole concoction until everything is evenly distributed.
- Lay out each cabbage leaf on a kitchen towel and make sure it's dry on both sides. If the leaf's core stem is so large that it's not allowing you to bend the leaf easily, use a paring knife to cut it out. Spoon as much meat mixture in the center of the leaf as you think it will hold. You want as much mixture as the leaf will hold when its rolled up, but not so much that it won't allow you to completely encase it with the leaf.
- Fold the bottom of the leaf up, about halfway over the mixture. Bring both sides of the cabbage leaf inward, and then roll the whole leaf upwards and over. The seam should be on the bottom and the whole packet should be fairly tight. Use a wooden toothpick if needed to hold the packet together.
- Transfer the rolled cabbage, seam side down, to a 9' x 13 " baking dish that has been sprayed liberally with the non-stick spray.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and the remaining marjoram. Blend well and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce mixture over all of the cabbage rolls.
- Seal the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 2 hours.
