In a mythical land where people indulged in never ending feasting without even lifting a finger, it was enough to open your mouth to make a roast pigeon find its way into it... Too good to be true!
It is possible that stuffed cabbage rolls were called gołąbki because their shape resembles a pigeon breast. That might be true or not, but one thing is certain – making gołąbki requires more than just lifting a finger. First the stuffing is made of minced meat mixed with browned onion, cooked rice and boiled dried mushroom. Once ready, it is carefully wrapped in large leaves of boiled cabbage and cooked.
The old Polish style gołąbki were made with buckwheat groats instead of rice and served with mushroom and sour cream dressing. Before putting
them in the oven, the cook would sprinkle them with żurek, beetroot borscht or mushroom brew. Even quite recently, provident farmers used to
put a few cabbage heads between the layers of shredded cabbage leaves used for making sauerkraut. Next year they were used for the preparation
of stuffed cabbage rolls. Today they are more often made of cooked cabbage leaves. The most traditional way of serving gołąbki is with fresh tomato sauce. They are the specialty of Marian Maroń, Master Chef at Warsaw's Novotel Airport Hotel.
Stuffed cabbage rolls
Ingredients:
- large cabbage leafs,
- 200 g of pork,
- 250 g of rice,
- 50 g of onion,
- 30 g of oil,
- salt,
- pepper.
Blanch cabbage leafs, remove the heart. Simmer the rice slightly, drain it, add previously browned onion, minced meat, salt and pepper. Arrange the stuffing on the cabbage leafs, roll it. Cover with boiling salted water, bake in the oven until brown. Serve topped with melted pork fat or tomato sauce.
