Big Grandma's Cookbook: Stuffed Cabbages
01/23/2015
My grandmother spoke Hungarian. Not to us and not all the time or anything. She learned it on her own for fun. In fact, when she went to Hungary for the first time, a native asked HER for directions because her Hungarian was so fluent.
When I sit and read through her cookbook, I find many Hungarian words that I have to translate through the magical thing we call the internet. However, I did find a word she wrote that I can not seem to find here online: Golubtsk
It is very similar to the Polish word gołąbki and the Russian word Golubtsi which both mean stuffed cabbage. I can't help but think maybe she was trying to write one of them..?
Anyway, the Hungarian words for stuffed cabbage are töltött káposzta. Here's my grandma's recipe for stuffed cabbage...or whatever she called them.
Golubtsk
- 1 large cabbage (You will need a large pot filled with water a well)
- 1 lb ground beef
- salt & pepper to taste
- 2 T table fat (I substituted with avocado oil)
- 1/2 minced onion
- 1/2 T butter
- 2 cups of cooked lb brown rice
- 2 c beef stock
Boil the large pot of water and parboil cabbage 3 minutes. Remove and cool enough to handle. Separate leaves from head. (You may need to put the head back in the water once you get to the inner leaves) Salt beef and fry in 2 T fat (or oil). Add pepper. Remove meat to a large bowl & fry onion in 1/2 T butter. Add to meat. Also add rice to meat and stir. Season to taste. Put 1 T mixture on each cabbage leaf & fold in shape of thick sausage. Place in saucepan, pour stock over them, cover and simmer 1 hr.
I make stuffed cabbages all the time, and I have NEVER made them this way until reading Big Grandma's cookbook. My recipe does not require cooking the meat before adding it together with the rice. I do not use any onion and instead of beef stock, I use tomato juice to cook them. I also add either sauerkraut or keilbasa to the pan towards the end for more flavor.
These turned out really nice... kind of like a naked version of the classic I'm used to. They even tasted like a light version. Try them and let me know what you think!