In the Kitchen With Mattie

 

Another chilly day and we were tired of leftover turkey and ham so wanted something different. We both decided on stuffed cabbage but I wasn’t really looking forward to doing the stuffing of it today for some reason. So I decided to make something I used to make that has all the same ingredients but half the work, it tastes exactly the same as my regular stuffed cabbage.

 

                                                        Unstuffed Cabbage

 

2 pounds lean ground beef or mix of beef and pork

 

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

 

1/2 cup regular rice, pre cooked for 10 minutes and drained

 

1 medium onion chopped fine

 

1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

 

1  teaspoon salt

 

1/2 teaspoon pepper

 

1 large egg

 

2 cups beef or chicken broth

 

1 14-16 ounce can diced tomatoes

 

1 12 ounce can tomatoe puree, optional, use if you like a thicker sauce

 

1 large head fresh cabbage chopped into large pieces

 

Put meat into large bowl, add salt, pepper, onion, parsley, egg, bread crumbs and mix well, add rice and mix again, form meatballs about the size of a golf ball or a little larger.  I mostly use a pressure cooker to make this dish but have done it on the stove top too, the directions are the same but the cook time is drastically different, for the pressure cooker you will cook this for 12 minutes at high pressure, for the stove top it will need to cook more than an hour at a low simmer so it doesn’t burn.

   Into the pot you are using put a layer of the chopped raw cabbage, put a layer of meatballs on top of it. Put another layer of cabbage over the meatballs then another layer of cabbage and so on, until all is used up. The top layer should be cabbage. Mix the broth with the tomatoes and pour over everything in the pot. If using the pressure cooker let cook for 12 minutes after it comes to high pressure, if using a stove top pot check a meatball after an hour of steady simmering to make sure it is cooked thru.

     I have at times added peeled potatoes to the pot along with the meatballs and cabbage and let them cook at the same time. This dish re-heats very well and the flavor improves the next day, I have also added saurkraut to it and it gives it an old world taste, just layer it in with the cabbage at the beginning. If you like an old european taste add the kraut with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar for a sweet/sour taste. Change it around to suit you and your families taste, there are no rules here!

                                                        

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