Stuffed Cabbage (a.k.a. Golubtsi / Holubtsi / Halupki / Golumpki)

Stuffed Cabbage (a.k.a. Golubtsi / Holubtsi / Halupki / Golumpki)

00:00 Intro
00:31 Blanching the Cabbage and Cooking Rice
02:42 The Filling
05:32 Stuffing the Cabbage Leaves
06:25 The Sauce
08:00 Baking
08:31 Browning and Serving

Serves 6

1 large head of green cabbage (about 4 Lb / 1.8kg)
1/2 cup (100g) jasmine rice
220g carrots (2 medium)
190g yellow onion (1 medium), coarsely chopped
100g celery rib (1 medium), coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
3 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

Remove the core from the cabbage. Bring a large oven safe pot of water to a boil. Add salt. Add the cabbage and cook turning frequently. Every 30 seconds or so remove a leaf from the cabbage and set it on a baking sheet to cool. When the leaves become very small, fish out the remaining cabbage from the water (use it in some other dish). Add the rice to the water. Boil for 10 min. Drain and rinse under cold water. The rice will go into the filling.
When the cabbage is cool enough to handle, trim the thick ribs to make the leaves flat. Chop the ribs to add to the filling.

Fit a food processor with a grating disk and grate the carrots (set aside for the sauce). Fit a food processor with a chopping blade and process the onion, celery, garlic, and butter until finely chopped. Put into a large bowl to use in the filling.

Filling:
1/4 cup cold water
10g unflavored gelatin (3.5 tsp)
Pureed onions, celery, garlic, and butter from above
2 Lb (900g) meatloaf mix (or half beef, half pork)
Chopped cabbage ribs
Par-cooked rice from above
30g panko bread crumbs (1/3 cup)
Black pepper
13g salt or to taste

Bloom gelatin in water for 5 min, then microwave in 10 sec intervals just until dissolved. Add the liquid gelatin to the bowl with pureed veggies and butter. The gelatin step is optional, especially if you are using a meatloaf mix, but very helpful if using only beef or pork. Add all the other filling ingredients and mix thoroughly with hands (or with a paddle attachment of a stand mixer).

Stuff the cabbage leaves with the filling starting with the biggest leaves. When you get to the smaller leaves, use 2 for one roll. If you have leaves leftover, reserve 3-4 leaves to cover the top of the cabbage when baking and chop up the rest to use in the sauce.

Sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil, plus more as needed
Chopped up remaining cabbage leaves
Grated carrots from above
190g diced yellow onion (1 medium)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
750g canned or diced chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp pomegranate molasses or balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 325F (165C).
Set the pot you used to blanch the cabbage over high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped up cabbage and cook without stirring until brown. Stir and let it brown again. Repeat a few times until the cabbage is nicely brown. Remove to a bowl and set aside.

Add the carrots, onions, a pinch of salt, and another 1-2 Tbsp olive oil to the pot. Reduce the heat to medium and cook stirring occasionally until the onions are translucent and the vegetables start to brown. Add the garlic and cook stirring occasionally for 1-2 minutes. Add the wine, tomatoes, sugar, pomegranate molasses and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer. Stir in the browned chopped up cabbage.

Remove most of the sauce from the pot leaving a thin layer. Arrange the stuffed cabbage tightly in the pot. You’ll end up with 2 layers. Pour the sauce on top. Cover with the remaining cabbage leaves and a lid or foil. Bring to a simmer on the stove top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour or until the cabbage is tender and the filling reaches 160F (71C). Make sure to check the top middle rolls since they’ll be the coolest.

Serve as is, or for best results, cool completely and refrigerate overnight, then brown.

Browning and serving:
Remove the cabbage rolls from the sauce, and dry well on paper towels. Set a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tsp of butter + 1 tsp of olive oil for every 3 cabbage rolls. When the butter is melted and the foam starts to subside, place the cabbage rolls in the skillet, cover and cook until brown, about 5 min. Regulate the heat so that they don’t brown too fast. Flip, cover, and brown the other side. Flip again, add the sauce, cover and cook until the sauce is bubbly and the filling is at least 130F (55C). Place the stuffed cabbage on a serving plate. Reduce the sauce until syrupy. Taste and correct for salt. Pour over the stuffed cabbage and serve with sour cream and dill.

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Pretty much every Eastern European country  has some version of stuffed cabbage.   The one I grew up eating in  Russia is called Golubtsi.   Today we are going to make my version of it. In  other words, we’ll use the traditional ingredients  

In a slightly untraditional way. My version is all  about caramelization. I want my cabbage browned.   I want my sauce reduced and I want  my filling to be juicy and succulent. Let’s start with the cabbage. This is the most  basic cabbage variety that some people call white,  

And some call green. You want to buy  a nice big one that’s about 4 lb.   Let’s cut out its core so that we can  blanch and separate the leaves. Start   by making a square around the core with  a paring knife. Then stab the knife into  

The corners of that square angling the  knife towards the center of the core.   Keep working your way around, pointing the tip of  the knife into the center, until the core yields. Nope, that’s not enough. If we are not thorough  with this step, the first few leaves will fall  

Off just fine and the rest of them will be  stuck. So let’s go around again until most   of the core is gone. By the way, if the outer  leaves are wilted or damaged, just discard them.

Fill a large heavy pot with water a couple  of inches from the top and bring to a boil.   Add a good bit of salt. Dump in your  cabbage. Yes, the cabbage will float,   so you’ll need to flip it periodically so that  it softens evenly. Every 30 seconds or so,  

Pull off the most outer leaf and  set it on a baking sheet to cool.   Some people shock the leaves in ice water. I  don’t bother. I simply pull them out before   they get too soft. Don’t worry, they’ll continue  to soften as they cool off. Since we’ll be cooking  

This cabbage for an hour after we stuff it,  doneness isn’t very important at this stage. Once you are down to very small leaves, it’s time  to quit. Fish out the remaining tiny cabbage and   add 1/2 cup of jasmine, or some other long  grain white rice to the water. Stir once,  

And boil the rice for 10 minutes, then  drain and rinse it under cold water.   It shouldn’t be completely done  yet. It will finish cooking   when we bake the stuffed cabbage. Don’t wash  the pot just yet. We’ll use it for the sauce.

When the cabbage leaves cool enough to handle,  trim the thick center rib with a paring knife.   This will make the leaves a lot  easier to roll and will produce a much   tighter package. Instead of discarding the  ribs, I chop them up and add to my filling.

Actually, this is a good time to  talk about it. I mean… the filling.   Ground meat baked for an hour doesn’t  taste particularly succulent if you   leave it to its own devices. But of  course, we are not going to do that.  

I have 4 tricks up my sleeve to soften that ground  meat and to trap every spec of moisture in it. Instead of beef, I’ll use the meatloaf mix that  combines beef, pork and veal. Pork will give us   more flavor, and veal will give us more gelatin  — yes, that magic water trapping substance. 

If you can’t get your hands on a meatloaf  mix, just bloom some unflavored gelatin   and add it to your ground beef or  pork or whatever meat you are using.  I’ll add bread crumbs to soak up even more  moisture and to give my filling a softer texture. 

And finally, I’ll add some butter. Fat is what  gives French pâtés their softness and succulence   and believe or not that trick works  outside of France, so why not? Now that you know the method  to my madness, let’s do it.

Put 1/4 cup of cold water into a cup. Sprinkle  10 grams of unflavored gelatin evenly on top and   let it sit for 5 minutes to soften while you prep  the veggies for the sauce and the filling. If you  

Don’t get back to your gelatin after 5 minutes,  that’s totally fine, it can wait indefinitely.   Fit a food processor with a grating disk and grate  2 medium carrots. Reserve them for the sauce. Fit your processor with a chopping blade.  Add 1 coarsely chopped yellow onion,  

1 coarsely chopped celery stick, 2 sliced garlic  cloves, and 3 Tbsp of chilled unsalted butter.   Process everything until very finely chopped,   scraping down the processor a few times.  In the end, it should look like this. Put the veggies into a large bowl.  Microwave the gelatin mixture in 10  

Second intervals just until melted and pour  into the veggies. Add 2 Lb of meatloaf mix,   the cabbage stems, the rice, 30 grams of panko  bread crumbs, black pepper and salt. Here is   how to take all the guesswork out of your  salt measurement. Take the weight of your  

Meat in grams. Divide it by 100. Add 4 grams  to account for all the non-meat ingredients,   and that’s your salt weight. As always I  strongly suggest weighing small quantities   on a high precision scale. If you don’t have one,  take a look at the nutritional info on your salt  

To convert the weight to teaspoons. If you are  sensitive to salt, use your own judgement instead   of my measurements. You can always cook a tiny bit  of filling in a microwave and taste it for salt. Mix it all up with your hands  very thoroughly. By the way,  

A mixer with a paddle attachment  works great for this if you have one. To stuff the leaves, position them  with the thick rib facing you.   Put a dollop of the filling into the leaf. Wrap it up very tightly  and pull gently toward you. Fold in the sides and finish rolling away from you.

I start with the big leaves since  they are the easiest to roll. When I move down to the smaller leaves,  I use 2 of them for one roll. How much   filling to use will depend on the  size of your leaves, so play with it.

As you finish each leaf, put it onto the  baking sheet that was holding your cabbage and   line up your rolls nice and snug.  This will prevent them from unrolling. If you have any little leaves left over,   reserve a few to cover the top  of the pot and chop up the rest.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Set the pot back over high heat. Add 2 Tbsp  of olive oil and the chopped up leaves.   No need for salt since they were cooked in salted  water. Cook without disturbing until they start to  

Brown. Stir, and leave them alone again. Do this  a few times until the leaves are nicely brown.   By the way, I don’t always have leaves leftover  like this. It depends on the size of the cabbage.  

But if I do have them, I don’t want to waste them.  Remove the cabbage from the pot and set aside. Add the grated carrots and 1 diced yellow onion.  A pinch of salt, and another tablespoon of olive   oil. Turn down the heat to medium and cook  stirring occasionally until the onions are  

Translucent and the veggies are starting to brown.  Add a couple of minced garlic cloves and cook for   a minute until aromatic. Add ½ cup of dry white  wine, 750g of chopped canned or boxed tomatoes,   1 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp pomegranate  molasses or balsamic vinegar,  

And if your tomatoes are unsalted,  like mine, add some salt to taste.   Bring to a simmer, stir in the browned cabbage  if you are using it and scoop out most of the   sauce leaving a thin layer on the bottom.  Arrange the stuffed cabbage very tightly  

In the pot. You’ll need to do this in 2 layers.  Pour the sauce on top and spread it out. Cover   with a few cabbage leaves if you still have any.  Cover with a lid or foil and bring to a simmer.

Place in the middle of the oven for an hour.  Check if the cabbage is tender and if the filling   is at least 160F. Don’t worry if the filling  temperature is way higher. It will still be very   tender and juicy. Make sure you are checking  the middle bundles in the top layer since  

They’ll get the least amount of  heat. If the cabbage is still   tough or the filling isn’t hot enough, put the  pot back in the oven and check every 10 minutes. You can certainly serve this dish as is.  But I prefer to brown the cabbage bundles  

In the skillet to make them way more savory and  interesting. This is a lot easier to do if you   cool the dish for a few hours first, though I  usually cool it overnight. Here are my golubtsi  

After a night in the fridge. Let’s excavate them  from the sauce. Wipe anything that clings to their   surface back into the pot and dry them on paper  towels. This will help them brown nicely. Set a  

Non-stick skillet with 1 teaspoon of butter and  1 teaspoon of olive oil for every 2 to 3 rolls. I am using a little pan because I am  warming up just one portion. When the   butter is hot and the foam starts to subside,  add your golubtsi in a single layer and cover.

If you are starting from a really cold state like  I am here, turn down the heat to moderately low   so that the first side takes about 5 minutes to  brown. This slower browning will give the filling  

A chance to reheat. If you are starting from a  warm state, you can crank up the heat so that   they brown faster. You’ll have to experiment  with your burner and your skillet to figure   what heat setting works best for you. If you don’t  have a non-stick skillet, stainless steel works  

Fine, but you might encounter a bit more sticking,  so make sure you dry your golubtsi very well. Flip   and brown the other side. Since mine were cold, I  am doing it slowly and gently for about 5 minutes.  

Flip again. Add the sauce, cover and bring  to a simmer. If you were starting from the   fridge temperature, it wouldn’t hurt to  check that the inside is at least 130F. Remove the golubtsi to your serving plate, and  reduce the sauce to your liking. Mine looks  

Like it’s nice and syrupy as is, thanks  to all that gelatin that we’ve added.   Taste and correct for salt. Pour the sauce on  top of your cabbage. Top with sourcream and dill   and serve. This is comfort food with  all the flavor knobs cranked up.

As you might have noticed, this was a  lot of work, so here are a few tips on   speeding things up. In the video I showed you  each component in a logical order to help you  

Make sense of the dish. But in real life, I do  a lot of these tasks in parallel. For example,   while my rice is cooking, I am chopping up  the veggies for the filling and the sauce.   And I am making my sauce while I  am stuffing the cabbage leaves.  

If I have some cabbage leftover after I run out  of the filling and my sauce is already cooked,   I don’t worry about browning that extra  cabbage, I throw it in the sauce as is. Here are more culinary  tutorials for you to check out,  

And a link to my online classes  is in the description below.