Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I don't think I have any Polish in me (but who knows - I descend from Cortrights, Hodgsons, Guenthers, and Suggates...that sounds like I have a little bit of a whole lot going on so maybe there is some Polish!) but I woke up the other day thinking about cabbage rolls. I know, it's weird. So I asked Dave if we could go north and hit Leggs Inn outside Petosky because that's the last place I had them and they were SO good, but a road trip can't happen this week - so I did the next best thing even though I've never made them before and gave it a go.

carefully pull the leaves off

Did an internet search till I found a recipe I wanted to try, click here to see the full recipe on Food Network. The reviews almost scared me off because so many people had a hard time separating the cabbage leaves, but I wasn't to be put off by temperamental cabbage and conquered it without any problems whatsoever. I followed the directions and they came apart easily - cut the bottom of the cabbage off so it sits flat and cut out some of the core, then carefully peel the leaves apart. If you look closely you can see the order they are layered, I put my fingers under the next leaf on top and wiggled around a bit to loosen and they came right off. Put into a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes or so to soften them up. Then immediately put them in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

after boiling for a couple minutes put the leaves
in a bowl of ice water

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and they were quite easy to make. There were lots of dirty pans and dishes when all said and done, but none of the steps was difficult - even rolling up the little cabbage roll burritos was easy. I only made one head of cabbage because it's just Dave and I eating them, so there weren't enough outside "bad" leaves to line the baking dish with, but I covered the whole pan with foil and they cooked just fine. I had leftover filling and looked around for whatever else I could find to stuff - the 2 small sweet peppers from my garden and a leftover zucchini fit the bill. The recipe says to bake for an hour but quite a few reviews said it took longer, so I did 2 hours at 350'.

the filling is ground beef and pork, cooked rice,
an egg,  and the doctored up sauce

back pan is the sweet and sour tomato sauce,
front pan is a little sauce mixed with
sautéed onions, parsley, tomato paste...

cut out the thick rib of the cabbage leaf. I cut out
too much actually,  don't do this much. 

my v cut is a little big so rolling wasn't quite as nice as it
could have been - now I know! It still worked fine.

Might not be Leggs Inn cabbage rolls but they turned out really good and I will definitely be making these again in the future. I wonder what I'll wake up wanting to eat next?

one head of cabbage made 8 rolls, I also stuffed 2 small
sweet peppers and a zucchini. top with tomato sauce before baking.