Heads Up on Cabbage

I cannot believe it has been over a month since I last blogged. Since my last post, my son, Dave got married (yay!!!) to his lovely bride, Jen. And now with her son, Riley (in the picture), they make the perfect family! But in the meantime, my garden went downhill (boo). The stinkbug invaded and destroyed much of my garden. Nevertheless, over that month, we have enjoyed many a fantastic meal. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to photograph the food so that I can blog about them at a later date.

The subject of this blog is cabbage. I grow three varieties each year: regular, red, and savoy. Cabbage has many health benefits. It has cholesterol-reducing benefit, especially when lightly steamed making the fiber components easier to bind to bile acids.This makes it easier to excrete, lowering cholesterol. Cabbage also contains sinigrin which converts into compounds that is know to have cancer preventive qualities. Cabbage is chock full of vitamins K and C. It also contains dietary fiber, manganese, vitamins B6, B1, B2, and A, calcium, potassium, tryptophan, folate, magnesium, and protein. And if you are looking for a big bang in antioxidant value, eat the red variety. It contains 6 to 8 times the antioxidants than the green varieties.

So I LOVE cabbage. It is a staple in our household, adding it to stir-fry recipes and soups. But my most FAVORITE way to use cabbage is to stuff the leaves to make the family Polish favorite --Golabki

Golabki Recipe (Our family pronounced this dish ‘gawumpki’)

1 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground pork

1/2 cup rice

1 egg

1 onion chopped fine

2 TBSP butter

Salt and pepper

1 whole head cabbage

1 32 oz can tomato puree

4 strips bacon

1 teas vinegar

Remove core from whole head cabbage. Scald the cabbage in boiling water. Remove a few leaves at a time as they wilt. Cool before using.

Wash rice in cold water and stir into 2 quarts of rapidly boiling salt water. Boil 10 minutes and strain. Run cold water through rice in strainer. This rice is only half cooked now.

Saute onion in butter only until it becomes transparent. Do not let it turn yellow. Combine the meat, egg, rice, and seasoning and mix well. Spread each leaf with meat, about half inch thick, fold in the two opposite sides in and roll, starting with one of the open ends. Stack each cabbage roll in large sauce pot with fold face down.

Pour in tomato puree and vinegar and place uncooked bacon on top. Add water if necessary to cover cabbage rolls. Bring to boil and simmer 1 to 2 hours.

My Babcia (Grandmother) always added peeled potatoes in the same pot.

Yum!!!!!