My, Aren't We Lucky! Golabki!

For our yearly Alliance Francaise Potluck dinner, I had a huge dilemma. What do I possibly make? The directions were to make a full dish (whatever that means!), and I knew that this dish may have to sit for a while before being consumed. I went through a few options, and most turned out to be too expensive for our meager budget, so I had an epiphany. Why don't I make golabki (or as I know it, golumpki! (the "l" is a W sound in Polish-actually it needs to have a line slashed through it to be correct). I am a Polish girl, not a French girl, after all, so why don't I make something I am familiar with. ( from Wikipedia: Gołąbki is the plural of gołąbek, the diminutive of gołąb, meaning "pigeon". This refers to the shape of the roll; none of the ingredients have any connection with the pigeon meat known as squab. Gołąbki are also referred to as golumpki, golabki, golumpkies or golumpkis).

Little did I know, but I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen preparing this dish. Had I had the gift of foresight, I would have made a much simpler quiche, but I had no clue what I was getting into, since we had never been to this event before. It did turn out well, although a little difficult to eat in a casual setting, and did remain hot until dinnertime.

So, here is the complete recipe that I used, with pictures:

2 tblspns. olive oil
2 chopped yellow onions
2 (28 oz.) cans crushed tomatoes and their juice (I used one crushed and one coarsely ground)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 smaller-sized green cabbages, keeping outer leaves

Filling:
2 1/2 lbs. 90% lean ground beef
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 small minced yellow onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves (I was lucky to have these in my garden)
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (I left this out because my grater is MIA to my complete frustration!)

DIRECTIONS

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions, and cook on med./low for 8 minutes, or until onions become translucent. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.


Bring to a boil, then turn down to low, and simmer for 30 minutes. Keep stirring every once in a while.

Here are some filling ingredients: nutmeg, thyme, paprika.
Remove the entire core of the cabbage with a paring knife. Bring a large pot of water to a full boil, and then immerse one entire head in the boiling water for a few minutes, pulling the leaves off with tongs as they soften. Please be very careful in this step. I wish I had been! I splashed boiling water on my face, and later actually submerged a finger in the very boiling water. I got to see first hand what it feels like to be a hot dog!

Set the leaves on some kind of platter or pan as you remove them. Don't use the leaves towards the core. These are much too hard. I had about ten leaves in each head of cabbage. So, repeat with the other head.

Mix entire list of filling ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of sauce to the meat mixture, and mix lightly with a fork. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove the hard rib from the base of each leaf with a paring knife.

Place about 1/2 cup of filling (more or less depending on the size of the leaf) near the rib edge of each leaf, rolling toward the outer edge, tucking the sides in as you roll. this may take some practice to perfect! Place one cup of suace in the bottom of a Dutch oven. Place cabbage rolls, seams side down, on top of the sauce. Keep adding rolls until you have a layer, then cover with sauce. Repeat with more layers until you fill pot. Once full, cover with remaining sauce. Cover the pot tightly and bake for at least an hour. I recommend more because the cabbage just gets more tender with time. Also, it is always better the next day! Enjoy!

Some beautiful Golabki! What more could we wish for?