Grandma Rose's Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, the Freezer Version - An Old Classic Adapted to Modern Times
by Rose's Granddaughter
My great-grandmother was a very good cook, and my family still uses many of her recipes. Now I know some of them have changed a bit over time, since they were passed on by teaching instead of writing them down and many of the ingredients were measured by eyesight or by how it tasted. However, the one I have written down here is how I make it, and it tastes pretty good. Also, as a note, it takes about four hours from start to finish, but you can do the prepwork and bake it later if you need to. Just be sure to bake it within 24 hours of prepping it, and store it in the fridge until you bake it.
Rose's stuffed cabbage rolls
Ingredients:
1 head of cabbage
1.5 pounds of ground hamburger (or ground turkey, if you want a leaner option)
2 cups of rice
1 8 oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 8 oz. can of tomato paste
1 egg
garlic salt
paprika
fresh ground pepper
1: Set a large pan of water (filled to about halfway deep) on the stove to boil.
2: Angle-cut the bottom of the head of cabbage so that the stalk holding the head together is gone. Ideally you should be able to carve it out without damaging the leaves too much.
3: When the water is boiling, set the head of cabbage in, cut-side down. The water should come up about 2/3rds of the way on the head of cabbage.
4: Watch carefully as it boils. Ideally the leaves should be cooked, but not rubbery or see-through. Also the top part will be a little firmer, as it was outside the water.
TIP: If you are freezing this meal, slightly UNDERCOOK the cabbage.
5: While you do this, cook the rice.
6: Take the cabbage out of the water and set it on the plate. For first-timers, it might be easier to separate the leaves now, as the next few steps need to go pretty quickly in succession.
7: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
8: Mix raw hamburger, cooked rice, egg, and seasonings in a large bowl. For the spices I use one dash of garlic salt, one dash of paprika, and about a quarter-teaspoon of pepper, but you can use whatever combination you need to fit your dietary needs. Just remember not to over-season it, as it will ruin the flavor.
9: Prepare a large square glass baking pan by oiling the bottom. Olive oil works pretty well for this, but you want to spread it around by hand, as you don't need that much.
10: Make the cabbage rolls. Take a leaf of cabbage, put about two to three tablespoons of hamburger mix in the middle, and roll it up like you would roll a taco. Note that the firmer side (which was out of the water during boiling) should be on the OUTSIDE when you finish rolling it up. When you finish each roll, put it in the pan with the edge of the cabbage leaf tucked under the roll, so you can't see any edges on top.
11: Do this until you cover the pan with one layer of cabbage rolls. There should be a little bit of space between the rolls, but not much. In an 8 by 12 pan I can usually fit 18-20 rolls, depending on the size. If you have extra cabbage rolls, use a second glass pan and put the extras in there. But if you do have to use a second pan, make sure the size is appropriate for how many rolls you have. They should cover the pan completely with one layer of cabbage rolls. This is very important.
12: Mix tomato paste with three cups of water.
13: Pour diced tomatoes over the cabbage rolls. Split evenly between the pans if you had to use multiple pans.
14: Pour tomato paste mixture over cabbage rolls. Split evenly between the pans if you had to use multiple pans.
15: If the water level isn't 4/5ths up the side of the rolls themselves, add more water to get it there. Only a tiny bit of cabbage should be above water at this point.
16: Bake uncovered for one hour. The water level will drop some during cooking, but it should still be at about 1/3rd the level of the cabbage rolls by the end of it. If it goes below that during cooking, add more water to get it to that point.
17: Let rest for five minutes.
18: Eat. When my family of four eats it, we eat about 2-3 rolls each, and we have other things like vegetables and rolls with it. This usually gives us enough leftovers for lunch the next day. You can scale the recipe to fit however many people are eating, or even make more if you want lots of leftovers.
I haven't tested it in the freezer, but it keeps in the fridge for about a week. Just be sure to reheat it when you eat it, it tastes terrible cold.
Freezer adaptations for this recipe would be to get the cabbage rolls into the pans, then cover in foil and ziploc baggies and freeze. The tomato mixture should be frozen in a separate bag. On the day you want to eat, just thaw both the cabbage rolls and the tomatoes, bake, and enjoy.
