Sarma is the Serbian version of stuffed cabbage and many Serbs serve it for special occasions like their slava.
Lithuanians call them holubki and Poles refer to them as golabki. They all boil down to the same thing -- meat and a filler like rice or barley rolled up in a cabbage leaf and cooked on the stove or in the oven.
Some people use imported or homemade whole heads of brined cabbage (sauerkraut) known as kiseli kupus when making their sarma. This dish will give you the warm fuzzies.
Check this Quick Tip for an easy way to remove leaves from a cabbage head.
Makes 12 Sarma or Cabbage Rolls
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
- 1 large head cabbage, 3 to 4 pounds
- 1 pound ground chuck
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1 cup raw rice, rinsed
- 1 (1.4-ounce) package dehydrated onion soup mix
- 1 (32-ounce) jar sauerkraut , rinsed and drained
- 6 smoked ribs or ham hock or other smoked meat
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (10-3/4-ounce) can tomato soup
Preparation:
- Steam cabbage until outer leaves are limp. Remove leaves, and continue.
- With a paring knife, remove tough ribs from leaves without damaging leaves. Reserve tougher outer leaves but don't use for rolling.
- Mix ground chuck, ground pork, rice and onion soup mix. Adding a little water will make mixture easier to handle. Heap 2 tablespoons on each leaf, fold top of the cabbbage leaf up over meat, then fold sides to the center, and roll away from yourself to encase completely. Repeat until meat filling is gone.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Discard the cabbage core and coarsely chop any remaining cabbage except the tough outer leaves you have reserved.
- Spread chopped cabbage on the bottom of a large casserole dish or Dutch oven. Add the sauerkraut.
- Layer on the cabbage rolls, seam side down. Cut the smoked ribs into pieces, if using, otherwise space the smoked meat of choice between the cabbage rolls.
- Cover rolls with reserved outer leaves. Mix tomato sauce and soup with enough water to make a liquidy consistency. Pour over rolls until mixture is level with rolls but not over the top.
- Cover casserole dish and bake 1 hour. Then reduce temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 2 more hours. Let sit 20 to 30 minutes before serving. Freezes well.
