Cabbage Rolls - Version 2.0

Hi,
it's fall, season of cooking. The temperature drops and all I want to do is stand in the kitchen and make food. It's my comfort zone. Maybe it's the heat of the stove top or oven that I crave as I battle to stay warm. I feel that every fall I get cold to the bone and stay that way until April but cooking helps me pass the frozen feelings away.

Last Thursday was the final pick-up week at the co-op farm association that we joined. The harvest was certainly plentiful and delicious this year. In the last collection of veggies was the most perfect cabbage. I couldn't wait to get home and make stuffed cabbage rolls. I have no idea why this became so important for me to create. I have never made stuffed cabbage rolls before in my whole life. I did watch my grandmother and mother make them on many occasion. I certainly have eaten enough of them in my life time, but never before have I felt the urge to put them together. Don't ask me where this came from, I have no clue.

I called my mom to make sure I had the right list of ingredients in my head and a general knowledge of assembly laid out. Ground turkey, cooked rice, panko (instead of bread crumbs), Dijon mustard, seasoning and an egg for the filling. Fresh canned tomatoes, vegetable juice, sweet chili sauce, tomato paste, brown sugar and a dash of vinegar for the sauce. Steam the cabbage leaves and take out the center vein, check. Stuff with the filling and roll up into packets, check. Steam rolls, check. Cook the steamed rolls in the tomato sauce, check. Eat, oh wow! I'd forgotten how much I loved cabbage rolls. Why did I wait so long to try making them? Shame on me.

The first dozen of production were a huge success as far as I was concerned. Even Marshall liked them enough to ask for seconds, and more of them to eat again for lunch the next day. I have sent some down to Florida for my mother's stamp of approval. She was excited that I was making cabbage rolls and I could hear her salivating over the phone, so I promised if they turned out edible that I would mail her some. They should arrive tomorrow. I've made a second batch and frozen them for future consumption. Re-heated they are even better than fresh. There is something about tomato sauce products always being better the more they are re-heated.... other than pizza (but there are fans of day-old pizza that will beg to differ I'm sure).

Learning how to make chulopchas (cabbage rolls) has been a blessing and a curse. I can now recreate one of my favorite childhood comfort foods... I also will have yet another food that I really don't need to cook in my repertoire.  Oh well, I can always do extra laps in the pool to burn them off.

xox
m