Bubbie's Cabbage Rolls

Growing up, this would be one of my family’s favourite dishes. My Bubbie would make a giant tray of these cabbage rolls and give all of us a take home container. I had the honour of going over to my Bubbie’s house last year and learning step by step how to replicate this recipe, and let me tell you, they taste the exact same!

It is amazing to be able to share the love of food with my Bubbie. She was able to teach me a few of her famous recipes so I can recreate them and pass them down to future generations. My Bubbie is still here with us today, but is getting older. For her to make these ‘labour of love’ dishes, is becoming much too challenging. It gives me so much happiness to be able to make a large batch of these cabbage rolls and send her a few in a take home container, the circle of life.

I hope I will be able to pass these recipes down and when she is no longer with us, I can create this dish and feel a sense of home and always have her around me. These cabbage rolls are the perfect example of east European cooking. Simple ingredients put together to create something so delicious, you will be gossiping about it for generations to come!

Bubbie’s Cabbage Rolls

Yeild: 12-14 cabbage rolls

INGREDIENTS:
1 large head of cabbage
2 lbs ground beef or mix of beef and veal
1 cup rice, raw
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1-2 tbsp ketchup
Salt/pepper
1 green pepper, sliced
1 large can tomato juice
1-2 tsp sugar
Salt
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large pot, boil 2-3 cups of water. When comes to a boil, cut the bottom stem off the cabbage, remove the outer leaves and place the whole cabbage stem side up into the pot.
2. Meanwhile in a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, raw rice, onion, oil, ketchup and salt/pepper.
3. Go check on the cabbage and as the leaves soften, using tongs, pull off the leaves carefully so they don’t break. Keep doing so until all the leaves are removed. Place on paper towel to absorb liquid.
4. Once all the leaves are removed, chop up the remainder of the cabbage into large pieces.
5. On the bottom of a large baking pan, place half the cabbage and green pepper to cover the bottom.
6. Assemble the cabbage rolls by taking a good amount of filling, placing it into the cabbage leaf and rolling it up like a burrito. Place all rolled cabbage into the baking pan in one layer.
7. Once all the rolls are made, put the remaining cabbage and green pepper on top of the rolls.
8. Sprinkle sugar and salt over the rolls and fill up pan with the tomato juice until all the rolls are covered.
9. Seal the pan tightly with tin foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 3 hours. Enjoy!