I talked with Granny and she told me Kocham
Cie means I love you in Polish. You can bet your cookies I was telling my kids
and hubby this all day. :) Granny speaks polish and often speak Polish/English
to us. When she speaks Polish to us we have no idea what she is saying. Thankfully
most of the time she translates, unless it's a swear word. ;) She told me
Golabki "stuffed cabbage" is traditional meal there so thats what we
had tonight. I paired it with kielbasa
and pierogis. Also very common dishes in Poland. I
thought about making the pierogis from scratch but then I decided one dish I
was unfamiliar making was ambitious enough
for me. :) So I had Joe pick some up in the frozen section from the store. You
can just saute the kielabasa on the stove with some sliced white onions.
Here is the recipe. We loved it and
hope you do too. I recommend cutting this in half.
Makes about 18 Golabki "Polish Cabbage Rolls"
Prep Time: 30
minutesCook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Ingredients:
·
1 whole head cabbage,
about 4 pounds
·
1 large onion, chopped
·
2 tablespoons butter
·
1 pound ground beef
·
1/2 pound ground pork
·
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
·
1 teaspoon finely chopped
garlic
·
1 teaspoon salt
·
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
·
1 cup beef stock
·
1 12 oz can of tomato
sauce
·
Sour cream for
garnish (optional)
Preparation:
1.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.
Remove core from cabbage.
Place whole head in a large pot filled with boiling, salted water. Cover and
cook 3 minutes, or until softened enough to pull off individual leaves. You
will need about 18 leaves.
3.
When leaves are cool
enough to handle, use a paring knife to cut
away the thick center stem from each leaf, without cutting all the way through.
4.
Chop the remaining
cabbage and place it in the bottom of a casserole dish or Dutch oven.
5.
Sauté the chopped onion
in butter in a large frying pan until tender, and let it cool.6. Mix cooled onions with beef, pork, rice, garlic, salt and black pepper until well combined. Don't over mix or the meat will become tough.
7.
Place about 1/2 cup of
meat on each cabbage leaf. Roll away from you to encase the meat. Flip the
right side of the leaf to the middle, then flip the left side. You will have
something that looks like an envelope. Once again, roll away from you to create
a neat little roll. These directions were hard for me to follow. I had to let
my Mexican roots kick in and just pretend I was rolling a burrito.
8.
Place the cabbage rolls
on top of the chopped cabbage in the casserole dish or Dutch oven, seasoning
each layer with salt and pepper. Mix
beef stock and tomato sauce together and over rolls, cover and place in oven.
Bake for 1 hour or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked.
9.
Serve with pan juices and
a drizzle of sour cream, or mix the pan juices with sour cream and ladle it
over the cabbage rolls.
10. Cabbage rolls freeze well before or after cooking, and
can be made in a slow cooker (see your manufacturer's instructions).
Note:
Since they can be eaten hot or at room temperature, mini cabbage rolls make
great appetizers. Just spear them with a frilled toothpick and you're good to
go!
Fun
Poland Facts
At
dinner Joe shared these fun Polish facts.
1.
Poland is the the 9th largest country in Europe.
2.
The most popular name for a dog in Poland is Burek which translates to:
“brownish-grey color”.
3. Polish born astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
was the first person to propose that the earth was not the center of the
universe.
4.
Another Polish astronomer, Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) published the earliest
exact maps of the moon. (Now whoever said Pollock's where dumb better take that
back!) ;)
5.
Pizza in Poland does not contain tomato sauce. The waiters bring sauce to the
table in a pitcher, and you pour it on top. Sometimes the sauce is just
ketchup.
