I've made cabbage rolls once before, remember my Croatian Posna Sarma? You probably don't, because it was quite a long time ago (and look at how awful my photos were back then!). These Polish Golabki are similar but different - like the posna sarma they're stuffed with a tasty mixture of rice and vegetables, but they're smothered this time in creamy dill and mushroom sauce. They're actually pretty different in taste!
While you indulge your senses with this great recipe, guess what I'll be doing? I'll be exploring Legoland and then driving to see the Tollund Man! I've been looking forward to visiting the Tollund Man ever since I studied Seamus Heaney's poetry in high school. Have you read the Seamus Heaney poem about the Tollund Man? I love it, so I'll share it here with you:
I
Some day I will go to Aarhus
To see his
peat-brown head,
The mild pods of
his eye-lids,
His pointed skin
cap.
In the flat country near by
Where they dug
him out,
His last gruel
of winter seeds
Caked in his
stomach,
Naked except for
The cap, noose
and girdle,
I will stand a
long time.
Bridegroom to
the goddess,
She tightened her torc on him
And opened her
fen,
Those dark
juices working
Him to a saint's
kept body,
Trove of the turfcutters'
Honeycombed
workings.
Now his stained
face
Reposes at
Aarhus.
II
I could risk
blasphemy,
Consecrate the
cauldron bog
Our holy ground
and pray
Him to make
germinate
The scattered,
ambushed
Flesh of
labourers,
Stockinged
corpses
Laid out in the
farmyards,
Tell-tale skin and teeth
Flecking the
sleepers
Of four young
brothers, trailed
For miles along
the lines.
III
Something of his
sad freedom
As he rode the
tumbril
Should come to
me, driving,
Saying the names
Tollund,
Grauballe, Nebelgard,
Watching the pointing hands
Of country people,
Not knowing their tongue.
Out here in
Jutland
In the old man-killing parishes
I will feel
lost,
Unhappy and at
home.
Ingredients
1 whole green cabbage
Filling
2 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely diced
400g mushrooms, chopped
1 tomato, diced
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup sauerkraut
1 tbsp fresh dill
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
300g mushrooms, chopped and washed
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup vegan sour cream
1 tbsp chopped dill
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat the oven to about 180 degrees celcius.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan or frypan and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the mushrooms and chopped tomato and cook for s further 3-4 minutes, until the mushrooms are cooked.
3. Add the rice, sauerkraut, dill and season with salt and pepper. Stir well to combine and heat through. Then set aside for later.
4. Meanwhile, pull the tough outer leaves off the cabbage and discard. Wash thoroughly and steam the whole cabbage for 10 minutes or so until the outer leaves are softened and easier to pull away.
5. Remove as many of the outer leaves as you can (until you reach the inner parts which are not as well cooked) and then put the rest of the cabbage back in the steamer for another 5 mins so that you can remove more of the leaves.
6. Cut the thick stems out of the cabbage leaves and begin rolling. Add about 2 tablespoons of rice mix to the edge of the cabbage leaf and roll over once. Fold in both of the edges and then continue rolling to the end. Put aside. Keep going until you use up the rice filling (or you have to stop because your dish isn't going to be big enough for all of them.
7. Place your rolls in a big baking dish, tucking them in close to hold them together.
8. To make the sauce, place the mushrooms with a couple of tablespoons of water in a small saucepan over a medium heat until cooked. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Then remove from the heat and stir through the sour cream and dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then pour the sauce all over your cabbage rolls.
9. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh dill and then serve.
Serves 6 - Makes about 12 cabbage rolls. You'll also have some leftover cabbage to chop up and use in another meal.
8. To make the sauce, place the mushrooms with a couple of tablespoons of water in a small saucepan over a medium heat until cooked. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a simmer. Then remove from the heat and stir through the sour cream and dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and then pour the sauce all over your cabbage rolls.
9. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh dill and then serve.
Serves 6 - Makes about 12 cabbage rolls. You'll also have some leftover cabbage to chop up and use in another meal.
This
month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Poland.
Check
out my other Polish recipe posts:
Try to use forest mushrooms, not champiniones - it will be 100x better ^_^
ReplyDeleteThis one is totally weird.
ReplyDeleteIn Poland golabki is a very popular dish but I doubt if anyone in Poland could cook something like this.
Traditionally the filling is made from the mixture of mince meat and rice. However, the vegetarian version containing mushrooms does exist.
But although here in Poland we use lots of sauerkraut (we have a very long winter, and sauerkraut is a good source of vitamins) nobody ever uses it to fill golabki. Because of the Polish long winter and a relatively short summer using fresh tomatoes is very limited in Polish cookery. It is replaced by tomato paste (I know that it sounds awful but a real Polish housewife almost never uses fresh tomatoes to cook a sauce for example). It may be hard to believe for you but old generation uses fresh tomatoes only in sandwiches and to prepare a tomato salad. Tomatoes as an ingredient of filling for golabki - it is simply impossible.
And I doubt if anybody in Poland would use dill - in both cases: the sauce and the filling.
Thanks for your feedback - I'll remember next time no dill :) No, I don't find it difficult to believe that fresh tomatoes wouldn't have been used - and it is true that most of the recipes I came across used tomato paste. But since I am fortunate to live in a time and place where tomatoes are plentiful I decided to use fresh because I prefer to eat less salt and sugar. Your comments are noted, and I'll remember that next time I cook golabki! :)
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