Of Cabbages and Things

Gobalki - King of the Cabbage

Among the most satisfyingly delicious meals to have been served up to your humble narrator have been in the unlikeliest locations.  Food snobbery over the years has been fuelled by 'expert' gastronauts sneering over dishes emerging from outside those holy  shrines of cuisine: France and Italy.  In Europe, Great Britain and Spain have slowly clawed their cuisines into respectable dining neighbourhoods.  Similar progress has been made in parts of Latin America and, across the Atlantic, Cape Town.

But regional prejudices still exist, subliminal suspicions marring the progress of fine dining in many regions of the world.  Yet, in his travels, yours truly has found pleasure in the most improbable of places.  The best roast goose ever - bar none - served in Bratislava on the banks of the Danube.  Black pudding soup and dumplings in a converted oubliette in Prague.  Frog's legs in Brussels.  Prego in Lisbon.  Coffin Bean Bunny in Durban.

Today our focus lands squarely on Poland and, as always in these pages, praises the simple pleasures of peasant cookery.

Golabki, meaning "little pigeons", are cabbage rolls stuffed with rice, pork and beef then simmered in tomato soup - and one of the most popular dishes in Poland.  This recipe works equally well in the oven or a slow cooker. Serve with pan juices and a drizzle of sour cream, and ladle it over the cabbage rolls. Also, good with mashed potatoes and cucumber and sour cream salad. Simple to prepare, kind to the budget and very tasty, they can be made in vast quantities and reheated, since their flavour improves with age.

You will need, to serve eight:

• 1 head cabbage, cored
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 450g minced beef
• 220g minced pork
• 1.5 cups cooked rice
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 3 cans condensed tomato soup
• 800ml sieved tomatoes (passata)
• Half cup ketchup

Method:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place cabbage head into water, cover pot, and cook until cabbage leaves are slightly softened enough to remove from head, three minutes. Remove cabbage from pot and let cabbage sit until leaves are cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes
• Remove 18 whole leaves from the cabbage head, cutting out any thick centre ribs. Set whole leaves aside. Chop the remainder of the cabbage head and spread it in the bottom of a casserole dish
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onion in hot butter until tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Cool
• Stir onion, beef, pork, rice, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and quarter teaspoon pepper together in a large bowl
• Preheat oven to 175C
• Place about half cup beef/pork mixture on a cabbage leaf. Roll cabbage around beef mixture, tucking in sides to create an envelope around the meat. Repeat with remaining leaves and meat mixture. Place cabbage rolls in a layer atop the chopped cabbage in the casserole dish; season rolls with salt and black pepper
• Whisk tomato soup, tomato juice, and ketchup together in a bowl. Pour tomato soup mixture over cabbage rolls and cover dish with cooking foil
• Bake in the preheated oven until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked through, about 1 hour (Tip: Cover the baking dish tightly so that the cabbage can steam and get tender, then uncover for the last 20 to 30 minutes of cooking)