Learning the Virtues of SlowFood

Passport & Plate - Babcia's Golabki

Poland | Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
2 - medium to large cabbages
1 pound of rice
1 1/2 pound ground pork and 1/2 pound ground beef (I usually buy chunks of pork and beef for stewing and ask them to grind it through once)
2 very large onion, finely chopped (size of a grapefruit)
salt and pepper to taste ( I start with about 1 tsp. of salt and 1/2 tsp. of pepper)
chicken stock or bouillon cubes (optional for cooking rice)
beef stock or bouillon cubes (about ¼ to ½ cup to moisten meat/rice filling)
6-8 cups of stewed crushed tomatoes, or 4 to 6 cans of crushed tomatoes or tomato soup

 

How to prepare this recipe
Core the cabbage. Parboil the cored cabbage in a large pot of boiling, salted water.
While the cabbage is cooking in the pot of water, make the rice according to directions (optional: add chicken stock or about 4-6 chicken bouillon cubes to the water)
Chop the onions. Sauté one onion in margarine, the other chop and add raw.
By this point, the leaves should start to soften as the cabbage boils. Separate the leaves carefully so they don't rip as you pull them apart in the pot of water. This is a long process - this probably takes the longest to do. As you pull off the cabbage leaves, they should be soft and very flexible, if they are still stiff, wait longer. Peel away the softened leaves and transfer them to another pan or platter to drain and cool.
Mix the sautéed onion and the raw onion to the ground, pork and beef, salt & pepper, then add the beef stock (or dissolve the beef bouillon cubes in a small amount of hot water and add that.) Then mix in the cooked rice.
Prep the cabbage leaves by trimming what is left of the white core. Do this by thinning it out (shave off some of the thickness so it can bend as you roll it up)
I use the trimmings to line the bottom of the baking pan so the golabki don't burn.
Place a spoonful of mixture onto the base of the leaf (core side) and roll once, tuck each side in, and roll up the rest of the way. Place folded side down into a deep baking pan. When all are rolled, pour stewed tomatoes (or cans of crushed tomatoes or tomato soup diluted with a little water) over the golabki. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake in a 400 degree oven for at least an hour. The dish tastes best if it is allowed to rest overnight and reheated the next day. Serve with hearty bread or potatoes.

 

The story behind this recipe
My leather bound travel journal, creased at the binding, boasts a weathered patina from months of spontaneous note taking. Along with daily entries, some pages have recipes passed along from new-found friends. One page – with a rust-colored thumbprint smudge of tomato sauce in the corner – instead holds a recipe from home, one from my Babcia along with a scrawled quote along the side: “Krzysiu, I am glad you are not lonesome. It is good you are cooking. Cooking takes time.”
While living abroad in Europe, I made a habit during frequent phone calls with my Grandmother to jot down some of her wise, yet, quirky adages, repeated in her thick Polish accent. During our talks, I would tell her about my new friends from all corners of the world, sharing the experience of studying abroad together in a foreign country. Despite my enthusiasm, she would always be sure to share advice on how not to be lonely. Often this was followed with a suggested family-style dish to bring together a group for any weather or occasion.
Earmarked at the corner, the same tomato-smudged page followed with a simple, yet hearty recipe for golabki, stuffed cabbage. Carefully filling softened leaves of cabbage, vibrantly green after a bath in boiling water, I noted my heightened sense of community while making this dish – discussing the firmness of the cabbage head with a farmer at the market; greeting the owner in a small bakery smelling of warm yeast as I picked up a fresh loaf of rye bread; a butcher directing the best mix of pork and beef from his selection. In a special meditation of hand crafting small cabbage parcels for the arriving guests, patience and mindfulness took precedence. That snowy evening, my friends all sat down to a meal that succeeded in meeting my Babcia’s intent. Anything but lonesome, as warm steam puffed from fragrant roasted tomatoes and cabbage, our communal meal inspired hours of laughter and closeness despite the dark, blustery mid-winter night outside.