Foody Friday - Cabbage Rolls

For Christmas this year I received The All American Cowboy Grill cookbook as a gift. I hadn't looked at it much but I dusted it off this week and found a surprisingly good cabbage recipe that I tweaked a bit to accommodate the ingredients I had available.

Don't like cabbage? Don't worry, the HONEY in this recipe will help you love it!

Cabbage Rolls

1 lg. white cabbage

water

1 t. salt

Filling:

1/2 onion

2 t. minced garlic

1/2 cup ground meat (beef, venison, pork, your choice)

cabbage cooking liquid

1 cup of chopped cabbage

1 (or so) cups of cooked rice

1 t. salt

1 t. ginger

1 t. pepper

Topping:

2 T. honey

butter

cabbage cooking water for basting

Cut the base off the cabbage, and cook in salted water until the leaves are soft. As the cabbage head cooks the outer leaves will fall off. Gently lift them out as they release and allow to cool on a plate until you have about a dozen cabbage leaves. Take out the remaining cabbage and chop up. Reserve the cooking water.

To make the filling, in a skillet, heat a small amount of oil, add onions and garlic, and cook until the onions are clean but not brown. Brown the ground meat with the onions/garlic. Once the meat is cooked add 1 cup of cabbage cooking water, chopped cabbage, rice and spices. Cook over medium heat until heated through. If the mix is too thick add some more cooking water.

Flatten the cabbage leaves. Lift a spoonful of filling onto leaf, roll up, tucking edges around mixture. Place side by side in lightly sprayed 9x9 dish. Drizzle honey on top and dot with a bit of butter. Bake rolls for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Halfway through baking turn over (if you can) and baste with cabbage water.

Makes 6-8 servings. Enjoy!