Tackling the "lahana"-beast (i.e. Cabbage)

My last veggies order at www.seyyarfile.com, had a nice-big surprise, in the form of humongous Cabbage ("Lahana" in Turkish). One can appreciate the volume next to a decent-size apple

 

So after a  lot of Tartışma, I hesitated between the Turkish version of stuffed cabbage leaves versus the Algerian version. 

The Turkish version that I know and have made in the past, consists on stuffing the leaves with a mixture of seasoned rice and ground beef, then cooked in a tomato-based sauce. 

The Algerian version uses a relatively same stuffing but the 'white-sauce' is cooked with meat-cubes, chickpeas and flavored with cinnamon.

So I decided to leave it up the talented lady of Portakal Ağacı blog to describe in great details her Lahana Sarması recipe. And I will share my recipe of  Dolmat el Kroumb, Algerian style:

The Ingredients:

- well we got it - a huge cabbage

- about 250g of  preferably beef-chucks or ground-beef

- 1 onion

- 1 tablespoon of vegetables oil

- 50g or  a handful of overnight soaked chickpeas

- cinnamon, salt and pepper

The stuffing:

- 300g of ground beef

- a coffee-cup of rice

- one egg

- half onion

- some parsley, salt and pepper

The preparation:

First, you would need to remove delicately the leaves one by one (which remind me of the Turkish expression for over-dressed baby as a " lahana baby")

You may want to start by carving the central root, to help you separate the leaves, then proceed to separating the leaves

- then, blanch the cabbage leaves, which consists of boiling them in salted water for 4-5min to soften them

 - now starts the 'tedious' job: first you would need to prepare the leaves by cutting the central-veiny part, then cut them into stripes for the stuffing

- then, prepare both the ground beef with onion and salt and form small-size meatballs (in the case you are not using the beef-chuck).

Also, prepare the stuffing, la Farce in French, by mixing the stuffing ingredients

- Now starts rolling: take a strip of cabbage leave, place at the bottom a small quantity of stuffing. Flip the right and left edges over then roll like a cigar by trying to make it as tight as possible. (if the cabbage leaves is torn, no problemo, use some patching here and there with cabbage leaves).

and then make as much as you can (stand it)

Once done with leaves, prepare the sauce, by sweating the onions in the vegetable oil and seasoned with cinnamon, salt and pepper. Add the chickpeas and meatballs, and cook halfway through.

 The last step is to place the cabbage leaves in your pan with some water. Cook under low heat for 30 min.

Serve warm  and  finally......Enjoy!

PS: you will be left with many 'undesirable' pieces of blanched cabbage leaves: my recommendation, make a nice and hearty winter soup (with potatoes, carrots and onions, and flavored to your taste)

PS2 : and you would also need something refreshing and light after the above, so a nice desert:

An orange-blossom water and cinnamon flavored pomegranate (and eventually pears) fruit-salad. (that too takes a lot time to prepare the pomegranate, but it is quite rewarding..................and delicious).