Lebanese Cabbage Rolls
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CreativityTranscript
00:00 The following are prep pictures for making cabbage rolls.
00:15 First you want to core the cabbage.
00:17 Then add all of the ingredients or the meat mixture into a large bowl.
00:21 Stir the mixture together to combine everything and let it sit for a few minutes so the mixture
00:25 can melt.
00:26 Then add your cabbage to boiling water.
00:28 Adding the cabbage to boiling water will help loosen the leaves and will make it very easy
00:32 when it comes time to actually roll the cabbage rolls.
00:34 Hi everyone, I'm Lindsay Cook and today I'm making Lebanese cabbage rolls.
00:40 Cabbage rolls are a huge thing in my family.
00:42 We absolutely have to have them around the holidays and you can always find at least
00:46 20 of them frozen in my mom's freezer.
00:48 This recipe is one that my great grandmother used, my grandmother used, and that my mom
00:52 currently is using.
00:53 I've modified it a little bit to put my spin on it, but I've already got a lot of the prep
00:57 work done already.
00:58 I started with two heads of cabbage and boiled those just to get the leaves real loose and
01:04 limp so that they're easy to roll.
01:06 You want to make sure that you don't quite cook the leaves all the way through, but just
01:09 get them so that they're real pliable and easy to roll up.
01:13 I also prepared the meat mixture already.
01:15 There it is.
01:16 What I did for this is combine two pounds of ground beef, chopped onion, two cloves
01:21 of garlic, a can of diced tomatoes, a little bit of brown sugar, about two tablespoons.
01:25 I really like a little bit of sweet in there.
01:27 A teaspoon of cinnamon, probably about two teaspoons of salt, and about a teaspoon of
01:33 pepper, and also a cup of rice.
01:35 It's uncooked rice, just to let you all know.
01:38 Then you just mix it all together and that will serve as the filling for the cabbage
01:41 rolls.
01:42 As you can see, I've been filling cabbage rolls all morning.
01:45 It's a great way to spend your Saturday morning.
01:50 Right now, I just wanted to show you how to roll them because I know it's kind of confusing.
01:55 What I do and what works best for me is I place about, probably about half a cup worth
02:00 of meat mixture and I put it right into the thinned out cabbage leaves.
02:05 The cabbage will have this vein going down the middle.
02:08 What I like to do is just take a sharp knife and skin it back and just cut some of that
02:13 vein out so it's not as hard to roll.
02:16 The vein, it just doesn't taste good.
02:18 You don't want that in there with your cabbage rolls.
02:21 Once you've got it deveined or thinned, you put your meat in the middle and you just fold
02:25 the sides over top like so, and then you just roll.
02:31 That way, for me, it works best to do it this way because the sides are already tucked in
02:35 when you roll it.
02:36 Then you just place it on your pan right up next to the other ones you've already done
02:40 and go on to the next one.
02:41 It's really simple.
02:42 It does take a little bit of time when you're doing 30 or so of them, but it's very easy.
02:48 That's how you roll a cabbage roll.
02:50 Once I get them all rolled up, I'll show you the next step, which is basically just boiling
02:53 them on the stove in a tomato mixture.
02:57 Thanks.
02:58 Hey, we're back over here.
03:02 Just a minute ago, I was showing you all how to wrap cabbage rolls properly.
03:09 After I got done doing that, I made the sauce that the cabbage rolls cook in.
03:14 I know everyone has a little different recipe for this, but my family's always done a combination
03:18 of tomato products, just a tomato soup, tomato paste, and actually diced tomatoes.
03:24 We add some water to that, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
03:27 What I do is I put the cabbage rolls, I like to layer all the little bits, the extra bits,
03:33 I like to layer those on the bottom of my Dutch oven and pan that I cook the cabbage
03:36 rolls in.
03:37 Then I place the rolls actually on top of that.
03:39 Then I always just throw in a little bit of extra cabbage on top of that.
03:42 Then I pour the sauce over top, bring it to a boil, and let it simmer for about an hour
03:46 and a half.
03:47 These have been simmering and the house is smelling pretty good now, so I think they're
03:51 about ready.
03:52 I'm just going to check on them.
03:54 Most of the liquid gets absorbed into the cabbage rolls, so that's another way of knowing
03:58 when they're done.
03:59 Everything looks good here, so I think we are ready to serve them up.
04:06 I usually like about two cabbage rolls, but my dad can eat about five of them.
04:10 It depends on who you're serving, but this is a good average size.
04:15 There you have it, lovely cabbage rolls.
04:19 Bon Appetit.
04:34 [music]