Gołąbki: Made in Newcastle

This week we’ve been cooking up some Polish treats at home, making ‘gołąbki’- Polish cabbage parcels. British cooking generally places cabbage as a lowly side dish boiled up or steamed and left to go cold on the side of the plate, but something I really like about Polish cooking is that cabbage gets the status of main feature.
So when a cabbage came in our vegbox delivery this week, my partner (the resident cook) turned to ‘The Polish Kitchen’ by Mary Pinińska, for some trusty ideas. Here’s our variation on her recipe for gołąbki and some photos of the resulting ‘little pigeons’ made by us here in Newcastle.

Ingredients:
1 large Savoy cabbage
175 grams of long-grain rice
2 large brown onions (chopped)
450 grams of flat mushrooms (diced)
85 grams of butter
1 litre of tomato juice
25 grams of flour
½ litre of vegetable stock
And we added: a pinch of cinnamon and two handfuls of sultanas.

Method:
Select some nice juicy cabbage leaves, boil for a minute, set aside. Meanwhile boil the rice until tender and set aside. Fry the onions in butter, add the diced mushrooms and fry, then mix with the rice. Season to taste and add a pinch of cinnamon. Add two handfuls of sultanas (removing any stalks).
Place a spoonful of the rice mixture in each cabbage leaf and wrap. Fold the ends of the leaf under like a parcel.
Grease a roasting tin and preheat the oven to 200oc. Place the parcels neatly in the tin and pour over the tomato juice and stock.
Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 10 minutes. Cabbage parcels should go slightly brown (ours were a little too over-baked!) Add the flour and remaining butter to the juices to make a tasty accompanying sauce.


We served with extra vegatables - here's a photo of the outcome:

Smacznego!