"Mama says ... For Friday night dinner, make your chicken soup on Thursday night. As well as improving its flavor, you can use the surface fat for making matzah balls on Friday." Peppered throughout with advice such as this, The Jewish Mama’s Kitchen leads readers through a complete course on homestyle Jewish cooking. Presented with archival photographs on facsimile notebook pages, this book brings culinary traditions and glimpses of the old world into today’s home kitchen.
Stuffed cabbage leaves are a traditional dish that is used to celebrate Succot. My contemporary twist — chopped apricots — provides a nice contrast to the sweet-and-sour sauce. Serve this as part of a Succot buffet or as a first course in a Yom Tov meal.
FLEISHIK: contains meat / can be made in advance
PREPARATION TIME: 35 minutes (plus 30 minutes to chill)
COOKING TIME: 2 hours
SERVES: 8 to 10
STUFFED CABBAGE LEAVES
3 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or lamb
1/2 cup long-grain white rice
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and chopped finely
1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots
5 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped finely
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons water
16 large white or savoy cabbage leaves (select thick leaves in perfect condition)
SWEET-AND-SOUR SAUCE
Two 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes with juice
2 medium yellow onions, chopped coarsely
1 cup dark raisins (if desired)
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 cup dry red wine
Salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted, to garnish
In a large bowl, combine the beef or lamb, rice, onions, apricots, garlic, salt, and pepper. (For a smoother mixture, pulse the ingredients in a food processor.)
In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and water. Add to the meat mixture and combine. Refrigerate the mixture covered for 30 minutes.
Fill a large saucepan with water. Bring to a boil. Plunge the cabbage leaves in the boiling water. Blanch 2 minutes. Transfer the cabbage leaves to a colander and rinse immediately with cold water — this will prevent them from continuing to cook.
Transfer the cabbage leaves to a work surface. Using a sharp knife, carefully remove any hard stalks, while doing minimal damage to the leaves.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
Shape the chilled beef mixture into egg-sized ovals. Wrap each oval in one or two cabbage leaves, folding and overlapping the leaves so the mixture is completely enclosed in a tight parcel. Place stuffed cabbage leaves in a baking dish.
In a medium bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredients. Pour over the stuffed cabbage leaves.
Cover the dish. Bake 2 hours.
Gently transfer the stuffed cabbage leaves to a serving dish. Spoon the sauce over the stuffed cabbage leaves. Sprinkle with pine nuts and serve.
