Cabbage Rolls in Beef Gravy

 In the ongoing prep for our Polish dinner on Saturday, I made stuffed cabbage yesterday.  I've shown this recipe before but thought I would post it again in case you missed it.  These are delicious!

 Start out by coring a large cabbage and boiling it to remove the leaves.  Place them on a towel to dry.

 The recipe:

• 1 medium to large head green cabbage (about 3 lb)
• 1 lb ground lean beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 eggs
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Montreal steak spice
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
•  1/4 tsp. dried rosemary
• 
  
• about 2 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp butter
• about 2 cups beef broth
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• about 1 - 2 Tbsp cornstarch

Instructions:

• Prepare cabbage head by removing the stalk. Cook head in a large pot of boiling, salted water for about 10 minutes until the leaves loosen. Remove leaves.Slice remaining cabbage and add to the pot with the rolls.  Hey, extra cabbage!
• Prepare meat mixture by mixing together the beef, pork, eggs, onion, bread crumbs and remaining seasoning.
• Put about 1 heaping Tbsp meat mixture on end of cabbage leaf. Roll up tightly, tucking in sides. Fasten with a wooden toothpick.
• In a large saucepan, over high heat, add oil and butter. In batches, carefully brown cabbage rolls on all sides. When all have been browned, return all cabbage rolls to pan and add beef broth and bouillon so that the liquid almost covers the rolls.
• Simmer gently for about 1 hour.
• Carefully remove cabbage rolls on to a platter, removing the toothpicks. Keep rolls warm while you make the gravy.
• Mix corn starch with a bit of cold water. Add as much as needed to the liquid in the saucepan until it is the desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper if needed. Taste first because the bouillon adds salt.
• Serve cabbage rolls with potatoes (boiled or mashed) or noodles.

 A perfect little package of joy.

 A mountains of little packages of joy.

 Pan searing these really adds to their depth of flavor.

 You want to get them nice and brown on all sides.

 I always chop up the leftover cabbage and saute' it as well because hey...more cabbage!  That's a good thing in my book!

 Mixing the tomato paste and other ingredients into the pot will loosen up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot.  Lots of flavor in that stuff.

 Add the beef broth.

Then add the rolls back in again, cover and cook at a simmer for an hour.  I am really getting my Polish on this week.

 Just as I finished making the cabbage rolls I peeked outside to check on the W's.  I saw this in the middle of the driveway.

 Next to it was this very innocent looking chow chow.

Grrrrr...my new Uggs.  They now have a puppy kiss on them.