Grandma Eleanor’s Golumpkis (Gołąbki)
Pronounced “gawumpkis,” this Polish comfort food has been the main course for most of my dad’s birthdays. My grandma would make them especially for him every year and, although the not-so-adventurous palette of a young Sarah was not the hugest fan, adult Sarah adores them and cannot wait to share them with you.
It’s a traditional stuffed cabbage dish; my grandma learned how to make it watching her mother, then tweaked the recipe a bit to suit her tastes. They are not nearly as hard as they may seem, but they require some practice and patience. Like all comfort food, it’s a labor of love, and, I promise, they are totally worth it.
RECIPE
Difficulty: Intermediate
Servings: 10-14 approx.
Time: 2 hrs
Ingredients
1 head of cabbage
2 lbs. of ground beef (80/20)
1 small yellow onion, finely minced
2 (15oz) cans tomato sauce
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups of cooked rice (Minute/Instant rice is fine)
4 Bay leaves
Distilled white vinegar
4 strips of bacon
Salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the ground beef, onion, rice, eggs, salt, and pepper (about a couple of pinches of both). If the mixture feels too wet, add some bread crumbs to dry it out a little bit. It should feel like a raw meatball or meatloaf mixture. Set aside.
Bring a stockpot filled halfway with water to a boil. Peel off any torn or bad leaves from the cabbage. Flip cabbage head over, core facing you. Using a paring knife, carve a diamond shape out of the cabbage core.
Set the whole head into the boiling water and let cook covered for 2 minutes. Then, using a meat fork in the core, take the cabbage out and set it in a colander that is resting in a large bowl or pot. Let it cool long enough to handle. Then, gently peel the leaves off the head - careful not to break or get hole in the leaves. If the leaves are too hard to remove without tearing, then put the head of cabbage back in the water for a couple more minutes (repeating the process as needed).
Using a paring knife, carefully strip down the leaf's vein - this will make it easier to roll.
Once you have a handful of leaves peeled and the veins stripped down, you are going to begin stuffing. Take about 1/3 cup of the meat mixture (less if the leaf is small) and place it at the bottom of the leaf (the end of the leaf connected to the core). Then, roll the bottom over and under the meat mixture, like a burrito, tucking the meat mixture tightly into the cabbage leaf. Continue rolling until the whole leaf is rolled. Then, using your thumbs, stuff the overhang of the leaves in the sides into the meat mixture.
Place stuffed cabbage rolls in a casserole dish that has a lid. Continue the process until you’ve either run out of meat mixture or run out of good cabbage leaves. You should have a small amount of the cabbage remaining.
If you have meat remaining, just make meatballs and add them to the dish.
Shred the remaining cabbage and layer over the stuffed cabbage. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper. Then, pour all the tomato sauce on top of the cabbage rolls and shredded cabbage. Fill the cans about halfway with water, swishing around to rinse the remaining tomato sauce out, then pour on top of the sauce in the dish. Add two capfuls of vinegar. Tuck the bay leaves into the sauce. Lay the bacon strips whole over the top of the contents of the dish. Cover and bake for 90 minutes or until the meat is thoroughly cooked to 160 degrees F and the cabbage is completely soft.
Serve with mashed potatoes and the green vegetable of your choice, then enjoy!
COOK’S NOTES:
When shopping for the cabbage, be sure the head of the cabbage is loose. Meaning, try to buy a head of cabbage where the leaves aren’t too tight to the head. It should be somewhat easy to peel when raw.
If you’re trying to cut calories, you can swap the ground beef for ground chicken or turkey. Ground chicken is the preferred swap in my family.
Use whatever kind of long-grain rice you have, but I don’t recommend using fragrant rice like Basmati or Jasmine because it will change the flavor. Basic white or brown rice is preferable.
