For the preparation of cabbage rolls, you can use red cabbage or savoy cabbage, spinach leaves or beets. However, most housewives choose the more familiar white cabbage. Before wrapping meat and rice filling in cabbage leaves, these leaves must be properly prepared. Then they will be elastic, but soft, tender and juicy - the same as shells for real homemade stuffed cabbage should be.
It is necessary
-
- head of cabbage;
- large saucepan;
- colander;
- microwave or stove with oven;
- food foil;
- sharp knife.
Instructions
Step 1
First of all, choose a suitable head of cabbage. It is best to take a medium-sized, moderately firm, slightly loose head of cabbage. It will be easy to tear off the leaves from such a head without damaging them.
Step 2
Some housewives prefer to cook whole forks. However, this requires a very large saucepan, but there is no guarantee that all the leaves will be equally soft. It is easier to disassemble the cabbage into individual leaves before cooking.
Carefully separate the leaves from the stalk. If they are difficult to separate, trim them lightly with a knife at the base. Select juicy, intact leaves of the same size.
Step 3
Pour water into a saucepan, bring it to a boil. Salt. Dip the cabbage leaves into the water. Make sure they are completely covered with water. Blanch the cabbage for about 3-6 minutes. Throw the finished leaves in a colander, let the water drain, and the leaves cool completely.
Step 4
You can do otherwise: wrap the prepared leaves in food foil and place in the oven for 5-7 minutes. The advantage of this method is the preservation of cabbage juice and a richer taste of the finished cabbage.
Step 5
Leaves can also be cooked in the microwave. Place them on a glass or earthenware plate and turn on the oven for 3 minutes. The taste will be similar to the taste of oven-baked cabbage, but the consistency will be slightly different.
Step 6
And finally, the easiest way. If you don't want to mess with pre-boiling or baking whole cabbage leaves at all, make lazy cabbage rolls. To do this, cut raw leaves and mix with prepared minced meat. Many people like this version of stuffed cabbage even more than the classic one.
