Sarmale – The Mai Bine Cabbage Roll

Most of us 50+ Americans ate a few cabbage rolls growing up. I remember the burrito-sized whole cabbage leaves stuffed with ground beef  in a sweet-ish tomato sauce often served as the hot lunch entree in the school cafeteria. You’d get one on your plate and usually abandon the tough cabbage leaf in favor of the meat (protein usually won out over hard-to-chew roughage even then). You could also get cabbage rolls at the Jewish deli that looked great, but tasted about the same, promising so much flavor but that were invariably a taste letdown.

Not so the Sarmale (pron: sar-mah-leh), which is the more delicately sized Romanian cabbage roll with a filling made of  lean ground beef, ground pork, rice, dill, oregano and basil layered between a bed of  cooked, shredded cabbage cores,  sauerkraut and sliced fresh tomatoes. Sauerkraut + tomatoes = my tastebuds go zing!

Since the 14th century, when the Ottoman Turks, first invaded Central Eastern Europe and then made Transylvania a vassal state, the Romanians began picking up Turkish recipes. Sarma, in Turkish, means to roll, and though they eventually got rid of the Ottomans, they kept the Sarmale, which today is a national dish of Romania, and have over time used chard, grape leaves and cabbage to wrap these savory rolls.

This recipe delivers the big, sour taste characteristic of the best Romanian cooking with the combination of sauerkraut, lemon and tomato cooked with cabbage and the meat filling. Served with mamaliga (polenta) and a dollop of sour cream you have a complete, belly-balanced dinner. This is a satisfying cold-weather feast for a large family or group. It’s inexpensive, stores easily, tastes even better in the days that follow, and can be a quick warm-up lunch that satisfies without weighing you down. Today we skiied 8-inch powder all morning then came in and had this fabulous, hearty lunch.

And, to get scientific about your stomach, sauerkraut provides probiotics to help balance the microflora in your gut, which can improve your health overall, even your mental health! But don’t take my word for it: check out what the doctors at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland say.

Thanks to Elena Anastasis, of St. Mary’s, Kansas, a wonderful librarian, cook and human being, for this delicious recipe that I have been making since 1986 at least once every winter. Pofta bine! Enjoy your meal!

Here is a quick Sarmale – The Mai Bine (Better) Cabbage Roll video. Enjoy!

Sarmale

Serves 8

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1/2 large, sweet onion chopped

2 teaspoons dried dill or 2 tablespoons fresh

1/2 teaspoon of oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil

1 1/2 to 2  teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup rice, rinsed

…

1 large jar of sauerkraut

3 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste

1 large, very white cabbage, cored. It is important that when choosing a cabbage, you pick the largest, whitest cabbage you can find, since the whiteness indicates maturity and the leaves are thinner and make better wraps for the Sarmale.

1 teaspoon dried dill

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil

1 quart/4 cups water

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 teaspoon salt

Prepare Meat Mixture

In a large bowl, combine well the first 8 ingredients, including the half-cup of water, and set aside.

Cook and Trim Cabbage Leaves

Place cabbage in a +3 quart soup pan or stock pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. As cabbage cooks, using tongs, turn the cabbage every few minutes from core side to smooth side in the boiling water. After a few minutes of cooking, slowly detach the outer leaf from the core-side, carefully peeling it and leave it in the boiling water if it is not completely cooked (It will become almost transparent when cooked.).

Once the cabbage leaf is cooked, remove it from the pan and place it in a sieve to cool and drain then remove the tough leaf core by slicing each leaf in half first then cutting it out.

If the cabbage-leaf halves are too large for the filling (1 tbsp), cut each of the halves in the center on a 45-degree angle to make them leaf quarters with one small, pointed side and one wide side, somewhat like in the shape of a fan. Stack these leaves and set aside until you are ready to fill them.

Roughly chop the core and set these bits aside in a small bowl.

Assemble the Sarmale

Line the bottom of a 3-quart or larger soup or stock pan with an entire jar of sauerkraut and include most of the juice.

Take approximately one tablespoon of the meat filling and squeeze it in your hand and turn it a few times as you squeeze it until you have it packed together tightly like small sausage.

With the pointed side of a cooked cabbage leaf toward you, place the formed meat filling on top of the leaf and roll it away from you, tucking in the wide end on one side or the other before you finish rolling it up. Place it seam side down in the pan along the wall of the pan, on top of the bed of sauerkraut with the seam side down.

Continue to assemble the Sarmale and place them along the wall of the pan moving inward to the center to create the first layer, second layer and then a final layer.

Cover the top of the Sarmale with the other jar of sauerkraut, discarding the juice. Arrange the cabbage core cuttings over the top of this.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the quart of water, tomato paste, oregano, dill and basil and salt and pepper to taste. Mix and then pour over the sarmale.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bring the sarmale to a boil on top of the stove then place in the oven, uncovered for 3 hours. Rearrange the cabbage on the top during cooking, so that it all gets roasted and browned. Serve hot with mamaliga (polenta without cheese) and sour cream.