GOLUMPKIS ~ POLISH CABBAGE ROLLS

My husband, Scott, is part polish.  Does that surprise you?  I mean, I am all the time saying he is part Italian.  

A few years ago he decided to make golumpkis, stuffed cabbage rolls.  He grew up eating these as a child.  He has memories of his grandmother making them and then his mother.  This dish has good juju for him.  

There are lots of different ways to make them due to so many different nationalities make them.  Here is a History of Stuffed Cabbage Rolls.  Not only are there different ways to make them, but there are also different spellings.  The ones we make are Polish and can be spelled many ways such as galumpkis and others spell it golumpkis.  Or even golabki.   

While the recipe is simple it is a time-consuming labor of love. Maybe this is the reason they were made on special occasions.  Golumpkis are basically cabbage leaves, pork, ground beef, and rice.

While Scott was working on the onions I made some rice.  Do not cook your rice done.  

Cut and saute a couple of onions.

Combine the rice with the onions.

Add eggs, Hungarian paprika, salt, pepper, parsley, tomato paste and garlic.

Mix in ground pork and ground beef.

It kind of looks like a meatloaf.

You have to core your cabbage. 

I am not too good with knives and cabbages are hard so Scott does this chore.

Here is what it looks like once the core is out.

You need to par-boil the cabbage in order to take the leaves off in one piece.

We put them in an

 ice water bath to keep them from cooking.

You need to cut the stem part off.

Fill the leave with your meat mixture.

Roll them up.

Prepare your casserole dish with some tomato sauce.  The sauce will keep your cabbage rolls from sticking.

Next, you fill your casserole dish with your stuffed rolls.

Just fill up your dish.  Sometimes it takes 2 dishes to make this yummy food.

Doesn't it look delicious?  This is great comfort food.

Polish Galumpkis

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound pork
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• 2 eggs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 to 2 cans of tomato sauce

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Par-boil one cup of rice.
• Chop 2 onions and saute them.
• Core a cabbage head, put the cabbage into boiling water, do not cook just parboil so you can remove the leaves.
• Put leaves in an ice water bath to keep them from cooking.
• Put a couple of spoons full of the meat mixture onto your cabbage leaf and roll them up.
• Put a few spoons of tomato sauce in your casserole dish to cover the bottom.
• Place cabbage rolls into the casserole dish.
• Cover casserole dish with foil and cook for 60 minutes.

Some versions include adding nutmeg, Worcestershire sauce, bread crumbs, thyme or marjoram for spice.  Others are saucier.  You can use tomato soup for a thicker sauce.  

Since this recipe makes a ton of cabbage rolls they are awesome to freeze.  

As you can tell, I am not the one that did all the hard work in making these tasty rolls.  This was Scott's baby.  He is the polish cook in our house and he always rocks it.  

ENJOY!!