Stuffed leaves
I loved the dolmeh I ate at Pars Grill House & Bar — grape leaves stuffed with rice, dill and parsley. From what I learned on the Net, dolmeh barg means stuffed leaves, and the phrase got me thinking about halupki — Slovak stuffed cabbage rolls. I guess the idea of stuffing leaves is pretty universal. In our neck of the woods, we called halupki by their American name of Pigs in the Blanket.
When I was growing up, my mother made Pigs in the Blanket. It's a time consuming recipe, so she didn't make it often. I don't think we regarded it as a treat then, but that's how I think of the dish now. Of course she learned how to make the dish from her mother, or my Nana. I went through my pictures and found this one of my grandmother. I think it shows how pretty she was.
I've never made halupki in the traditional way: boiling an entire cored head of cabbage until its leaves loosen and then stuffing each leaf with a meat and rice mixture. I should.
I have made a "shortcut" version of Pigs in the Blanket. It's more like a casserole than anything, and I don't know how to alter the name to reflect that — maybe Piglet Blanket Disarray? Anyway, it tastes wonderful even if it isn't as carefully crafted as traditional halupki. Here's the recipe:
Quick Pigs in the Blanket (Slovak Halupki)
small to medium head of cabbage
1/2 cup dry rice
1 lb. hamburger or ground buffalo
1 egg
1 large can whole tomatoes
OR
1 can tomato soup + 1 small can tomato paste
garlic salt (or plain salt)
black pepper
- Cook rice with chicken stock or chicken boullion. Set aside.
- Core cabbage and chop leaves.
- In large glass or metal baking dish (I use 11x15), put down a layer of chopped cabbage leaves. Then break up the raw hamburger or ground buffalo into chunks and put on top of cabbage. Mix in the cooked rice.
- Season with garlic salt — maybe 1 teaspoon? — and black pepper.
- Add the rest of the cabbage and tumble everything around together in the pan. (If you're worried about making a mess, you can mix the cabbage, hamburger/buffalo and rice in a bowl and transfer it into the baking pan. I don't bother.)
- Cut up the whole tomatoes and add them into the mix.
- Mix the raw egg into the juice from the whole tomatoes and pour over the mix.
- Cover with tinfoil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour and possibly longer — it depends on how soft you want your cabbage. I like mine with a little body and often cook it for about 70 minutes.
- About halfway through the baking, give everything a stir. Uncover for about the last 15 minutes. You can also check your seasoning after about 50 minutes and add more garlic salt if you want. You also can experiment with the amount of tomato you want. (You can add a tablespoon of tomato paste even at this stage if you want a richer tomato flavor.)
This is one of those dishes that tastes better the second day, but that doesn't stop me from eating it hot from the oven.
To the left is a picture of my mom's paternal grandmother, Baba. The photo was taken in 1942 in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania. That's where all my family is from — the Slovak side as well as the Welsh and Lithuanian parts.
And here I am with my Nana in about 1969:
Comments