Cabbage Rolls

We caught a lot of cabbage at the St. Patrick's Day parade this year.  I have wanted to make Cabbage Rolls using Dirty Rice for the stuffing, so this was my opportunity.  I used the cabbage I had, but a recipe of Emeril's calls for the Savoy cabbage, the leaves are bigger and easier to roll.

  Ingredients:

• 1 head of Savoy cabbage, 16 nice leaves for rolling
• 4 C. Dirty Rice
• 1 T. butter
• 1 C. onions, chopped
• 1 (28 oz.) can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 T. apple cider vinegar
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 t. kosher salt
• ½ t. black pepper
• 1 C. cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Remove the core of the cabbage and place the whole head in a large pot of boiling water
3. Remove after 3 minutes and place in a large bowl filled with ice and water
4. In a medium sauce pan, sauté the onions in the butter over medium heat until tender
5. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper, allow to simmer for 1 hour
6. Cut the heat , add the cream and stir well, reserve
7. In an 13’ x 9’ baking dish, ladle 1 C. of the tomato/cream sauce in the bottom of the pan
8. Roll ¼ C. of dirty rice in each leaf of cabbage and place the rolls seam side down in the sauce, cram all the rolls together side-by-side in the pan
9. Ladle the remaining tomato/cream sauce over the rolls
10. Seal the baking dish with foil
11. Bake for 1 hour
12. Serve hot!

Tips and Tricks:

• Follow my link to get the Dirty Rice recipe.  You only need 4 C. for the cabbage rolls, so just make ½ of the full recipe. I make the Dirty Rice the day before and refrigerate it, so it dries out.
• I use a bag of frozen chopped onions for this recipe.  A 10 oz. bag is 2 C. of onions.