Cabbage Rolls Made from Fresh Cabbage in a Pot

To prepare cabbage rolls made from fresh cabbage in a pot, take pork mince. You can grind the pork yourself from medium-fat pork or buy ready-made mince if you are confident in its quality.

It's better to take round-grain rice. Boil the washed rice until semi-cooked.

Chop the onion and grate the carrot, then sauté them in vegetable oil until soft.

Half of the sautéed onion and carrot goes into the meat mince with rice, while the remaining vegetables stay in the frying pan covered with a lid. We will add this part of the sautéed vegetables to the sauce for the cabbage rolls.

Season all filling ingredients for the cabbage rolls with salt and pepper and mix well.

Now prepare the cabbage leaves using one of the methods. The head of cabbage should not be firm, so that the leaves can be easily removed. You can remove leaves from a raw head of cabbage. For this, cut leaves at the core, and then, shaking the leaf and moving it away from the core, carefully remove it. Try not to tear the leaf. Then boil the leaves until they are elastic. Remove any thick veins from the leaves.

If, despite all efforts, you cannot remove a cabbage leaf from the head whole, then dip the head of cabbage with the leaves cut at the core into boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Turn the head in the water so that its leaves warm up from all sides. The softened leaves in hot water easily detach from the head.

Place the prepared cabbage leaf on a cutting board with the cut side facing you. Now place a heaping spoonful of filling at the base of the leaf.

Roll the leaf with filling into a tube, tucking in and hiding the sides of the leaf inside. As a result, you get an envelope.

Fry the rolled cabbage rolls in refined oil. Immediately place the cabbage roll so that the free end of the cabbage leaf is at the bottom, and then fry the cabbage roll on the other side. Set the fried cabbage rolls aside for now, and proceed to prepare the sauce for them.

Take 1 heaping tablespoon of tomato paste and dissolve it in 300 ml of water. Add 200 ml of thick homemade juice. After mixing all the sauce ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Now taste the sauce. If it’s not salty enough, add more, and if the sauce turned out to be sour, add ¼ tbsp of sugar.

Take a cooking pot for the cabbage rolls: a saucepan with a thick bottom or a cauldron. Pour a little sauce onto the bottom of the chosen pot. Then tightly layer the first row of cabbage rolls.

Pour more sauce over the bottom layer of cabbage rolls. Next, place the remaining cabbage rolls. Try to lay them out neatly and tightly against each other, filling all gaps. Add the bay leaf. When all the cabbage rolls are in the cooking pot, pour the remaining sauce over them to completely cover all the cabbage rolls in the container. Stew the cabbage rolls at a slow boil for 40 minutes. About ten minutes before the end of cooking, add finely chopped garlic, sprinkling it on top.

Allow the finished cabbage rolls to simmer in the pot for 15 minutes, then serve them on plates.

Cabbage Rolls Made from Fresh Cabbage in a Pot are ready. Enjoy your meal.