Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Cabbage Rolls

Seasoned Beef and Pork for meat filling.
Cooking cabbage leaves for making rolls.
Rolling Cabbage Rolls with meat and rice filling.
Stacking the rolls to steam in tomato mixture.
Ready to put lid on to steam with a few meatball boosters.


Cabbage rolls were something that were made only occasionally when I grew up in Louisiana. After Diane and I finished filling this large roaster with 40 cabbage rolls, I knew why Mom did not make them more often. Being one of seven children and one or more of us always having people over to eat answered that question of why only occasionally. They were so good and every one in the family enjoyed them, but Mom would have had to make a hundred of them.

It takes several hours to prepare all of the ingredients, put everything together and roll them up. Then we let them cook slowly for 1 hour and 30 minutes before they were ready to serve. We always served them with hot corn bread and a green salad, and today wasn't going to be any different.

Diane and I decided to make two types of rolls, the traditional roll that we both grew up eating and loved and one that I remembered Mrs. Maud Landry making when I was in high school. She used corn meal instead of rice, and the last time that I tried her style out, I put too much corn meal in the meat which made them too dry. This time I set out using a ratio of 1- cup cornmeal to 3-1/2 pounds of meat. The consistency was what I was looking for but I have never been able to make them taste as good as hers. There was something missing in these rolls, but until I feel like making another large pot full, which might be several months from now, I will enjoy the ones that I put in the freezer.


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