Friday, February 7, 2014

Pigs in the Blanket (cabbage rolls) Simple comfort food.

Most Fridays, I make a pot of soup. That way I can take a break from meal planning for a couple of days. Well, answering questions about my family got me thinking about the pigs in a blanket my mom use to make. I loved them. I haven’t made them in years so I decided it was time. Most people know them by cabbage rolls. A nice change from soup and I still get a couple of days off from meal planning. The hardest part of this recipe is steaming the head of cabbage so that you can take the leaves off without tearing. They have to be soft in order to roll up the cabbage rolls. This is the way I do it.

Core your head of cabbage, and gently drop it into a pot of simmering water. Pick off the leaves that fall off with thongs. As it simmers, the leaves will just fall away, and you keep picking them out so they don't overcook. Takes a while. I almost got brave and tried putting the cabbage in the microwave but wasn’t sure if that would work. So I stayed with a tried and true method.

I just use my meatloaf recipe for the stuffing.
1 lb. hamburger
1 half onion, chopped,
1 egg
¼ cup or more quick cook oatmeal
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste.

Mix together. I divided my mixture into 6 portions.

Lay a cabbage leave on the counter. Put one of the portions on the leave and roll up, tucking in the sides as you go. I put extra cabbage leaves on the bottom of the pan and lay the cabbage rolls on top.

Pour the following over the top.
Mix
1 ½ cup of ketchup
¼ brown sugar or to taste
onion powder
¾ cup water mixed with one tablespoon of cornstarch.

Cover and bake at 350 for an hour and half.

I always struggle with the sauce. But this came out pretty tasty. If anyone has a good sauce recipe, let me know.

The cabbage rolls hit the stop on a very cold winter day.

Take care and stay warm.

Rose

All wrapped and ready for the sauce

Ready for the oven

Ready for our plates


Yummy.



6 comments:

  1. Hi Rose

    We call them halupki - I use tomato soup and stewed tomatoes as our sauce. Also my insides are meatloaf mix, evaporated milk, uncooked rice, salt and pepper.

    I bake them low and slow. Mmmm

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  2. Very similar to the cabbage rolls I grew up with, only my grandmother and mother used a meaty beef broth...probably because she hated cooked tomatoes? What they served up as pigs in a blanket was something else altogether: hot dogs and cheese served up in a biscuit wrapping.

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  3. When we were first married and someone mentioned they were serving pigs in the blanket, I got all excited only to find they were the hot dogs wrapped in a blanket version. I had never them before and thought they were okay. But I like my mom's version better.

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  4. OMG! I love cabbage rolls and have been looking for a good recipe! Thank you so much.

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  5. This is a simple recipe. We like it. But if you want more spice you can add it to the meatloaf recipe. Our just use your favorite recipe.

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