Recipes from the Twit Army Mess Hall - Spicy Suffed Cabbage

By substituting shredded cabbage for the traditional rice in stuffed cabbage rolls the carb load on these rolls goes down significantly. If you want to lower it further (at some loss of flavor) replace the last cup of tomato sauce with one cup of low sodium chicken or beef broth.
The recipe comes from the Prudhomme Family Cookbook, an Amazon link to the book is at the end of the recipe.

Ingredients:

2.5 tsp of salt
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

3 lbs of cabbage (you'll need to have at least 6 to 8 'perfect' leaves for the rolls), shred the rest until you have at least 2 cups of finely shredded cabbage, you can use more if you want & really like cabbage
4 tbls of sweet butter (you can substitute olive oil but the taste will suffer)
2 c. chopped onions
3/4 to 1 lb of ground beef
1 c. beef or chicken stock
2 8 oz cans of tomato sauce (I HATE it that now the larger cans are 15 oz instead of 16 ozs.)
1 c. chopped green peppers
1/2 c. chopped green onions, the green part
1/4 c. chopped celery
2 tbl chopped parsley, fresh
1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic

Preparation:

Mix seasonings & put aside.
Take those 6 - 8 perfect leaves, trim off the tough stems & steam or parboil until tender enough to roll up (will take about 5 - 10 minutes or so). Drain them & put aside.

In a large saucepan, melt 2 tbls & 1 tsp of butter, add the onions & saute until very well browned, this will take about 10 minutes. Remove the onions, add the beef & cook until done. Remove the beef and mix with the onions. Pour the fat (butter & drippings) from the pan & only put back 2 tbls (this is what the extra butter is for, if the beef is very lean you may need to add some extra butter to get up to 2 tbls). Add the cabbage and cook until it wilts. you'll need to keep stirring or the bottom layer will burn before the top wilts. Add everything except for 1 cup of the tomato sauce (you'll add 1 cup at this time) to the cabbage and cook until almost all the liquid evaporates. The mixture shouldn't have much liquid left in the pot but if you let it go completely dry things will start to burn. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes. Take the pot from the heat. You can stop now for about 3 hours if you want to do this prep earlier & make the rolls later.

Now for the fun & messy part, take each cabbage leaf & fill it with about 1/2 c. of the mixture. Fold, roll or somehow cover the filling with the cabbage leaf & place seam side down in a baking pan, the pan has to be tight enough to hold the rolls with no room between them or they will come apart during the final baking,(a 9 x 9 foil pan works well) if you're really worried about having 'perfect' rolls then you can secure them with toothpicks or kitchen twine, just remove them before serving. Pour on the last cup of tomato sauce (here's where you can sub the broth but don't omit some liquid or the rolls will burn). Cover with foil, making sure that foil stays clear of the rolls & bake in a 425 degree oven until extremely tender, about 1.5 hours.

Enjoy

Serves 4 figuring 1.5 rolls per person

Recipe from the Twit Army Mess Hall - Baked Cabbage with Bacon

Ingredients:

3/4 pound bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide strips, use the good stuff here I use jowl bacon when I can find it & make sure it's thick sliced.
1 1 1/2- to 1 3/4-pound cabbage, quartered, thinly sliced
1 large leek (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced, wash it well to get out all the sand
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped green onions
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups panko

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place bacon in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Cook until fat begins to render and bacon begins to brown, about 12 minutes you want it browned but not too crisy. Add cabbage and leek. Sauté until cabbage wilts, about 10 minutes. Add water; bring to boil. Cover pot, reduce heat to medium and simmer until cabbage is tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover, increase heat and boil until all liquid evaporates, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Mix in parsley and green onions. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to 9-inch deep dish pie dish.

At this point you can put the dish in the refrigerator for a few hours & just before serving add the crispy topping.

Melt butter, I just use the microwave. Add panko & stir to make sure it's all coated. Sprinkle panko over cabbage mixture. Bake until heated through, about 10 minutes.

Recipes from the Twit Army Mess Hall - Kielbasa and Cabbage

Ingredients

1 lb. kielbasa or other smoked sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 lb bacon, thick sliced or you can get slab bacon and cut it into chunks
1 medium cabbage, cut into chunks
1 large onion, sliced
1/4 c. water
2 tbl caraway seeds (optional)

Preparation

In a Dutch Oven or similar pot cook the bacon until crispy, remove and drain on paper towels. Brown sausage in the drippings and then remove. Drain all but 1 tbl. of dripping from the pot. Add onions and cook until softened but not browned. Add cabbage & caraway and stir to coat with the pan drippings. Add water, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add sausage and simmer for 20 minutes more. Crumble bacon, mix into sausge & cabbage and serve.

Serves 4
This is a good cold night recipe but doesn't keep well it dripping will congeal and it's hard to reheat without burning the cabbage.