CABBAGE ROLLS (HOLUPCHI)

Steps:

• For the sauce:.
• Take your onion and with a knife make 5-7 slits (depending on how many cloves you are using). Insert your cloves into the slits.
• Finely chop your garlic and dill.
• Sweat off your garlic and your whole onion for about a minute, flipping the onion once.
• Add the remaining ingredients for the sauce, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for about 30 minutes.
• Taste your sauce, if it needs more of anything, add it. I find sometimes I need more sugar, sometimes more vinegar.
• For the rolls:.
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Cook your rice as you normally would (for 1 1/2 cups of rice, I would normally use about 3 cups water). Once cooked, put it in a large bowl to cool.
• Core your cabbage. Reserve two outer leaves and shred. Finely chop your dill.
• Bring a large pot of water and the cabbage to a boil. As the cabbage cooks, remove the leaves that separate (with tongs) and set aside. Depending on the size of your cabbage, you'll want 20-30 leaves. (the leftover cabbage will freeze well too).
• Meanwhile, add the ground veal, dill, shredded reserved cabbage, salt and pepper to the rice and mix well with your hands.
• Take a 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce and add it to the rice mixture. Mix again and check the consistency. You can choose to add up to another 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce, this is a personal choice.
• Line the bottom of a roast pan with 2-3 leaves, so that the bottom is covered. Ladle a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan.
• Take the cabbage leaves you've removed and remove the cores. If your leaves are big you may also want to cut them in half.
• Grab some of the rice mixture, about I'm guessing a 1/4 cup or about the size of a golf ball (this again depends of the size of your leaves), and shape it into a finger. Put it in the cabbage and roll the cabbage, folding the ends in, and lay in the roast pan seam side down.
• Repeat until you have filled the bottom of the pan and ladle about 1/2 cup of the sauce over the rolls. Repeat until you run out of the stuffing.
• Take the remaining sauce and pour it all over the rolls. Cover and bake for about 30-45 minutes, until your meat is cooked.