My mother is a fabulous cook and as much as I love her Malouf, I recently discovered Joudie Kalla’s recipe from her acclaimed cookbook “Palestine on a Plate”. She combines a beautiful mixture of caraway, oil and garlic that makes these cabbage rolls incredibly addictive. I prepared them for my family and they were a huge hit.
Check out her recipe…
Preparation Time
- 30 minutes
Cooking Time
- 1 hour
Serves
- 6 pax
Ingredients
- 1 Middle Eastern Cabbage (about 1.5kg)
- 2 cups Egyptian short grained rice
- 250g ground lamb
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 whole heads of garlic (1 with skin and 1 with peeled and crushed)
- 1 tbsp ground caraway
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Greek yogurt on the side
Method
- Bring a large pot of water to boil.
- Cut center core out of cabbage and place, core side down, in boiling water.
- Cover and simmer for 10 minutes until soften, drain and cool.
- Peel the leaves from the cabbage and remove the stalk.
- In a large bowl, mix rice, cinnamon, salt, pepper and olive oil.
- Place one cabbage leaf, the thinnest part toward you on a surface and put about 1 tsp of the rice mixture along the edge closest to you. Fold and roll upwards until it looks like a small cigar.
- Put the garlic cloves with skin in the base of the pot and sprinkle caraway and dried mint.
- Arrange the stuffed Cabbage rolls on top so they fit nice and snug.
- Scatter crushed garlic and cover with 1 ½ cups of water.
- Cover the pot and bring to boil for 10 minutes. Lower the heat and simmer for a further 45 minutes.
- Once the liquid has evaporated, add the lemon juice and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Serve with yogurt on the side.
