While you are getting the meat rice thing going, get a large pot of water (a large stock pot works great) boiling. Once it is boiling put the whole heat of cabbage into the pot.
Can I please just point out how *green* this cabbage is! I got it at the farmers market- fresh, organic and sooooo lovely green!
As each leaf softens and turns bright green you slice it off at the base. I usually use tongs to hold the cabbage.
You can actually cut "ahead" and leave the leaves in the water. You can tell when they are done by color and softness.
The mark of an organic food.... buggy holes! But look at the GREEN!
As each leaf comes off you fill it with the meat mix and then wrap it up like a burrito.
In another large pot- I use a big cast iron thing- put a can of stewed tomatoes*. Then start adding your rolls.
Just fill up the pot, I usually add at least one more can of stewed tomatoes after the first layer of rolls.
With this particular batch, since I did not use canned tomatoes, and my tomatoes were stewing as I was rolling, I just filled up the pot with rolls then dumped the tomatoes once I was about half done. I used the whole cabbage, making the rolls smaller and smaller, then putting any leftover leaves in loosely, I love the cabbage.
Once your pot is full, use the cabbage water to just cover the rolls. Cook semi covered for about an hour. That is when I do my first check I think, then add time as needed. With the brown rice it was definitely not done at the 1 hour mark. Since I needed to leave, I turned the heat off and left it covered on the stove. When I came back 2 hours later- YUM! It was fully cooked and the flavor had just saturated the meat.
That is it in a nutshell. Feel free to ask any questions and if you make it differently I'd love to know how.
*I made my own stewed tomatoes for the first time, and plan on doing this forever more! These were farmers market fresh tomatoes and it was soooooo easy and yummy! I can only imagine how good my fresh summer tomatoes will be!
