That looks great, Joe. I'm going to try it. I guess it should freeze okay. Here's the one I
I freeze. Monday our ladies group is making cabbage rolls for our Harvest Bazaar. If anyone wants a larger recipe, I have one for 36 pounds of meat.
Cabbage Rolls (Hungarian)
2 pounds ground meat (half pork-half beef or meatloaf blend beef-veal-pork.)
1 cup rice (partially cooked-about halfway) (you can use more or less rice, I usually use about ½ cup per lb. of meat)
2 large onions, diced
2-3 large garlic cloves, diced
1 tablespoon paprika
3 teaspoons salt (check for salt)
½ teaspoon pepper
2 heads of cabbage (depending on size)
1 large can tomato juice
1 small can sauerkraut (rinse slightly so it will not be too sauer
1 smoked ham hock or ham bone (optional)
Cut the core out of cabbage. Blanch cabbage in a large pot of boiling water until leaves are limp. Remove outer leaves one at a time as they soften. Do not overcook. If leaves are large, cut in half (the thick vein in the center of the leaf may have to be trimmed off first). Can be prepared a day or so earlier and refrigerated until ready to use.
Place meat in large bowl.
Saute onions in oil until very soft, add garlic and continue to saute for a few minutes longer. Take off burner, mix in paprika, salt and pepper. Add to meat in bowl. Rinse onion pan with about ½ cup of water and add to meat mixture - this helps to mix the mixture and makes it light.
Add half cooked rice to meat along with cooked onions. Mix well with hands. Stuff cabbage leaves with meat (like burritos). Can freeze at this point. I freeze rolls on cookie sheets and when frozen, store in bags – or continue as follows.
Chop left-over cabbage with 1 onion, add some sauerkraut and put half of the mixture in bottom of a very large roaster. Layer cabbage rolls in roaster (kind of tight neat rows). Sprinkle the remaining half of chopped cabbage/sauerkraut on top. Add the can of tomato juice, which should cover the cabbage rolls by at least an inch. If not, rinse the can with water and add water to roaster. Cover roaster with foil and bake in oven as follows.
Bake - 350 degrees 1 hour
300 degrees 1 hour
275 degrees 1 hour
Cool and divide into freezer to oven containers. Reheat in oven or microwave.
Note: I never precook the rice but some people find that it doesn't cook soft enough.
