It has been long time and many other meals since I last made these cabbage rolls, also known in the Balkans as Sarma. Our family Saint’s Day, St Luke’s which we celebrated on Monday 31st October, provided the perfect opportunity for me to once again make this rustic dish. Now there’s no need to wrinkle the nose at the mention of cabbage, because these robust parcels are a tasty treasure. Stuffed with a combination of pork and veal mince, smoked bacon, rice, vegetables and herbs, they are tucked into a baking dish and cooked with a sweet onion paprika sauce. 

My mother-in-law does a superb job of making these in the traditional way, using pickled cabbage from her own stash (yes, she has been fermenting cabbages long before it became a fashionable feature on hipster cafe and restaurant menus). Her sarma is piled into a deep pot and simmered slowly on the stove top, then served with home baked bread or tiny hand crafted cheese-filled rolls (kifle). My version veers slightly away from her traditional recipe, but still delvers a satisfyingly tasty meal for all members of the family to enjoy. 

My golden Saint’s Day Bread



Although this is not a mid-week style meal – there is a bit of fussing about in preparing the filling, cabbage and actual rolling of the parcels – it is worthwhile making on a weekend or for a family gathering. It can also be frozen for up to a month or made two days ahead of when it is required.

As a child I enjoyed eating bowlfuls of sarma made by my mother or grandmother, with mounds of fluffy mashed potato drizzled with the rich paprika sauce. This is exactly how I served up our Saint’s Day sarma earlier in the week, along with generous pieces of Saint’s Day bread.  

Sarma  – Cabbage Rolls
This will make 16-18 plump rolls

Ingredients for the fillingOlive oil
Butter
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot
1 stick celery
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
chicken stock cube (I use either the Continental gelatinous stock portions or the Massel brand of stock cubes)
3 rindless streaky rashers of bacon (yes, you do need to leave the fat on)
600 grams pork and veal mince (half and half of each type)
1/3 cup of short grain rice
salt and pepper to taste
*1 large cabbage – carefully remove the leaves so they remain intact, and blanch each one for 2 – 3 minutes in a pot of boiling water. Remove, pat dry and put aside until ready to use.

To make the stuffing, splash a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a large saucepan and add 50 grams of unsalted butter. Once melted over a medium heat, add all of the vegetables (these need to be finely diced). Saute for at least 10 minutes until they soften and become glossy.

Add the bacon which should also be finely diced, and cook with the dried herbs for another 5 minutes.

Add the mince to the mixture and stir until the mince browns. Season with salt and pepper (about 1 tsp of salt and a good grind of pepper).

Add the stock cube and the rice and stir until the rice turns opaque. Pour in 100 ml of water and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking. If this starts to occur, splash in a little more water. You want the mixture to be a lovely thick consistency, moist but not watery.

Once the mixture is ready, set aside to cool slightly just until the steam has stopped coming off it.

Lay out your cabbage leaves on a clean bench. You may need to slightly rim away the hard bottom part of each leaf to make it easier to roll up. Place a tablespoonful of mixture in the middle of each leaf. Fold up the bottom of each leaf and then fold over each side, to form a parcel. Carefully roll up the cabbage leaf, encasing the delicious mixture inside. Place in a shallow casserole or baking dish. repeat until all the cabbage leaves have been filled and rolled, arranging the sarma snugly in your dish so that they press against one another. This is important otherwise the rolls can come apart during the cooking process. I used a ceramic baking dish measuring 36cm x 24cm but you can use any shape as long as its approximately this size. 

Pour over the sweet onion and paprika sauce. Cover with aluminium foil and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees fan forced for 45 minutes and then remove the foil, increase the heat to 180 degrees fan forced and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown. Serve whilst still hot with your chosen sides.


Ingredients for the sweet onion paprika sauce
1 onion very finely diced
olive oil
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
750ml liquid chicken stock
salt to taste

Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to a saucepan and gently fry the onion until softened.

Add the flour and paprika and stir for a minute to cook off the flour taste.

Pour in the chicken stock gradually, all the while stirring with a wooden spoon or whisk to smooth out any lumps. Increase the heat to high. Stir continually until the mixture is smooth and it comes to the boil. Immediately reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes so that the mixture thicken slightly. It should still be liquid enough to pour, with the consistency of pouring cream.

Set aside until the cabbage rolls are ready and then pour over the rolls once they are arranged in the baking dish.