Sweet and Sour Cabbage Meat Rolls

Ingredients

• 1.cabbage, leaves separated; heart shredded and boiled separately
• 2.0.5 cup lemon juice, for sauce
• 3.3 tablespoon sugar, for sauce
• 4.2 teaspoon Brono gravy powder, or similar browning agent; for sauce
• 5.tablespoon golden syrup, 2 tablespoons for small pan, 3 tablespoons for larger pan; added near end
• 6.900 gram minced beef, approximately 2 lbs (900g)
• 7.bread, a thick slice; soaked in water for the mince mixture
• 8.1 tomato, large; skinned; for the mince mixture
• 9.1 onion, small; for the mince mixture
• 10.2 teaspoon salt, for mince mixture
• 11.black pepper, a dash
• 12.Tabasco sauce, a dash
• 13.tomato sauce (ketchup), a dash
• 14.1 egg, for binding mince

Method

1. 1.Separate leaves of cabbage. Put in large pot, boil up and cool. Leaves must be soft. Shred the heart of the cabbage and boil in water to cover for about 10 minutes.
2. 2.In the meantime, prepare the meat mixture: mince the meat, bread, tomato, and onion together, then add the salt, pepper, tabasco, tomato sauce and egg. Mix well with fork.
3. 3.Spread cooked cabbage leaves and fill each one with a spoon or two of meat mixture. Roll up, tuck in the sides and secure with toothpick. Place in roasting pan.
4. 4.Discard the shredded cabbage. Measure off about 4 cups of the cabbage cooking water. Add ½ cup lemon juice and 3 tablespoons sugar. Thicken with 2 teaspoons Brono or similar. Pour sauce over cabbage rolls, almost to cover.
5. 5.Bake at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.
6. 6.Uncover the cabbage rolls. Pour over 2–3 tablespoons syrup (use 2 tablespoons for a small pan, 3 for a larger pan). Cook carefully, tasting often, until cabbage rolls are golden brown. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Notes

• These cabbage rolls taste very nice served with a potato pudding. They also freeze well.
• Different from 'Sweet and Sour Cabbage Blini' (sweet-and-sour-cabbage-blini from Scan 2) — that recipe wraps the filling in pastry dough. This recipe uses softened cabbage leaves as the wrapper.
• Brono is a South African gravy browning and flavouring powder; substitute with Bisto or Gravox.
• The original describes the cooking process as 'mince the meat, bread, tomato, onion' — suggesting passing them together through a meat grinder.