Cabbage loving people

Posted by Natalia on Oct 11, 2011 in Kitchen variations | 1 comment

Visits home always mean the same.Shopping for two extremely fussy kids- niece and nephew of mine,eating five lunches a day, tasting grannies endless resorts of home made wine and golabki!! The very traditional Polish dish made of steamed cabbage leaves, stuffed with rice, mince meat, herbs and tomato sauce. Dish loved by kids all age, men all age and hated by women all age. For me it always meant playing with cabbage leaves in water, for my mum running after me and trying to get her cabbage leaves back. Years ago making golabki from scratch would only happen on special occasion, whenever mum had day off and willing to make them. Hours of steaming, making filling, stuffing cabbage leaves, cooking it all in tomato sauce and 20 min later my father would sighed, rub his belly and say that it was lovely…LOVELY! Thats all you get for making mess in the kitchen and trying to get tomato sauce of your child face, hands, hair because you foolishly allowed him/her to help. Until one day golabki appeared ready made in glass jar on shop shelve and we forgot once and forever the taste of truly Polish cabbage. So when i took my Swiss boyfriend for the first time back home with me i knew we wont leave until we have them! We found truly old style restaurant in Krakow with wooden stools to sit and paintings of poppy fields on the walls. I almost got heart attack when my boyfriend ordered chicken (yes the same chicken we have been eating at home. The same i ve made in all possible ways, the same chicken he will get after we come back from holidays, but still he has ordered chicken being in Poland..), i saved his taste buds by getting selection of all traditional dishes on one plate. And oh my God that was better than Kinder Surprise! The best out of the best on one plate! We could try and taste years and years of Polish culinary history. We had potato pancake with goulash, dumplings with cottage cheese, ribs, pickles and golabki! We stuffed our self completly for less than 30 euro! Ha! I will be back for sure! Where else could you not only look at something so beautiful, taste something so beautiful and have beautiful hick ops from overeating for less than 30 euro!And only imagine how many golabki you can make from just one head of cabbage! Enough to not only make golabki, but also very popular over here Japanese cabbage leaves, that are like small version of golabki, cabbage cooked with tomato sauce and selection of meats, sweet cabbage with cumin,cabbage, cabbage, cabbage!!!Ahhh who knew that food that was used to identified with poor farmers has now time to shine! Still is very underestimated. Mum put you apron on! Im coming home to steam some cabbage! And my Swiss boyfriend is not allowed to eat chicken from now on… at least until i get over the fact that he was trying to sabotage my beloved cabbage for some bird…eh…

For anybody that would like to how to make them – http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/recipestepbyste1/ss/stuffedcabbage.htm

Trust me.You will never look at cabbage the same after trying that.