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Grandma's Sarmale

Well, they are mine now because I tweaked her recipe a bit. But without further ado: I MADE SARMALE!

I don't know how or why, but while talking with a friend I decided this year I am cooking sarmale for Christmas. Then I started telling everyone, my dad sent me cabbage and minced meat and... well, I had to actually do it now! I was a bit scared because all the friends I spoke with who had their sarmale cooking experience told me it would be hard. And that was not my experience at all. 

Stuffed cabbage or grape leaves is a thing in many countries, but I think it may have all started from Turkey since the Turkish word "sarma" means wrapped. And in Romanian we call one "sarma" and many "sarmale", and since you never make just one, the meal is called sarmale. Actually my grandma was mad when she heard I only made 23 sarmale, and not 60 or 100 like she expected me to.

In my country, this is a traditional dish that we usually have for Christmas and Easter. It is usually served with mamaliga (polenta) and sour cream. 

I had a video conference with grandma and she gave me her recipe, but I did bring my own changes to it - firstly I made only 23 sarmale, because we usually don't eat a lot of them and if I was gonna fail, at least I would've wasted less food. I did not fail, and they were so good that my husband actually wanted to eat more - so next time I will probably make 30-35.

Anyway, here's how to do it:

Ingredients (23-30 sarmale - depends a lot on how you wrap them):

  • 500g minced pork
  • 2 1/2 tbsp rice
  • 1-2 onions
  • whole pepper
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp oregano
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1-2 tbsp tomato juice
  • pickled cabbage leaves (works with normal cabbage too, but you need to blanch it first I think, they are also delicious with grape leaves) - cannot tell you how many
  • speck (or any smoked pork that is similar with speck - I did not use actual speck, my husband's grandpa and my dad smoke pork meat each year and they always send us some)
  • dried bay leaves
  • salt 
  • oil
  • (optional) 1/2 coffee cup sparkling water

Method:

Thinly chop the onions. Grind your spices.

Add a tiny bit of oil in a pan and cook the onions for 2-3 minutes, until a bit translucent. Then add the spices and mix together for one more minute.

In a bowl, mix the minced meat with rice, the spices and onion, then add 1 tbsp tomato juice and salt. Ideally you should taste the mixture at this point to check the spices - you can just touch your lips, not actually eat the raw meat, I always ask my husband to do this step (he is better at seasoning anyway). Adjust the taste. If the mixture seems too thick/dense, add the sparkling water (add it bit by bit - I did not need to use it, but grandma told me this trick anyway).

Then wrap your sarmale! 

If your cabbage leaves are big - cut them in half. I tried to cut around the stem if it was too hard, but most of the cabbage leaves my dad sent me where perfect. Then add a bit of your meat mixture and roll, then tuck in the sides until they look like in the picture above.

Save a few cabbage leaves and thinly slices them.

In a pot, add a bit of oil and the sliced cabbage, 1 tsp tomato juice, a couple of bay leaves, and then add your sarmale and add bits of speck here and there. When all the sarmale are in the pot, cover with sliced cabbage, 1 tsp tomato juice, bay leaves.

Then pour boiling water over them until you cover them. Continue boiling them, covered, for around 2.5 hours, on lowest heat.

They can also be made in the oven, but my family boils them, and mine turned out really tasty - I also ate sarmale made in the oven too and I don't feel like there is a huge difference. Plus apparently they tasted just like my husband's grandma's sarmale and she went to cooking school back in the day.

As I was saying, they are served with mamalinga (polenta) and sour cream.

Enjoy!

đŸ¥˜ Source: my grandma, with a few personal touches

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