Thursday, February 13, 2014

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls Recipe (Bosnian Sarma)

During these colder days it's good to eat food that provides sustenance. The traditional Bosnian Sarma is one of those dishes. It has many varieties in Eastern Europe too, but the one provided here is my mom's traditional and very simple sour cabbage meat roll recipe. Now It does need to cook for a longer period of time (4 hours), but no action on your part is required during the cooking time.

Ingredients:
- 1-2 heads of sour cabbage (depending on how big or small you make them)
- 1 kg (2 pounds) minced meat
- 1 onion (or 2 spring onions as we used)
- Salt and Pepper
- 1 cup of rice (washed)
- 1 squirt of tomato puree
- water (amount depends on the size of the pot you will be cooking this in, see description)

click on the images for a bigger view


First we will make the mixture. Combine the meat, rice, onion, salt and pepper and mix in a bowl.


Take a small piece of the meat and wrap it in a cabbage leaf, like in the images below.


Make sure to tuck everything in so that the meat mixture doesn't fall out while cooking.


Layer the rolls up in a big pot. Put a couple of cabbage leaves on the bottom of the pot. You can even layer some bacon in between, for some extra flavor.



Put some squirts of tomato puree on top, and cover everything with water. Cook on high heat until everything comes to a boil, then clamp on a lid, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 4 hours until soft.


We like to serve Sarma with mashed potatoes!


I hope you liked today's look at Bosnian cuisine and that you will make this dish yourself, if you haven't already. You can even prepare the rolls and freeze them up and cook them later or in smaller batches.

Tell me in the comments below if you liked this, and if you would like to see more recipes form this corner of the world.

38 comments:

  1. You're a man of many talents, Mersad. This looks delicious.

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  2. I'll have to try this. What is soured cabbage? Do you just boild the leaves in vinegar or lemon juice. Sorry for being a bit stupid. Is the rice long or short grain?
    It looks a great dish.

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    1. You can use any sort of rice, and sour cabbage can be bought in the store, or you can sour it yourself, but don't ask me how. I think you put the cabbage into a water mixture that includes salt and other ingredients.

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    2. Thanks Mersad. We can't buy it here. I'll give it a go on Saturday,

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    3. The thing with sour cabbage is that it's soft, because of the salting process. Otherwise the leaves are to tough to roll.

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  3. Mmmmm looks delicious, Mersad!! I'm going to have to try this!! Thanks for sharing! Have a wonderful and tasty weekend!!!

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  4. We have a heavy German heritage in York, PA and this is a dish we make. Very similar, at least! Unfortunately, my husband from Boston does not care for it! Your's looks great!

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    Replies
    1. Well, the German have their traditional Sauerkraut (which in fact is sour cabbage) and bratwurst (meat element). So there is a connection there.

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  5. not fair to be talented as a photograph PLUS you can cook... these look good to me, now if i could find someone to cook them for me I would be more than glad to eat them... I don't cook, if i followed the recipe they would be inedible... my husband says his mother used to make these.

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    1. I'm sure you could make these, since this was my first time making them as well. My mom gave me the instructions.

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  6. forgot to say my hubby's mother was German, her parents came from Germany.

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    Replies
    1. This recipe is popular in Germany too. They call it "Kohlrolladen"

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  7. I love stuffed cabbage rolls! And yours look delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe.. Have a happy day!

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  8. yammi....also Kohlroudaden mag ich auch sehr gerne. Noch nie so klein gemacht werde ich das beim nächsten Mal versuchen.

    Danke dir für dein Rezept und die Anregung.

    Herzliche Abendgrüssle

    Nova

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  9. I want to eat at your house. :)

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  10. I'm with EG CameraGirl! I want to eat at your house too! lol. Those look delicious!

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  11. Lecker, die kenne ich auch von Ungarn! Wir geben aber noch viel Tomatenmark dazu, so ist saftiger und schön rot....hmmmm lecker :-)

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  12. This looks really delicious,Mersad!I wish I could it it with you.

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  13. my boyfriend's Nanny and Chiochi were polish and they made this for him all the time. i make it now and we love it. He calls it galumpkis.

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    Replies
    1. That's very interesting to read. I know that this dish is also very popular and that some version of it originate in Eastern Europe.

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  14. I'm not a cook. I am an eater.

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  15. This looks scrumptious! Wonderful food photography (and amazing patience to photograph each step:)

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    Replies
    1. We decided to make the effort of going step by step.

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  16. This is what we Americans call comfort food. Someday I'll have to try these, but I've never heard of sour cabbage and it's not sold in stores anywhere I've ever lived. I think it would be great with just regular cabbage! I take it from the photos the sour cabbage has already been cooked somewhat since it appears to be pliable and not raw.

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    Replies
    1. You could use regular cabbage, but the sour one is soft and paper thin, that's why it works so well.

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  17. I am salivating. Like Kathy, I have not heard the term "sour cabbage." Whoever rolled the cabbage did an expert job! Good photography to illustrate the recipe.

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    1. I rolled the cabbage, and my sister did the shots :D

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  18. Yum, this looks so good Mersad! Maybe you should have a cooking blog, too!

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  19. Sieht ja hervorragend aus! Ich liebe diese traditionellen Rezepte von Muttern.....das sind immer die Besten! Beste Grüße Anne

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  20. I have to try this, Mersad. Do you recommend cooking on top of the cooker rather than the oven.

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    Replies
    1. Top stove will work just fine. No need for the oven.

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  21. Would love more recipes!

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  22. Hello Mersad, this Sarma recipe looks great and the pics you do are brilliant! I would like to know if you mind that I add one of your pics and your link to an entry in my blog about foods from the world? I wait for your reply to do it so. Many thanks for this wonderful recipe, I lived in Mostar for a couple of years and remember eating those sarma so happily! cheers!

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