The Slavic east and the Balkans · Volume 27, Steppe, Forest and the Reclaimed Kitchen
Holubtsi
Ukraine
Illustration
- Researched
- Researched from 89 sources in the brief
Cabbage leaves, softened whole in boiling water or, in the regional variant this chapter follows, fermented as sauerkraut leaves rather than fresh, stuffed with minced pork and rice or buckwheat, rolled, and baked at 180°C for around two hours in a tomato-and-stock sauce until the cabbage is fully tender.
As tradition built it
Baked at 180°C for about 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 800 g sauerkraut leaves cabbage leaves, softened whole in boiling water, or fermented as sauerkraut leaves
- 500 g minced pork
- 200 g rice, part-cooked before mixing in rice or buckwheat
- 500 ml stock with 1 tbsp tomato purée and 1 tbsp soured cream tomato-and-stock sauce
Method
- Soften the cabbage leaves whole in boiling water, or use fermented sauerkraut leaves.
- Stuff the leaves with minced pork and rice or buckwheat, and roll.
- Bake at 180°C for around two hours in a tomato-and-stock sauce until the cabbage is fully tender.
What a modern chef changes
A confit filling and a lacquered finish
Method
- Use the fermented-leaf version throughout, since its sourness is the more distinctive and less commonly seen variant outside Ukraine.
- Confit the pork filling separately at a controlled low sous vide temperature before rolling, rendering it more evenly than raw mince cooked only as fast as the parcel around it allows.
- Reduce the baking sauce separately into a concentrated glaze, finished with a little of the sauerkraut's own brine for sharpness.
- Lacquer the rolls under a hot grill for colour rather than serving them simply submerged in sauce.