Savoy cabbage rolls

I had bought some savoy cabbage to make spring rolls (which btw turned out unexpectedly great). There was like more than a half left. “How am i going to use this? it’s A LOT! i am never gonna be able to use it all!” So i spent an evening on looking for recipes that sounded yummy. I chose this one, among others that, i told myself, i definitely had to try sooner or late. Well, in the end i would have found out two interesting things:

1. savoy cabbage is never as much as it looks like. in fact it had looked like i had so much of it left, and insted it was barely enough to make the recipe i had chosen!

2. well, just because you like something, Serena, it doesn’t have to be the same for the other people (sadly). You’ll see what i’m meaning by this later on.

 

In my humble opinion, these taste great, no matter what pests say

 

Ingredients:

makes 9 rolls

 

1 small savoy cabbage

10-12 slices of italian speck ham {learn more} or  something like that, see what you can find in your country

3 big potatoes, boiled (you either boil them unpeeled and then peel them once they’re done, or you can boil them already peeled, your choice)

grated Parmesan cheese {learn more}, a lot

1 egg

salt

oil

diced Emmental cheese {learn more}

 

Method:

get 8 big leaves from the cabbage (if leaves are small, count 2 small=1 big leaf);

slice the rest of the cabbage very thinly (like julienne strips); wash the strips under running water in the sink, with the help of a colander;

smash the boiled potatoes and place them into a pan along with the sliced cabbage, some oil, and allow to cook (best covered) on medium-low heat, until everything is well mixed and the cabbage is perfectly cooked (add a little water if necessary, if you see that the potato-cabbage mix is getting too dry or is sticking to the pan);

add salt and allow to cool thoroughly;

bring water to a boil in a large pot;

scald each leaf, one at a time, for only 1 minute;

after you take them out of the water place the leaves on a kitchen cloth, and allow to drain;

place the potato-cabbage mixture into a bowl, add the egg, a couple of handfuls of grated cheese, (some ground pepper and/or nutmeg if you like), a couple of speck ham slices in julienne strips, and blend well;

unfold one leaf at a time, place one slice of ham on it, and then some stuffing (see picture – i’ve now realized that i forgot to draw the speck ham slice, well i apologize ;))

{1. unfold; 2. place –speck slice and – stuffing onto the leaf; 3. fold the base of the leaf onto the stuffing; 4. fold the sides of the leaf towards the centre of the leaf, and start rolling from the bottom of the leaf towards the top, as you’d do when making spring rolls}

if the leaf is too small, just slightly overlap 2 leaves and pretend it’s one;

make sure you roll really tight; i “hid” some little emmental dices into the potato stuffing;

slightly oil the bottom of a large rectangular baking pan, dust it well with grated cheese, place the rolls into the pan, pour a drizzle of oil over them and dust abundantly with grated cheese (i dusted with some before placing the pan into the oven, and i dusted another time halfway through the baking time, or 10 minutes before the baking time is up);

bake in a preheated oven at 425°F for about 30 minutes (i used a fan oven) on the lower shelf (you can put the pan on a much higher shelf when the time is almost up, to cook the surface au gratin);

serve while still warm.

Enjoy :)

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i almost forgot to tell you.

There are 3 of us in my family.

One out of three happens to hate savoy cabbage, or this is what he said, of course after i spent one morning on preparing the rolls.

So well, it’s great to cook for people that don’t like the stuff you cook, and it’s even greater that i basically had to eat the whole pan by myself… i promise, i’ll ask next time, no need of surprises like this anymore.

 

i had found so many recipes i wished i could try, and now it all fell through, since nobody but me at home likes savoy cabbage. Too bad, ‘cause i like it :(