Traditional Autumn Delight

Last week I mention I've been busting out some traditional autumn recipes in my kitchen. One of my favorite is 'kaalikääryleet', or cabbage rolls.
When you wrap spiced up ground beef/pork, cooked rice and chopped cabbage into a cabbage leaf, drizzle the rolls with light syrup and cook for couple hours you have a perfect meal in just one or two rolls. And if you serve them with lingonberries, and take the sweetness of the syrupy cabbage, savory of the meat, and tangy from the berries ~ your taste buds are having a feast!
Couple things I've done differently than the traditional recipe: I added herbs (basil, oregano, thyme) to the meat, as well as a dash of cayenne pepper to give it a bit of a kick at the end. The recipe says white cabbage, but other varieties works as well. Or you can get a bit Mediterranean tastes if you use lamb, feta cheese and mint in the filling.
I've also made a vegetarian version with variety of chopped mushrooms, you get gluten free version by using organic rice marked 'gluten free', lactose free by using stock instead of cream ~ don't let the recipe intimidate you, use it as guideline and then let your imagination free. These rolls are easy to freeze, so make more than you need, once you're at it.
And if you happen to have a lot of cabbage left over after you are  done with the rolls, you can use it for example for a wok, or make less work intensive cabbage casserole, another great dish that you can freeze for later date as well.

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CABBAGE ROLLS

1500 g / 3 lb white cabbage
     2 teaspoon of salt
     20 cups of water

Filling
     1 onion
     1 tablespoon butter
     400 g / 1 lb ground meat
     2 eggs
     1 cup  cream for cooking
     1 teaspoon of salt
     1/2 teaspoon white pepper
     1 teaspoon marjoram
     2 cups brown rice (cooked)

surface
3 tablespoons syrup

Scoop out the cabbage stem. Boil the cabbage in salted water. Remove the outer cabbage leafs when they become soft. Cool leaves in cold water and place them on top of a kitchen towel to dry. Save the cooking water.

Drain the rest of the cooked cabbage. Finely chop 3 dl/cups small inner leaves of cabbage for the filling. Peel and chop the onion and saute in a pan with butter. Mix together the filling ingredients. Filling may be somewhat loose and well seasoned.
Spread the large leaves on cutting board. Share filling on the cabbage leaves, fold the edges of the leaves and wrap up the package like a burrito. Arrange cabbage rolls side by side in the roasting pan and drizzle with syrup.
Bake Cabbage rolls in the oven at 200 C / 380 F degrees until they are browned. You can turn the rolls half way to the cooking if you so choose. Baste the rolls with the cabbage cooking water while they are baking . When the cabbage rolls are slightly browned, reduce the oven heat to 150 C / 300 F degrees and cook for another 1 1/2 hours.

CABBAGE CASSEROLE
1 1/2 dl /cup of short corn rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 dl /cups of water
1 onion
1000 g / 2 lb of cabbage
400 g / 1 lb ground beef (with fat 7%)
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of syrup
4 dl /cup beef stock

Boil the rice in salted water, until the liquid has been absorbed.
Peel and chop the onion, cut the cabbage into strips.
Sauté the ground beef and onion. Season with salt, pepper and marjoram, and move into a bowl aside.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the cabbage. Simmer the cabbage under the lid for 5-10 minutes, until it is slightly softened. Season with syrup.
Mix together the rice, ground beef, onion, and cabbage. Spread the mixture in an oven dish. Pour in the broth and bake in 200 C / 390 F degree oven for about an hour. If the surface darkens too much during baking, cover the dish with aluminum foil.