Sarma Hot Dish Recipes

SERBIAN STUFFED CABBAGE (SARMA)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Steam the head of cabbage until the outer leaves are limp, then cool slightly and separate the leaves.
• With a paring knife, remove the tough ribs from the leaves without damaging them. Reserve the tougher outer leaves, but don't use for rolling.
• In a medium bowl, mix together the ground chuck, ground pork, rice, and onion soup mix.
• Adding a small amount of water will make the mixture easier to handle.
• Heap 2 tablespoons of filling onto each steamed, prepared cabbage leaf.
• Fold the bottom of the cabbage leaf up over the meat.
• Fold sides to the center and roll away from yourself to encase completely.
• Repeat until the meat filling is gone.
• Heat oven to 350 F.
• Discard the cabbage core and coarsely chop any remaining cabbage except the tough outer leaves you have reserved.
• Spread the chopped cabbage on the bottom of a large casserole dish or Dutch oven. Add the drained sauerkraut.
• Layer on the cabbage rolls, seam-side down.
• Cut the smoked ribs into pieces. Space the ribs or other smoked meat of choice between the cabbage rolls.
• Cover rolls with reserved tough outer leaves.
• Mix tomato sauce and soup with enough water to make a liquidy consistency.
• Pour over rolls until mixture is level with rolls, but not over the top.
• Cover the casserole dish and bake 1 hour.
• Then reduce temperature to 325 F and bake for 2 more hours.
• Let sit 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
• This dish freezes well.

SARMA (STUFFED CABBAGE)

Steps:

• Place cabbage in the freezer for a few days. The night before making the rolls, take it out to thaw.
• In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, ham, rice, onion, egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form meat mixture into oblong balls, using 1/2 cup of the mixture at a time. Then, wrap a cabbage leaf around each ball.
• Spread the sauerkraut in the bottom of a large pot, then layer cabbage rolls on top, placing them seam-side down. Pour tomato juice over rolls, then add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3 hours, adding more water as necessary.

SARMA HOT DISH

Steps:

• Cut your cabbage into small pieces and set aside.
• Cut bacon into small pieces (I slice down the middle of a piece and then chop it) and brown well.
• Remove the pieces of bacon and then brown your diced onion in the bacon grease (yes, use bacon fat).
• Remove your onions and brown your ground beef (this is all the same pan). Season the ground beef with salt, pepper, and garlic granules.
• Mix your meat, bacon pieces, and onions together.
• While you're doing the browning, have your rice cooking in the tomato juice, also make sure to use the salt, pepper, and garlic granules, to taste, in the rice pot. Cook rice until "almost" done (15-17 minutes).
• When your rice is done, add your meat mixture to the rice and mix together well.
• Now the layering process, in the following order going from bottom to top ... 1. 1/2 of the Cabbage 2. 1/2 of the Sauerkraut 3. 1/2 of the Meat/rice mixture. Repeat the layering one more time.
• Bake covered in a 350 degree oven for approximately 1-1/2 hours. If it seems dry, add some hot water around the edges BUT DO NOT STIR MIXTURE! (Usually it is not dry.)
• Note: I have doubled this in a large roasting pan for bigger crowds, or made two hot dishes(normal recipe amount fits into a 2.5-3 qt size hot dish). Also, depending on the cabbage size, I've not used the entire thing, just eyeball it while layering. You want nice coverage, but not so much that it is all you have, as the sauerkraut goes on top of that.