I made Golombkis!

Its true everyone, this arab-american girl made a polish feast....and it was GREAT! Originally I thought I was going to try this recipe but I just knew that I wasn't going to like the tomato soup based sauce so I called Eric's mom and she gave me her recipe. Her recipe uses tomato sauce instead of soup, which I thought would just make for a much more homemade taste rather than the processed taste of tomato soup. Also, I must say this was actually really really easy and affordable.

What you'll need:
1 lb ground beef
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup tomato sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp basil, chopped
1 head cabbage (10 outer leaves)

1. Cook brown rice according to package instructions.
2. While rice is cooking remove about 10-15 of the large outer leaves from a head of cabbage and boil them for about 10 minutes, until they are soft.
3. Place chopped onions in a skillet and cook until tender. Add ground beef and cook until browned. Drain fat from pan and add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper, cook for another minute. Add cooked rice to the beef mixture now, I also added about a tbsp of tomato sauce at this point just to give the meat some more flavor.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking dish by lining with tinfoil and spraying with cooking spray.
5. Now start making the cabbage rolls by taking each cabbage leaf and cutting out the thick vein in the middle, making a V-shape cut out in the bottom of the leaf. Place about 1/4 cup of the beef mixture onto the middle of the leaf. This part is a bit challenging because the leaves are very tender and tear easily. Just be patient and don't worry if the leaf doesn't wrap around the filling perfectly, it will all taste the same in the end as long as you get a good beef to cabbage ratio for each roll. Place the completed rolls into the greased baking dish.
6. Make the sauce by putting a cup of tomato sauce into a small bowl. Add the sugar, basil, a pinch of salt and pepper and about a tsp of water. Mix together to drizzle over the cabbage rolls in the dish. Cover the dish tightly with tin foil and bake for 40-50 minutes.

To my surprise Eric was thrilled with the way these turned out. I thought for sure there was no way mine were going to stand up to the polish families traditional meal...but apparently I can be quite versatile! Now what was also great about this is that you can take the same beef mixture and put it in green peppers to make some killer stuffed peppers. I personally took my leftover beef and put it on a taco shell, added some lettuce, cheese, and hot sauce and I had some tacos for lunch the next day. So overall I was really pleased with this and definitely recommend everyone tries it!

Golombki recipe

I must start out by saying that I had no idea what a golombki even was until my polish boy told me that he was wishing for some. So I did some research and found this delicious looking recipe in Taste of Home magazine. After running the recipe by Eric to make sure this was the real deal I decided it needed to be added to the list of things to try. I sure hope it is as good as it looks, and I hope I can live up to his mom's version (although I am sure I can't, she is a fabulous cook). 

What you'll need:

1 medium head of cabbage

1/2 cup uncooked instant rice

1 lb ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 cans (10 3/4 oz each) condensed tomato soup

1 1/4 cup water

1. Cook cabbage in boiling water just until outer leaves pull away easily from head. Set aside 10 large leaves for rolls. Refrigerate remaining cabbage for another use. Cut out the think vein from the bottom of each leaf, making a V-shaped cut. 

2. Cook rice according to package instructions. Cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the cook rice and a pinch of salt and pepper.
3. Place 1/2 cup beef mixture on a cabbage leaf, overlap cut ends of leaf. Fold in sides, roll up beginning from cut end. Place rolls in a greased baking dish. Combine soup and water, pour over top. 

4. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes until cabbage is tender. 

Even though this recipe passed on Eric's end, I think there are so many changes that I would make. I think there is potential for A TON more flavor if you used regular rice, not instant, and you cooked it in the tomato broth. I would also not use condensed tomato soup. I hate the taste of that stuff, I would go for more of a crushed tomato sauce. Season that up nice and it will get thick and yummy as it bakes. I would leave the cabbage leaves and beef raw and let the tomato sauce cook everything together. This is all just a plan in my head...whether it would work or not is the question...but I can't wait to try it!

Let me know if you have a favorite golombki recipe!