Sarme - Pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice in a light tomato sauce

Sarme, which is a plural form of sarma, but also holding the name of the dish, is made of a mixture of minced meat and white rice wrapped in pickled cabbage leaves, and then slow cooked on a bed of shredded sauerkraut in a light tomato sauce.

This dish takes a special place in my recipe collection for comfort food, it is easy to make, hearty and satisfying, especially popular during colder months, it will wrap you in warmth like a woollen blanket. It used to be commonly served for lunch or dinner during the holidays and special occasions but nowadays it is also eaten as midweek meal.

Taking into account the historical context, it is quite clear, that Sarma probably originated in Turkey (the name sarma derives from a Turkish word sarmak, meaning to roll) and belongs to the dolma food family (stuffed dishes) spread in the cuisines in territories of the former Ottoman Empire from the Middle East to the Balkans and Central Europe, but like with most dishes, different places developed different versions of the same basic recipe.

When I first arrived to England, I was quite nostalgic about this dish as I could not find the whole sauerkraut head to buy. When my mother visited me she would buy it back home for me, put it in a suitcase and bring it with her on a plane. We would then prepare and cook sarme together. In Slovenia, where I come from, it is quite common to pickle large quantities of cabbage heads and buy them in the supermarkets in plastic bags or on farmer's markets directly from barrels available to make sarme during the winter.

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In the family this dish would very often be made for big family gatherings in a big batch with the hope that some of it could be frozen and taken out on a lazy day, but that almost never happened!

I am Sharing here a version of sarme my maternal grandmother and my mother always cooked. It is highly recommended to make ahead as it tastes even better the following day, and serve sarme with mashed or boiled potatoes, or crusty bread and a dollop of sour cream on top.

It is very common to add in a pot of simmering sarme some lardons, bacon (thick cut), pancetta or pork ribs, smoked or unsmoked, this will give an additional meaty taste to the dish.

If you live in the UK and happened to watch on the television Rick's Steins Long Weekends short holiday and cooking series a few years ago, this dish was prepared for him in Vienna and described by him as one of his absolute favourites of all his long weekend programmes.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 (about 12 rolls)

• 1 pack of whole pickled cabbage head (you will find this on line or European delicatessens, especially Polish in the chilled section)

• 250g minced beef

• 250g minced pork

• 100g white rice

• 1 onion (about 100g), peeled and finely chopped

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

• 3 Tbsp olive oil

• sea salt

• ground black pepper

• 2 bay leaves, fresh or dry

• 2 Tbsp tomato concentrate

• 1 Tbsp (or to taste) sweet Hungarian paprika

• 1-2 Tbsp all purpose flour

• sour cream for serving, optional

Method

The filling

Place the rice in a pan and cover with plenty of water.

Cook the rice as instructed on the pack, but cut the cooking time in half, as you only want the rice to be part-cooked.

Drain the rice in a colander and let it cool completely.

Put the oil, finely chopped onions and crushed garlic in a frying pan and sauté on a gentle heat until the onions become nice and soft.

Turn the heat to medium, add minced beef and pork, season with sea salt and black pepper and cook for about 20 minutes until the meat is browned.

Remove the frying pan from the heat, set aside and cool completely.

When both the rice and the meat mixture are cooled completely, put them in a bowl and mix them well together.

This is now your filling ready to fill the cabbage leaves.

Prepare the cabbage leaves for stuffing.

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Carefully unpeel the leaves from the whole pickled cabbage head and gently open them up without breaking them. This is quite important so you do not have breakage and holes in the leaves, as the filling might come out once rolled. If you end up damaging quite badly the leaf, do not worry about it, just thinly shred it and use it later as a part of a sauce.

You will only need bigger and medium size leaves that come off the head quite easily. How many leaves you can obtain it really depends on the size of the whole pickled cabbage head (from the medium size cabbage head you should get around 12 leaves, this is the amount I used for this recipe).

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Once you peel off the leaves, you will end up with smaller inner cabbage head. Shred it with a sharp knife and set aside, this will be part of your sauce later on.

Place each leaf on a chopping board and cut out the thick and hard part of the stem, this will allow you to roll the leaf easily.

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Take one leaf, place it on a working surface and spoon the filling on the edge of each leaf. It is tricky to give the exact amount, maybe 3 Tbsp for bigger leaves and a bit less for smaller leaves. You really want to use a bit of judgement here and just put the amount of filling you think the size of the leaf you are using can hold.

First fold inwards (away from you) the leaf section.

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Then fold over the two flaps on the side. Then you simply roll forward until you get a cabbage roll.

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Set aside the rolls and keep repeating the process until you use up all the leaves.

Put half the shredded pickled cabbage over the base of a fairly large casserole dish or pan with a lid.

Place and arrange the stuffed leaves, fold-side down, next to each other, nice and tightly.

Scatter the other half of shredded cabbage on top of the rolls.

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Add a bit of water, about half way to 1/3 way up the dish.

In a small cereal bowl put the flour, few tables spoons of lukewarm water and mix well to avoid lumps.

Add sweet paprika, tomato paste and mix.

Pour the mixture over the stuffed leaves.

Stick 1 or 2 bay leaf between sarma, add sea salt and black pepper.

Cover with the lid and gently simmer for about 2 hours. It is important not to stir and keeping the gas on a fairly low as high heat might cause aggressive boil causing the rolls to open up and break. Just shake the pot gently a few times during the cooking process.

If after two hours you think the sauce is too watery just dissolve 1 Tbsp of flour in a bit of lukewarm water, pour it in the pot and continue simmering. This should thicken a bit the sauce.

Taste and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper.

Lift the cabbage rolls gently out of the pot, with the help of the spoon and a fork and serve warm with mashed or boiled potatoes or plenty of crunchy bread to soak up the juices.

For extra flavour top the rolls with a dollop of sour cream.

Just a thought

Sarme will keep in the fridge up to 3-4 days in an airtight container.

The dish also freezes very well, but before using it, defrost in the fridge overnight and reheat well.

Wine suggestion

Venezia Giulia Malvasia Istriana IGT 2017 - Damijan Podversic

Jota – Sauerkraut, beans and potato stew Istrian Recipe

Jota, pronounced 'yota,' is a very old recipe for a stew made of sauerkraut, dried borlotti beans, potatoes and some kind of pork cuts. It is believed that the word jota derives from Celtic word “jutta” indicating a liquidy soup.

Jota is filling and makes a perfect choice for a comfort food when the first cold starts as it will warm your body and soul. It is really easy to make, healthy, inexpensive, and it has become a staple and much loved dish in Slovenian households. Jota, being also very nutritious, is served in nurseries, schools, care homes for elderly, and family run informal restaurants, as well as being one of the most requested dishes from hikers and skiers in mountainside restaurants.

This hearty stew is incredibly humble and proper peasant food as it was born out of necessity and from what was available. My paternal nona told me that most of the households in the countryside, where she was growing up (a little village called Marezige just a few kilometres from the coastal town Koper), would have a wooden barrel of home made sauerkraut, sacks of potatoes and dried borlotti beans, and if you were lucky enough, a pig or a few pigs that would eventually get slaughtered and provided a very precious meat. The better cuts of pork meat were used for drying and curing and for what was considered a very rare and luxurious roasts while less prestigious cuts were put in soups and stews to enrich the flavour.

This very poor dish comes from the region of Primorska near the Adtriatic Sea and it is considered a quintessentially, one of the most famous Istrian peasant dishes, also enormously popular in Trieste and province of Trieste in Italy.

According to Anna Gosetti della Salda, in her book, Le ricette regionali Italiane, Jota (or Jote) was widely made over the whole region of Friuli (Italy), the area bordering with Slovenia, but towards the end of last century the use of jota was limited almost exclusively to the Valli di Gorto and Pesarina in Carnia.

The use of sauerkraut in all these regions, referred to as kapus in the Istrian dialect, is a testimony to how strongly the Austro-Hungarian Empire influenced the dishes in these areas.

Like with most dishes in the culinary world, it is no surprise that there are some variations in the recipe for Jota as well. The most common variation of Jota is without potatoes, and instead, a bit of flour is used to thicken the soup, and another common variation is making jota using sour turnip (called kisla repa in Slovenian).

In some variations, also used by both my mother and my nona, besides the use of different pork cuts, pešto or taca (smooth paste made with pancetta, crushed garlic and fresh, very finely chopped parsley) would be used. This was done, once again, to boost the flavour of the dish.

In some parts of Slovenia that are geographically closer to Hungary, a small quantity of powdered smoked sweet Hungarian paprika will be added to jota.

Before serving this sauerkraut stew, different cuts of pork, that have been cooked in jota, are removed from the bone, sometimes shredded and then returned and mixed into a soup. It is also very common to remove the meats from the soup and serve it later as a separate course.

Different cuts of pork can be used to enrich the flavour of this stew, but it is equally delicious without the meaty element and so it makes a lovely vegetarian and vegan meal.

My nona also “jokingly” shared with me, that to make a really good jota you need three days. The first day for soaking the beans, the second day for cooking Jota and the third for eating it, and enjoying it after it has rested, and all the flavours had a chance to fully develop. It is up to you whether you want to follow my nona three day rule.

I do, no wonder it turns out delicious...

Here I am sharing my family recipe for jota.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 300g dry borlotti beans, soaked overnight or least for 4 hours

• 650g -1kg sauerkraut, drained and rinsed

  (I am giving you an approximate amount of sauerkraut to be used in this recipe as it can be flexible. The amount you use will depend on what you can find in your local food store. Sauerkraut is normally sold in either glass jars or sometimes in sealed plastic bags and they will indicate on the label both total net weight (with the liquid) and drained weight, and the latter is the weight you need to look for.

• For this recipe I bought a glass jar of sauerkraut with total weight of 680g and 650g drained weight which is the amount of sauerkraut I used for the soup).

• 2 bay leaves, fresh or dry

• 500g or more, pork ribs (can use ham hocks or similar)

• 100-200g g smoked bacon lardons (can use smoked cubed pancetta, a slab of bacon or pancetta, chopped strips of smoked bacon or similar)

  (The use of combination of smoked and unsmoked meat element is quite important, as it really gives that traditional and typical Jota flavour, but it is also very flexible. You can, if you prefer, only use unsmoked meats or all smoked for a deeper smoky flavour. Traditionally a bone or outer rind of dry cured ham would be used in order not to waist anything, and it is also packed full of flavour.

• few black peppercorns, 4-6

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

• 3 fairly big potatoes about 600-800g, peeled and cubed

• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)

• sea salt

Method

There are three simple stages to make jota.

Stage 1

Drain previously soaked beans in a colander, rinse with cold running water and drain again.

Transfer the beans to a very big pot (5 litre at least, where jota will be cooked), add the meats, bay leaf and 5 litre of cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, turn the heat down to a medium low and cook the beans, partially covered with the lid for about 1 hour until the beans are just soft. Skim any foam that rises to the surface, you might have to repeat this process few times.

Do not add sea salt at this point as this will make the skin of the beans hard causing them to crack during the cooking.

Stage 2

Place the sauerkraut in a colander and drain, rinse briefly but thoroughly with cold running water and drain again.

Transfer the sauerkraut in a pan, add a pinch of salt, peppercorns, crashed garlic, bay leaf, olive oil and cold water just enough to cover the sauerkraut.

Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cook for about 30 minutes. After this time, transfer the sauerkraut to a big bean pot.

Stage 3

Peel, wash, cube the potatoes and place them in pan. Cover completely with water, bring to boil, turn the heat down and cook for about 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft when pierced with the tip of a knife.

Drain the potatoes in a colander or with the slotted spoon transfer the potatoes to a large plate or bowl. With the back of the fork coarsely mash half of the potatoes and leave the other half cubed.

Transfer coarsely mashed and cubed potatoes in a big pot with beans.

Partially cover with a lid the big pot with beans, sauerkraut and potatoes and continue cooking on a gentle heat for another hour. All three elements will mix and blend together and the soup will start thickening. Taste and adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The soup should be quite thick but still have enough liquid to be able to ladle it nicely on the plate.

If jota gets too thick just add a bit of water to dilute it.

When jota is cooked, depending on what type of meats you use, take the meat of the bones, discard skin and bones and transfer pieces of shredded meat to the soup if you wish.

Discard the bay leaves before serving jota hot with a nice piece of crunchy bread.

Just a thought

Jota will keep well in a fridge for few days and is suitable for freezing.

If jota gets too thick, simply dilute it adding a bit of water, bring to boil and serve hot.

Wine suggestion

Venezia Giulia Pinot GrigioIGT 2019 – Azienda Agricola Pierpaolo Pecorari

Sautéed Sauerkraut recipe

The word “sauerkraut” comes from German Sauerkraut, which literally means “sour cabbage”. From sauer “sour” and kraut “vegetable, cabbage.” The origin of the dish has been disputed but it took root mostly in Central and Eastern European cuisines.

Sauerkraut is finely shredded cabbage, that has been fermented by various lactic acid bacteria and it has a distinctive sour flavour due to the fact, that the lactic acid is formed when the bacteria ferment the sugars in the cabbage. It is the lactic acid that naturally preserves sauerkraut and gives it long shelf life.

It is incredibly popular dish back home, and would appear on tables as a part of a family meal on a weekly basis, especially during colder months. Its popularity is not surprising, if we consider the fact, that the area was under Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of First World War. Almost every household would have a slightly different version of how to prepare and cook sauerkraut.

In Slovenia, you can buy sauerkraut in all supermarkets in sealed plastic bags or glass jars, but I just love getting it from farmer's market, where it is sold on food stalls by local farmers directly from big wooden barrels.

I am sharing with you my grandma and my mum's version of how it is cooked on the coastal region, simply with extra virgin olive oil, a bit of garlic and bay leaf, however, adding a pinch of sweet Hungarian paprika and few crushed caraway seeds is quite common too, in order to achieve once again that “imperial” flavour. This is a great side dish, traditionally used to accompany almost any meat based dish like sausages, cooked ham, pork roast or other meat roasts, pork chops, black sausage...

As children, my brother and I would have it just simply with fried eggs and a bit of potato mash.

Sauerkraut is quite versatile, and it can be also used in a variety of other dishes, and just to mention a few, jota (Istrian sauerkraut and bean soup), Hungarian style sauerkraut, rice and mince pork casserole, and it is great in sandwiches, made for example, with rye bread and cooked ham.

My nona Nada has vivid memories from when she was a child, of every household in the village making a big barrel of sauerkraut; cabbage would be harvested in autumn and fermented during winter month.

Sauerkraut is also very healthy, and has numerous nutritional benefits. Contains live and active probiotics, helping your body to fight off harmful bacteria or toxins, it has high level of digestive enzymes, high in vitamin C and K2. Rich in fibre and minerals like potassium, iron and magnesium.

No wonder Captain James Cook always took a store of sauerkraut on his sea voyages!

It is really not surprising, that sauerkraut has been gaining increasing popularity in the past few years, especially in the countries where it has been less known.

Back home, it has always been there...just like family.

When shopping for sauerkraut, make sure you get a good quality one, just sea salt and nothing else should be added on the ingredient list.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1kg Sauerkraut (sauerkraut is normally sold in glass jars or sealed plastic bags and will have different net weights of sauerkraut, it does not matter if you end up with slightly less or more than 1kg of sauerkraut)

• 1 bay leaf (fresh or dry)

• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 2-3 cloves of garlic (peeled and crashed)

• sea salt

• few black whole peppercorns

Method

Drain the saurekraut in a colander and give it a quick rinse with cold water if you think the sauerkraut is too acid for your taste, but do not over rinse it, as you will loose the characteristic sauerkraut taste.

Place the rinsed sauerkraut into a large, preferably non stick pan, add sea salt, peppercorns, bay leaf, garlic, extra virgin olive oil.

Add water, just enough to cover the sauerkraut, bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 1-1 1/2 hours.

Sauerkraut is cooked, when you have no excess liquid left in the pan, and the sauerkraut is nice and soft. Adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Wine suggestion

Cabernet Sauvignon IGT 2017 by Balter, Vallagarina.