Tropical Zone Gardening: It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without..., 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
Ah, sarmale... (one sarma, two or more sarmale. If you talk about the dish in general, you use the plural)

I'm going to quote my favorite cook-book writer:
"Sarmale - the ancient (people) made them, and the Turks, and the Greeks, the Serbs and the Polish. But only we (the Romanians) make them in about twenty (20) versions, like this: with different meats and vegetables, with greens, with smoked pork, wrapped in cabbage leaves, linden leaves, in beet, in... flowers or whatever surprises you, with dill and sour cream, smoldered on low fire for days. And the raw material is not the same either: Next to the sheep/lamb, the pig is the other Romanian animal, good for legends, even if these days is more and more persecuted and sent to the corner by the new degreased culinary fashions."

They are beloved by us and the foreigners, and it's another of those meals a woman must know how to prepare so she can marry... again, there are loving Romanian men, that will ignore this... my Mom knew how, but didn't have confidence: "what if they unwrap in the pot?". We always had sarmale while Buita was with us. After she passed away, one of my aunts came over and made them. Then I made them (I didn't care if they would unwrap...). My mom would use the same ingredients, but would chop the cabbage, put alternate layers of cabbage and meat and (without worries) it would taste great none-the-less. Maybe she did them for a very few times the "proper way". Now, back home my father makes them (my sister inherited the "sarmale-fright"?), and here I do.

I will never be afraid of any dish.That was my decision a long time ago. I only used two wraps: cabbage leaves (either sweet or pickled - sauerkraut) and grape leaves. I learned to make them while watching Buita, and my Aunt Florina, it's easier to see somebody wrap one for the first time.

The recipe is almost the same, no matter the wrap. However, the wrap makes them so different... so let me get rid of this topic first:

The wrap:
You can find grape leaves in stores, in the pickles area. They work just lovely. Back home, we would pick grape leaves (as big as possible but also as tender as possible) and we would boil the min salty water (plus a dash of vinegar) to soften them for the wrapping process.

The cabbage: I noticed that here are at least two different kinds in stores: make sure that you buy (or pick from your garden) the one with soft leaves. The other one, no matter how long you boil it, will behave like cardboard, and you will never be able to wrap anything... So once you have the cabbage, remove the 2-3 outer leaves, give it a wash, and then you have two options: either immerse the whole cabbage-head into a pot of boiling water, and then you will remove the softened leaves from the head, one by one. Or, take a knife and cut about 1-1.5" from the stem. This will free many leaves, that you would then immerse in the salty boiling water. It takes about 5-10 minutes for the leaves to be ready for the job. (I use the later version).
The last version is used for the pickled cabbage (Romanians pickle it whole), the leaves are already ready to wrap.

Ingredients (apart for the wrap):
1 kg pork meat, ground (it has to have some fat in it, for my taste. This is why I buy the meat, then grind it. This way I KNOW I have some fat...)
2 big onions, finely chopped
1 cup rice
2 eggs
salt and spices accoprding to taste: black pepper (ground), savory, basil, dill (I love dill best for the grape leaves), paprika
Tomato paste/sauce
chicken broth
Adding bits of smoked bacon or somked meat gives them a more winter-y flavor.

Preparation:
(I grew up in a mixed family: Transylvania and Moldavia intertwined. It was take a little, give a little, even with sarmale... The Moldavians use frequently half pork half beef mix, ours were pork. The Transylvanians pre-cook the meat on the stove before wrapping... not in our house...

You have the option: the longer way, to cook the chopped onion in a bit of oil, on the stove, until translucent, than add the meat in, stir, until meat changes color. let cool, then add the eggs and spices.
Or do it the faster, easier way like me (no frying at all): just go ahead, mix the meat, spices, onion, eggs and rice. That's it, simple! (at the end, no one will know...) I like to add 1 can of tomato sauce in the meat composition, and mix it in.

Now that the filling is prepared, the wrapping, or shaping the sarmale: the big outer leaves yield 2 sarmale a piece for me, by removing the main vein. The smaller leaves go for one. Again, differences in the Regions, the Moldavians like to wrap small ones (as small as a walnut), the Transylvanians make them big-style, as big as a man's fist. I meet them midway.

Different cooks will wrap different ways. My way: take a heaping spoonful of mix and place it on your leaf piece. Then, wrap it like an envelope, making sure that the leaf covers all the meat. My friend Lumi's way: the same mix, place it in the upper side of the leaf, then roll it, then poke the margins with your fingers, until you see no meat anymore (so, no matter what you do and how you do it, make sure that the meat is all in).

Place them in a pot that can go in the oven. When you filled the first layer, you can sprinlke bits (1/2' cubes) of smoked bacon or smoked ham. Then, a fine layer of chopped cabbage, then another of sarmale, until you have about 1-1.5" to the top, or your materials are over.
Add another tomato sauce can mixed with chicken broth and some more spices to the pot, so the sarmale are covered completely by the liquid mix. Cover the pot (If the lid is not oven-proof, cover with aluminum foil, but poke a hole with a knife or fork, so it can vent a bit). Stick them in the oven set at 350-375, and forget about them for 1-2hours. Check them to see if they still have liquid, and gently press them back (they start to expand a bit, and tend to "lift"). If needed (I usually do) replenish the liquid (either chicken broth, tomato-chicken broth, or even water will do fine). Forget again about them for another hour or so.

After 3 hours, they should be ready. But they are best next day! they are so good, that no one will ever complain of an "improperly" packed sarma!
Bon apetit!