365 Project #362 Cooking Big

I've been craving Halupki, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, but I was craving the taste, not the work. First, you blanch a head of cabbage, removing the leaves as they soften and loosen from the head. Then, when you get them all off, you make a filling from ground meat, an equal volume of cooked rice, onions, garlic and spices. Rolling a large tablespoon of filling into every leaf, you set the rolls into a baking dish, cover with tomato sauce and bake slowly until tender and done.

There had to be a better way. I looked up Cabbage Roll Casserole and found the answer. I used 2 heads of cabbage, 3 pounds of meat, several cups of rice and 6 cans of tomato sauce. A layer of tomato sauce on the bottom, a thick layer of cabbage cut up into 1" squares, filling, sauce, cabbage, sauce and into the oven for 2 1/2 hours. It took that long to bake because I filled 2 large aluminum pans and another smaller casserole dish.

One large pan went to the Soup Kitchen on Wednesday, we ate the smaller casserole yesterday and today and are working on a larger one. When we get sick of it, we'll throw single-size servings in the freezer for another day.

I love to cook big.