Moldovan sarmale

Ingredients

• Whole soured cabbage1.5 kg
• Minced pork700 g
• Rice — uncooked150 g
• Smoked ribs400 g
• Onions3
• Tomato juice500 ml
• Dried dill2 tbsp
• Thyme1 tbsp
• Vegetable oil80 ml
• Soured cream — to serve250 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Take the head apart into leaves and pare down the thick rib at the base of each.

   25 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion in oil until golden and cool it completely.

   20 min

3. 3

   Mix the mince with the raw rice, onion, dill, thyme, salt and pepper.

   12 min

4. 4

   Halve the larger leaves and roll parcels the size of a thumb.

   50 min

5. 5

   Line the base of a pot with leaf trimmings and pieces of smoked rib.

   8 min

6. 6

   Pack the sarmale in tight circles, laying ribs between every other layer.

   15 min

7. 7

   Pour over tomato juice and water, cover with torn leaves and stew at 150 °C for three hours.

   190 min

About the dish

Moldovan sarmale are smaller than Romanian ones, about a thumb's size. They are counted by the dozen rather than singly, and the small form gives more sour leaf per bite of meat.

The cabbage is soured whole in the head rather than fresh. The acidity of the leaf is the main flavour, and fresh cabbage with vinegar does not replace it.

A layer of torn leaves goes on top. It holds the steam and keeps the upper rows from drying over three hours in the oven.

Worth knowing

• — Rinse the cabbage if it is very sour. An over-salted leaf makes the whole dish inedible, and there is no fixing it at the end.
• — Add liquid to the level of the top row, no higher. Sarmale covered over boil rather than stew.
• — They are better on the second day. In Moldova they are made the night before and served reheated with soured cream.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

28 g

Fat

30 g

Carbs

32 g

More from Moldova

• Plăcintă — A flat pie of stretched dough with cheese, pumpkin or apple, cooked in a dry pan.
• Zeamă — Chicken soup with home-made noodles, soured with bran borș. The Moldovan remedy for everything.
• Mucenici — Yeast figures of eight glazed with honey and walnuts for the day of the Forty Martyrs.