Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

1 large cabbage
800 g ground beef
¾ cup basmati rice
1 egg
50 g butter, melted
1 cup chopped parsley
3 large cloves crushed garlic
1 onion sliced thin
800 g jar of crushed tomatoes
1 litre homemade beef stock
1 cup spring water
2 tsp SIDS HOT WORCESTER SAUCE
SIDS SALT & PEPPER to taste

Fill a cooking pot half way with water. Salt it well and bring it to a boil. Turn down the heat to a simmer
While you’re waiting for the water to boil, put the ground beef, rice, egg, melted butter, parsley, garlic, SIDS SALT & PEPPER and SIDS HOT WORCESTER SAUCE in a large bowl. Mix until very well combined then put the meat mixture in the fridge.
Make sure you have a large bowl of cool water near the stove to place your cooked cabbage leaves in. Very important!
First cut out the core, really get in there. You want the leaves to come off easily. Rinse the cabbage well. If the outer leaves look a bit ragged, peel them off.
Using a pair of tongs, gently lower the WHOLE head of cabbage into the pot of simmering water. It sound a little crazy, but trust me. Magic will happen!
You will quickly notice that the outermost leaf is beginning to soften and magically come off! Let the leaf continue to simmer for about 45-60 seconds.
Once the leaf is nicely pliable, take it off with the tongs and place it in the bowl of cool water.
Keep repeating this process, gently and carefully rotating the cabbage in the pot until all the leaves are done. If you ripped a few, that’s okay! We’re still going to use them.
ASSEMBLY: To assemble your stuffed cabbage rolls, you will need to trim the leaves a little bit. To do this, begin by cutting off the tough stem. Run your knife along the stem to make it thin and pliable. (If you don’t trim the stem, you won’t be able to roll the cabbage and you will end up with cabbage and meatball soup)
Take the meat mixture out of the fridge and divide it into even portions. If you have 10 nice cabbage leaves, you should make 10 portions of meat mixture
Take a leaf and lay it down so that the leaf curls towards you. (not wrong side out)
Take a portion of meat and lay it in the leaf closest to the stem.
Shape the meat into a long loaf. This will make it easy to roll.
Roll the leaf over once, tuck in the sides and roll it over a second time. (Be sure not to roll these too tight or they will pop during cooking!)
Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Line the bottom of the Dutch oven with a few failed cabbage leaves. Sprinkle on half of the onion slices. Spoon half the crushed tomatoes over the top and season with SIDS SALT & PEPPER to taste.
Layer half of the rolls (Usually 5-6 can fit nicely) and top them with the other half of the sliced onions and crushed tomatoes. Season again with SIDS SALT & PEPPER.
Pour in the beef stock plus a little water if needed in order to JUST submerge the cabbage rolls. You will notice that they will float. Annoying, but there is no avoiding this, which is why we check these in 1 hour. Cover with a tight lid and put in the oven for 1 hour.
Once the timer goes off, take the pot out and check the rolls. You’ll notice they have floated to the top! Pour in a bit more beef stock to submerge them again and cook for another hour. If you can’t submerge them the second time, very gently rotate the rolls at the top to ensure that they don’t dry out. You want to make sure the rice gets cooked too.
Gently plate a few stuffed cabbage rolls and spoon over some broth. Enjoy!