#282 Eastern Europe to Asia- Cabbage Rolls with Balsamic Glaze

Eastern Europe can go between Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and there is bound to be some version of "Stuffed Cabbage" in every part of Eastern Europe. To name a few-- the Lithuanians call it "holubki", Polish
call them "Golabki", for Serbs it is "Sarma" and it so on and on.....In Middle Eastern, Greek, Asian and Italian cuisine it is very common to stuff all kinds of vegetables with ground meat.

When my husband and I go Chinese somedays, there's one thing on the menu that I must have and that's pot stickers. It always amazes me how these tiny packages are filled with finely chopped shrimp or veggies and crimped to perfect bites. I've made a similar steamed package only instead of dough I've used cabbage. My cabbage rolls are stuffed with Asian spiced veggies and eggs and steamed. I stumbled upon the idea of combining the European cabbage filled packages tweaking it to a pot sticker filling. A kick of ginger, a sweet Balsamic dip and eliminating the dough in the traditional pot sticker. There's no harm in adding a bit of ground pork or chicken if you so wish just like the original. My stuffing is a light fried rice version  with crisp waterchestnuts, ginger and soft bamboo shoots very savory and a bit spicy with firm texture. Last but not least, the sweet Balsamic reduction cuts into the cabbage layers with a zesty sweet flavor.


Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon cooked brown rice
chopped scallions-1/4 cup
chopped bamboo shoots- 5 oz can chopped fine
chopped water chestnuts-8 oz can chopped
eggs-2
Cabbage- 1 medium
ginger chopped- 1 tspn
garlic chopped- 1/2 tspn
soy sauce- 1 Tblspn
Mirin/rice wine-1/2 tspn
Chili flakes- 1/2 tspn
Olive oil
Balsamic Reduction....Reduce 1 cup Balsamic vinegar down to 1/4 cup

Directions:
1. Into a medium hot Wok, add the olive oil.
2. Add ginger, garlic, chili flakes and saute adding one veggie
at a time until all of them are slightly cooked yet crisp.
3. Now add the soy sauce, wine and beaten eggs and finally the
 rice mix the ingredients vigorously in the Wok until the
eggs are just cooked and holds the rice together with the veggies.
remove and cool.
4. Remove about 10 leaves from the cabbage and steam lightly in
hot water until just cooked and pliable.
5. Place the cabbage leaf on a flat surface and add a scoop of the
fried rice mixture in the center. Roll the cabbage just like you
would roll a springroll to encase the rice mixture completely.
6. Place a vegetable steamer with water at the bottom ready.
7. When you are done with making rolls with the cabbage leaves and
there is no filling remaining, place the rolls in the steamer
above the water and steam until done for about 10 mins.
8. Make a Balsamic vinegar reduction. Serve as a dipping sauce.