Cabbage rolls from young cabbage
Classic cabbage rolls made with young cabbage, based on Vlad Piskunov’s approach, the brand chef of the Matryoshka restaurant. The dish uses fatty minced meat, round-grain rice, carrots, tomatoes, onions, garlic, tomato paste, vegetable oil, salt, pepper, fresh dill, and sour cream.
Soak the rice in warm water for two hours, then boil it, drain in a colander and rinse with cold water. Combine the cooled rice with minced meat, seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, trim the stem, and blanch the cabbage in boiling water for ten minutes, turning it occasionally. Finely dice the onion and garlic, grate the carrots, peel and dice the tomatoes. Sauté the vegetables in vegetable oil in the listed order. In a separate pan, sauté the tomato paste and then add it to the vegetables.
Separate the cabbage head into single leaves, trim the thick veins, and gently flatten them with a wooden pusher. Shape a long sausage from the seasoned minced meat and wrap it inside each leaf. Grease a pan with oil, create tight layers of cabbage rolls, spread a light layer of fried vegetables between each layer, and repeat. Lightly salt each layer. Add water to come halfway up the rolls. Simmer for twenty minutes on medium heat with the lid on. Turn off the heat and let the pan rest for another twenty minutes with the lid closed. Serve with sour cream and chopped fresh dill.
Stuffed Cabbage Spelled
Elena Nikiforova, chef at Shinok restaurant, shares a lean variant of cabbage rolls using husk and mushrooms. The ingredients include young cabbage, spelled, mushrooms, onions, semolina, zucchini, carrots, vegetable broth, and a touch of sugar.
Remove the stem from the cabbage and steam leaves until they separate easily. Boil until tender. Dice the mushrooms and sauté in vegetable oil, then separately sauté finely chopped onions and grated carrots. Grate the zucchini roughly. Mix all minced meat ingredients, seasoning with salt and a pinch of sugar. Place the minced meat on each sheet, roll to enclose, and dredge in flour before frying in hot oil. Transfer the rolls to a saucepan, cover with vegetable broth, seal with foil, and bake for about 15 minutes.
Stuffed Beef Cabbage with Morel Sauce
Vladimir Chistyakov, brand chef of BURO.TSUM, prepares beef cabbage rolls accompanied by a morel sauce. The dish calls for cabbage, chicken broth, beef, onions, cream, milk, ciabatta, salt, and pepper. For the sauce: morel mushrooms, shallots, red wine, mushroom broth, cream, sour cream, garlic, and thyme.
Soak bread in a mixture of cream and milk, then fry onion until soft. Process the soaked bread and fried onions with the veal through a meat grinder, seasoning with salt and pepper. Wrap portions of the finished mince in blanched cabbage leaves and simmer in chicken broth at 80 degrees for about two hours until tender. For the sauce, sauté shallots and garlic, add red wine and morels, and cook until the wine reduces. Stir in thyme, mushroom broth, and cream, then simmer with the lid on until thickened. Finish with sour cream, season, and boil for another ten to fifteen minutes. When serving, rewarm the cabbage rolls, plate, ladle the sauce, top with morels, and scatter chopped chives.
Cabbage rolls with mushroom caviar
Pavel Petukhov, chef at Erwin Reka restaurant, presents lean cabbage rolls filled with mushroom caviar. Ingredients include bok choy leaves, wild rice, mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, onions, truffle oil, salt, pepper, and a sauce made from tomatoes, onion, garlic, vegetable oil, tomato juice, thyme, and herbs.
Choose large bok choy leaves and scald them in boiling water. Cook wild rice in salted water. Sauté champignons and oyster mushrooms with onions until golden, then mince the mixture with onions. Combine with wild rice and a dash of truffle oil. Roll the mushroom filling inside a bok choy leaf. For the sauce, blend the tomatoes in their own juice. Sauté onion and garlic in oil, add the chopped tomatoes and tomato juice, season with salt, pepper, and thyme, and simmer ten minutes. Fry the cabbage rolls on both sides and finish in the oven until heated through. Serve with the sauce and cabbage rolls on a plate, garnished with herbs.
Shrimp Cabbage Rolls
Ilya Russkikh, chef at RED WALL restaurant in Nizhny Novgorod, offers Asian-inspired cabbage rolls featuring shrimp and a spicy sauce. Required ingredients include savoy cabbage, parsnips, daikon, lightly salted cucumbers, tiger shrimp, garlic, butter, thyme, tobiko caviar, green oil, a spicy sauce, microgreens, salt, and pepper.
Salt the parsnips and daikon, toss with oil, and bake until halfway cooked before blending into a paste. Parboil the Savoy cabbage and layer over the parsnip puree. Sauté shrimp with garlic, thyme, butter, salt, and pepper. Wrap the shrimp in cabbage leaves with the vegetable puree and bake for about 15 minutes. Garnish with tobiko, the spicy sauce, green butter, and microgreens when serving.
Cabbage rolls with seafood
The Grand Cafe’s chief chef, Dr. Zhivago Alexander Mishin, shares a seafood-forward cabbage roll recipe. Ingredients include shrimp, crayfish necks, soft cheese, mayonnaise, leeks, bok choy, vegetable oil, and microgreens.
Blend shrimp and crayfish necks until smooth, then fold into the other ingredients. Boil bok choy leaves in salted water. Wrap the mixture in cabbage leaves and fry the rolls in oil, finishing in the oven at 180 degrees. Garnish with microgreens as desired.
Chinese Cabbage Rolls
Evgeny Mikhailov, chef at Drinks@Dinners, shares a recipe for stuffed Chinese cabbage with mushrooms, bulgur, tofu, and vegetables in a demi-glace. Ingredients include Chinese cabbage, boiled bulgur, tofu, mushrooms, onions, salt, and pepper. For demi-glace: water, beets, leeks, celery root, carrots, onions, bell pepper, tomato paste, rice, salt, pepper.
Boil the bulgur and sauté mushrooms with onions. Mix tofu with bulgur and mushrooms, seasoning with salt and pepper. Boil bok choy until soft, form into a semicircle, wrap with cling film, top with bok choy and chopped mushrooms, then roll and shape with the film. Without removing the film, place the cabbage rolls in a saucepan and cook for five to seven minutes. Prepare the demi-glace by grating vegetables and baking them until they brown. Add water, rice, and simmer for two hours. Transfer to a pan, reduce to about 100 ml, and season. If demi-glace is unavailable, a simple low-fat sour cream sauce can be used. When serving, pour the demi-glace or sour cream on the plate, place the cabbage rolls on top after removing the film, and finish with fresh herbs and a dollop of sour cream.
Savoy cabbage rolls with root vegetables
Alexander Bogdanov, brand chief at Helvetia hotel and Cafe Claret and Marius restaurants, explains lean savoy cabbage rolls with root vegetables. The ingredients include savoy cabbage, long-grain rice, parsnips, carrots, onions, cauliflower, tomatoes, mushrooms, sunflower oil, soy sauce, salt, and a sauce made from onions, potatoes, tomatoes in their own juice, garlic, salt, and sugar.
Blanch savoy cabbage leaves in boiling salted water for four minutes, then cool on ice. Boil the rice until soft. Roast parsnips, cauliflower, and carrots in foil until tender, then cut into small cubes. Chop onions and mushrooms and sauté slowly. Mix the rice with vegetables and season with soy sauce. Wrap the minced meat in savoy cabbage leaves. For the sauce, boil potatoes in salted water without draining, sauté onions until golden, then blend potatoes, onions, tomatoes, garlic, and seasoning. If the mix thickens, add some potato water. Strain, pour over the cabbage rolls, weigh down with a press, and bake at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.
Classic stuffed cabbage
Nadezhda Lyubimova, brand chef of Williams Et Oliver’s kitchenware, favors the classic stuffed cabbage using ground beef. The ingredients are cabbage, rice, beef, onions, butter, salt, pepper, and for the sauce flour, tomato paste, sour cream, water, thyme, salt, and pepper.
Boil the rice until soft. Trim the cabbage stem, separate leaves, and blanch for five minutes. Lightly roll each leaf to loosen. Grind the meat, finely chop onions, and sauté them in butter. Mix the meat with onions and rice, adding salt and pepper. Roll the mixture in the cabbage leaves and fry in the remaining butter until golden. Move the rolls to a deep pan. Prepare the sauce in the same pan by lightly frying flour, adding tomato paste and sour cream, then mixing in water with spices and simmering. Pour the sauce over the rolls and cook covered over medium heat for about thirty minutes.