Pigs In A Blanket

I was busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest last week (please excuse me), so my cooking and my blog suffered tremendously. I have a little extra time today, though, and I have been thinking about cabbage rolls for the past few days, so I decided to roll one or two.

Now, in western PA, we grew up calling cabbage rolls "Pigs in a Blanket," and that's what I still call them. Some people will refer to sausages wrapped in dough and baked as "Pigs in Blankets" and I am not opposed to that dish. That just ain't what I call 'em.

Pigs in a Blanket are popular, I estimate, in areas where immigrants from eastern Europe landed. Western PA is dense with those immigrants and their progeny, so it's no surprise that many folks from that region have an affinity for cabbage rolls. When I was a child, I only ate the Pigs' guts--the meat, sauce and rice--forgoing the cabbage.

So off I went to the Downtown Farm Market for a head of cabbage and about two pounds of local ground beef raised about 25 miles away. The process of making Pigs is somewhat involved, but it is well worth it. First, you have to steam the cabbage head in a little water in a big pot so you can peel the leaves from the core. Score the core so the leaves remove easily.

Next, you have to prepare the guts. I have never used pork, but I have used ground turkey in my rolls, but today for the guts I used the ground beef I mentioned, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, two small green peppers diced, and about half of a large onion. I sauteed that in some olive oil for a while, and then added to it my beef along with about a cup of mostly cooked wild-rice mix and a can of crushed tomatoes. A little Pasta Sprinkle, a little Salt, a little Pepper, and I put some on a plate and into the microwave to check my seasoning. I always do this with my raw-meat mixtures to make sure they are tasty, and it was. Tasty, I mean.

By now, my cabbage leaves have all been peeled from the core, and they sit in a pile awaiting stuffing. I heaped as many guts as I could onto the cabbage leaf and gave it a crude roll, stuffing about 20 of these delicacies (I will freeze some later.) I placed them into my Dutch oven that I had filled slightly with another can of crushed toms, a can of water, a little low-so V8, and a bit more Salt. Into the heat they went, and now I sit waiting until I can eat them. I have not decided if I will make smashed potatoes to serve with the rolls since they already have rice, but traditionally, we always had potatoes with cabbage rolls. Soo-Wee!