Sweet-and-sour stuffed cabbage.

My grandmother (the original M.J.) makes cabbage rolls every New Year's, an old family recipe of her Hungarian best friend.  My late mother adored them.  I still remember an exchange that occurred once when I was home from college and visiting Grandma, some holiday when my aunt and uncle and cousins were all there:

GRANDMA:  So, Erin, how were the cabbage rolls?

ME:  What cabbage rolls?

    GRANDMA:  You know, the cabbage rolls I froze for you at New Year's and sent to you up at school.

ME:  I never got any cabbage rolls!

   GRANDMA:  But I gave them to your mother!

MOM:  Okay!  I admit it!  I ate them!

But even though they are legendary in my extended family, they are not appreciated in my nuclear family.  They are very… plain-cabbagey.   So I didn't make Grandma's stuffed cabbage today, and instead opted for a similar, but sweeter, recipe from an extremely reliable, out-of-print cookbook, 365 Easy One-Dish Meals by Natalie Haughton (Harper & Row, 1990).  This is my slightly adapted version, since I prefer currants to raisins in almost every application and I didn't have any white rice.

If you want to expand it a bit, use your meatloaf-stretching powers to make more innards.  Just remember to match the size of the stuffing to the size of the available cabbage leaf.

Sweet-and-sour Stuffed Cabbage (serves 4 people who like cabbage rolls enough to eat two each)

• 1 large head green cabbage 
• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 tablespoons finely minced onion
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• Grinds of black pepper to taste 
• 1 egg 
• 2 tablespoons rolled oats (or 1 tablespoon white rice) 
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1  - 14.5-oz can petite diced tomatoes with liquid 
• 1 – 15-oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
• Juice of one whole lemon (1/3 to 1/2 cup) 
• 1/3 cup currants (or golden raisins) 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Put a pot half full of water on to boil.  Break off 8 larger outer leaves from head of cabbage, being careful not to break them.  It's a good idea to break off a couple extra leaves just in case some of them fall apart.  When the water comes to a boil, add these cabbage leaves, cover, and cook 4 minutes, then carefully remove them from the water and drain them on paper towels.  [Energy-saving tip:  Now's a good time to put the potatoes in the pot if you're going to have mashed potatoes on the side.  The slightly cabbagey water won't hurt them.]  Arrange the cabbage leaves on a broad flat surface to be stuffed.

Meanwhile, reserve two or three more large cabbage leaves, and then shred (don't grate) the remaining cabbage with a knife, and place it in the bottom of a deep casserole or Dutch oven.  Add tomatoes with their liquid, tomato sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice, and currants; stir to blend well.  

Combine ground beef, onion, salt, pepper, egg, oats, and water in a bowl until well combined.  Divide meat mixture among the 8 or so cabbage leaves, placing near the stem end.  Fold in sides over meat and carefully roll into neat, tight little packages.  Place cabbage rolls close together, seam down, on top of tomato mixture.   Scoop some cabbage and sauce from the bottom on top to cover the rolls, add about a cup of water, and then cover the top with a blanket of extra cabbage leaves (this is my grandmother's trick to keep the casserole from drying out).

Cover with lid and bake 3 hours.  When you take the lid off, discard the blanket of browned cabbage leaves on the top (unless, like me, you prefer to eat them right away while setting the table.)  I always gently excavate the cabbage rolls and serve them on a platter, then pass all the shredded-cabbage-and-sweet-tomato-sauce in a separate bowl.  

  Potatoes, other root vegetables, and/or soft bread make very nice accompaniments.   Some people like ketchup, too. In my multi-generational experience, cabbage rejectors often enjoy the meatloaf-like oblongs that remain after the cabbage leaves have been peeled off them, so consider this possibility when planning amounts and filling-to-cabbage ratios.