When I was in college in New Haven we used to do our all-night studying while listening to Long John Nebel interviewing The Amazing Randi and other borderline celebrities on WOR Radio. The show was sponsored by the Carnegie Deli and Long John used to do the commercials live. In those days the commercials were as long as they needed to be, and Long John would milk every adjective describing the 4” thick corned beef and pastrami sandwiches and my personal favorite, the plate of twin, over-sized stuffed cabbages. At the end of his spiel he'd always remind you to say hello to Max, Lou, and Bernie when you visited the Carnegie, and tell them that Long John had sent you. One night my roommates and I decided to do just that. We piled into my car and drove to New York at 3 in the morning, just so we could say to Max or Lou or Bernie that Long John had sent us. Ever since, every five years or so, I get an irresistible urge to make stuffed cabbage.
Stuffed cabbage comes spiced and sauced in a number of ethnic varieties, but it’s all basically peasant food. After all, you could hardly get humbler ingredients than cabbage, rice, and ground chuck. This was Tevye’s meal of choice, if not necessity, between verses of ‘If I Were a Rich Man.”
My own stuffed cabbage is a bit of an ad lib, but it does have a constant that I’ve rarely seen in any recipe -Ginger Snaps. Grind a generous handful of these been-around-since-grandma cookies in a blender or Cuisinart and add them to the crushed tomatoes already tarted up with lemon juice and sugar that form the sauce for the cabbage rolls. Add a sprinkling of golden raisins for good measure. For the stuffing, I cook chopped onions with allspice and chili powder, then add the ground beef. When the meat is cooked, mix in raw rice and season with salt and pepper. The mixture goes into individual cabbage leaves loosened in boiling water and laid out to dry on paper towels. The stuffed and folded leaves go into the pot with the sauce. After cooking slowly on top of the stove for a few hours, a night in the fridge does wonders for deepening the flavors and bringing them all into harmony. The overnight wait is almost more than I can bear. Let me share with you the extent of my addiction.
The first day after cooking my thirteen precious cabbage rolls, I ducked out of an end-of-day meeting at work just so I could get home and sample my creation. The next day was even worse. After a full day with clients in from the Midwest, we had scheduled an end-of-day cocktail party followed by dinner at a fine Japanese restaurant. Skipping the cocktails, I rushed home, had two more cabbage rolls, and then took a cab to meet the clients for sushi. As I write this there are only 3 rolls left and I’m already feeling withdrawal symptoms. I don’t think I can last another five years.
Recipes
Articles
