Editor's Rating
If you are running out of ideas with what you can do with ground pork, here's a "fancy" recipe you can always pull off anytime.
My Mom used to cook this for my packed lunch when I was in elementary school. It has always been my favorite, but Mom finds it somewhat tedious to make, so I only had it every once in a while. As I grew up and spent most of my life working in commercial kitchens, I realized that re-making Mom’s recipe wasn’t as laborious as it looked like when I was younger. I’d love to share this with all of you, as I enjoyed making them for lunch today. I decided to take photos of each step to make it easier for all of us.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Serving: Makes 8 rolls
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 medium cabbage
- 250 g ground pork (you can also use ground beef or ground chicken)
- half bulb of white onion (finely chopped)
- 5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 whole egg
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 400 g button mushrooms (canned whole mushrooms or pieces and stems or fresh mushrooms. Leave some mushrooms for toppings)
- 150 g cream cheese
- Cream of Mushroom Soup (in the absence of Campbell’s or any ready to heat soup, you can use Knorr Instant Soup, cooked as per package instructions.)
- salt and pepper to taste
PROCEDURE:
PREHEAT OVEN TO 200*C
1. Cut the core at the bottom of the cabbage and try to remove each leaf piece by piece without tearing them.
2. In a pot of boiling water, blanch the cabbage leaves.
3. When the cabbage leaves have softened a bit, remove the cabbage leaves from the boiling water and place them in cold water to avoid over-cooking. Make sure that the leaves are soft enough to be rolled, but just enough for the leaves not to tear apart when you put in the fillings. Set aside.
4. Prepare your pork filling. In a bowl, mix together ground pork, salt, pepper, onions, garlic, egg, and cornstarch. Make sure all ingredients are incorporated well.
5. Take a piece of the cabbage leaves, place about 1 to 2 tbsp. of pork filling, and add in cream cheese at the center.
Make sure the cream cheese is inside the pork filling to avoid them from sipping out of the rolls during the cooking process.
6. Roll up the cabbage leaves with the pork filling inside, and then place the rolls on a baking dish.
7. Cook the Cream of Mushroom Soup as per package instructions, but reduce it to a slightly thick consistency. Pour the Cream of Mushroom Soup (cooked with some of the button mushrooms) over the cabbage rolls.
8. Top with extra button mushrooms.
9. Bake in the oven at 200*C for about 30 to 40 minutes, making sure that the pork filling is cooked through.
10. Once cooked, the mushroom sauce will thicken more into a slightly stringy melted-cheese-like consistency, but don’t worry. That’s perfectly normal. NOTE: You can actually cover the dish with foil, but I prefer not to cover mine with foil as I like it with a bit of browning on the top.
11. Let the rolls cool down for about 5-10 minutes and serve.
NOTE:ย It is best eaten with rice or you can also have it with a baguette while dipping the bread on the mushroom sauce.
I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE FORMAT. I WILL TRY TO MAKE MORE RECIPES LIKE THIS IN THE FUTURE.
HAPPY COOKING AND ENJOY!~
