I may have mangled the Polish in the title. In English, it would read Dumplings and Meat Rolls with Red Cabbage.

This happens to be my favourite meal. Unfortunately, I have not had it since before my mother death 2 years ago. I have finally tried to make it on my own - trying to remember what my mother taught me.

Needless to say, this all took longer than an hour. My best guess is somewhere between 3 and 4 hours. On the other hand I have plenty of leftovers, I made a total of 25 meatrolls and more dumplings then necessary.

Meatrolls

• eye of round beef roast
• finely diced onion
• finely chopped bacon
• salt
• pepper
• beef stock
• thread

1. Slice the eye of round into 1/4 inch (5mm) thick steaks.
2. Tenderize (i.e. pound very well with a wooden mallet) the steaks.
3. Salt and pepper the tenderized steak to taste.
4. Add some chopped bacon and diced onion in the centre of the steak.
5. Roll up the steak.
6. Secure using thread. There is no need to tie knots
7. Brown the meatrolls in a large pot.
8. Once browned, add sufficient beef stock to cover the meatrolls.
9. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour (you can simmer for longer, just remember to top up the liquid from time to time).
10. Remove the meatrolls from the liquid, and allow to cool.
11. Once the meatrolls are cool, remove the thread.
12. Bring the stock back up to a boil and thicken using starch. Well, I use starch, whenever I use flour, I get lumpy gravy. Also, if you are like me and not very good at browning meats, then you might want to add a drop or two of liquid browning to make the gravy a little darker.
13. Return the meatrolls to the gravy.

Dumplings

• 12 potatoes
• 2-1/2 cups potato flour
• 2 eggs
• salt
• pepper

1. Boil the potatoes until tender.
2. Drain the potatoes and let cool to room temperature.
3. Rice the potatoes. A potato ricer looks like a really big garlic press. You put a potato in, squeeze and out of the holes comes “riced” potato.
4. Add the eggs.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Gradually add the flour and mix / knead until you have a nice, non-sticky dough to work with.
7. Roll out the dough into cylinder about 2 inches (5cm) in diameter.
8. Slice the roll into 1/2 inch (1.5cm) thick slices.
9. Drop the slices into a large pot of boiling water.
10. The dumplings are done when they float to the surface.

Red Cabbage

• red cabbage, shredded
• onion, shredded
• apple (optional), shredded
• 1 tbls vinegar
• 2 tbls sugar
• 1 tbls salt
• pepper

1. Place the red cabbage, onion, and apple in a pot, add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.
2. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes.
3. Pour off the water.
4. Add the sugar, salt, pepper (to taste) and vinegar to the cabbage mixture. Mix well.

While I did use eye of round for other rolade, this piece of piece of beef is not eye of round, but it got well beaten with a rolling pin anyway (I don’t have a wooden mallet).

Once tenderized, the meat occupies a little more surface area. I was able to cut this piece in half and make two meatrolls.

Chopped onion and bacon.

A seasoned meatroll before rolling.

All rolled up, but not tied.

A plate full of meatrolls all tied up with thread. I used thread because I didn’t have any other string in the house I felt safe to cook with.

Cooked meatrolls. Removing the thread was a pain. Next time I will need to get some proper kitchen thread.

Speedily cooling the cooked potatoes in the window.

I don’t have a potato ricer, so I chopped and mashed the potatoes as best I could. I definitely need a ricer. (It looks a lot like a big garlic press. You can find an image of one here. The link was valid on 21-July-2010).

A wad of potato dough.

Some of the potato dough rolled out into a log and ready for slicing.

Nicely sliced and waiting to be dropped in to vigorously boiling water.

They really do float to the surface when done. These are done dumplings.

Cooked red cabbage.

Dumplings, meatrolls, red cabbage and gravy. Dinner is served.

Comments

ingrid

0

 

 

wow... this looks just delicious. i am absolutely going to use your recipe this week.

Sunday 15 March 2009, 23:57

richard

0

 

 

That would be wonderful! Please let me know how it turns out.

The two main tips I would offer are: (1) pounding steaks with a rolling pin causes some meat to splatter and it is very, very hard on the table or cabinet you are pounding on (I think a wooden board in the lap might be better - at least tha tis what my mother used). And (2) the potatoes really, really need to be riced (mashing cold potatoes is hard) - otherwise the dumplings are kind of lumpy (they still taste good, but they are lumpy).

Monday 16 March 2009, 19:22

acey

0

 

 

OMG!!! FOOD!!! they look as mouth-watering as they sound, richard!can i borrow this recipe? :D

i think it's cool to cool stuff on windows. it's too hot and dusty here to cool food on windows. haha. :D

Thursday 19 March 2009, 04:41

richard

0

 

 

The air over here is pretty clean, also, it was below zero outside, so it was the fastest way to cool them.

Tuesday 07 April 2009, 14:40

Ghee

0

 

 

holy cow!!what a preparation!this is for special occasions or just a casual meal?
i luved steak,really...now i miss it coz these food looked so sumptuous!

you really have a great skill for cooking,Richard.and you actually remember the do`s and donts.

Saturday 21 March 2009, 11:12

richard

0

 

 

It is only for special occaisions. It takes several hours to prepare. But it is really, really good.

Tuesday 07 April 2009, 14:41

CG

0

 

 

By reading this, I have finally worked out how to make gravy! Sounds interesting, jsut one stupid question, how tough is the beef after cooking for so long?

Monday 06 April 2009, 09:56

richard

0

 

 

Oh dear, I think I better describe in more detail how to make gravy. The problem is you have to dissolve the starch in cold water before stirring it into the gravy - otherwise it will be lumpy.

As for meat toughness ... when you cook meat, at first the protein relaxes and loosens, then it tightens. If you cook it for a really ong time, the protein molecules will relax again.

This meat is quite lean, so it is necessary to add the bacon to moisten it, as well as the gravy.

Finally, you have tenderized the meat by beating it will a wooden hammer (or rolling pin, in my case), so it is reasonably tender.

Tuesday 07 April 2009, 14:44

web design

0

 

 

I have to try this fest for my coming birthday, SO my friends, relatives would be surprised.

Saturday 31 October 2009, 22:14

richard

0

 

 

Definitely go for it. It isn't that hard, but it does take a far bit of time.

Thanks for dropping by.

Sunday 01 November 2009, 04:00

cookware

0

 

 

Thanks for the recipe. It looks yummy.

Wednesday 15 September 2010, 02:53

Please login to post comments or replies.