Cabbage rolls filled with minced meat - Sarma
Many recipes such as Ćevapi or Baklava come from the ancient Ottoman's kitchen, which had influence in both Balkan and Turkish kitchen. That's why Sarma can be considered at the same time a traditional and an international dish.
It's simple to check, looking at Turkish language, in which the verb "sarmak" means 'to wrap' or 'to roll'. Following this old recipe, every single housewife on Balkan has developed its own variant, adding or not putting some basic ingredients. Sarma is cooked by using sour cabbage leaves (which are prepared in advance), ground meat, rice and seasonings. Sarma rolls are slowly simmered for a long time in large pot with bacon and layers of smoked pork meat, with vegetable seasoning, bay leaves and paprika. Some family recipes include finishing sarma by baking it in the oven which gives it a distinctive flavor. In Balkan this is a festive meal, served for weddings, Christmas, Easter, Slava, Birthdays, Anniversaries...
I remember when I was 6, how me and my uncle were competing in the game who will be able to eat more Sarma during Slava. I was really serious about winning it, that once I've managed to eat even five cabbage rolls...Of course, they were smaller, but still my uncle finished 8 of them and had won. It was a blast, we still laugh hard when we remember this!! ;)
Here is what you need to make Sarma:
- 2 onions
- 150g of rice
- approximately 20, 25 pickled cabbage leaves
- a pinch of salt
-a bit of pepper
- 2 spoons of cayenne pepper
- a bit of oil
- a few pieces of dried meat or bacon
Preparation:
Cut the onions as tiny as possible and fry them a bit in hot oil. Then add the meat, mix well.
After meat and onions are cooked enough, put inside the pot the rice and cayenne pepper. Leave it on a medium fire, until the rice is cooked. In a deep pot lay the leaves of pickled cabbage, making some sort of "bed" for Sarma rolls.
Take one leaf of cabbage and then put a spoon or two of the filling that you've made before. Close the ends on the side, and finally make a roll. Repeat this process with the rest of the sour cabbage leaves. Lay them in the pot over the bed of cabbage. If you want a richer dish, add a bit of smoked meat and bacon too.
After you've put all the rolls in the pot cover them with the rest of the pickled cabbage leaves. Add water to cover all the rolls, and cook it on the medium fire for at least 2h.
If the water has gone during the cooking, add some more. Continue until it's done.
Finally, if you want, you can put Sarma rolls in the oven and bake them a bit.
After that you can enjoy them. :)
Konačno dođe na red i ona, Kraljica svih trpeza na Balkanu, neizostavna na svim većim i manjim proslavama, jedinstvena po izgedu i ukusu- Sarma! :)
Tek sada pišem ovaj svima dobro poznat recept, jer nažalost ovde gde ja živim ne postoji, a ni nema da se kupi kiseli kupus. Zato sam morala da donesem iz Srbije kiseli kupus, kao i svaki put kad sam išla kod mojih roditelja u posetu. Verujem da se svi mi "gastarbajteri" snalazimo na taj način, jer ne jesti Sarmu makar dva tri puta godišnje je greota. ;)
Evo za sve one koji se užele domaće hrane, najbrži način za pripremu Sarme...jedino se morate opskrbiti listovima kiselog kupusa sami. Tu vam ne mogu nikako pomoći, ali verujem da ćete se već nekako snaći. :)
Potrebni sastojci:
- 2 glavice crnog luka
- 150g pirinča
- minimum 20 listova kiselog kupusa (za od prilike 10 sarmi)
- malo soli
- malo bibera
- 2 kašike aleve paprike
- malo ulja
- po želji slanine i suvog mesa
Priprema:
Isecite luk što je sitnije moguće,pa ga propržite na vrelom ulju. Zatim dodajte meso, dobro promešajte sve. Nakon što su se meso i luk lepo propržili dodajte pirinač so, biber i alevu papriku. Ostavite šerpu na srednjoj vatri, dok se pirinač ne skuva. U dubokoj posudi postaviti nekolliko listova kiselog kupusa, na koji ćete posle ređati sarme, kako ne bi izgorele.
Uzmite jedan list kiselog kupusa, zatim stavite kašiku ili dve fila koji ste ranije napravili. Zatvorite krajeve sa strane, i konačno napravite sarmu. Ponovite ovaj postupak sa ostatkom kiselog kupusa. Stavite sarme u lonac preko listova kiselog kupusa. Ako želite bogatiji ukus možete dodati malo dimljenog mesa ili slanine, ali nije neophodno. Nakon što ste stavili sve sarme u lonac pokrite ih sa par listova kiselog kupusa. Dodajte vodu, da pokrije sve sarme, i kuvajte na srednjoj vatri najmanje 2 sata. Ako je voda nestala tokom kuvanja, dodajte još malo. Nastavite dok ne bude gotovo. Na kraju ako želite možete staviti sarme u rernu i zapeći ih malo. Nakon toga možete uživati u njima. :) Prijatno!
