Feuilles de chou (bis)

Following up on the cabbage rolls: I made stuffing out of slightly more than two pounds of fresh pork shoulder, grinding the meat myself and adding a cup and a half of cooked rice and three-quarters of a cup of raw couscous grain. I also put in about a cup of grated zucchini flesh for moistness. The seasonings were diced and sauteed onions, chopped raw garlic, and several spices: black pepper, smoked paprika, fennel seeds, celery seeds, powdered allspice, powdered hot red pepper, and so on. It's free-form. Use what you like. Add two or three eggs and mix everything together really well.

That made an awful lot of stuffing. I knew I would have some left over, and I wished I had saved a few more cabbage leaves. When I rolled up the 14 cabbage leaves with a generous dollop of stuffing in each, I was surprised how little pork I had left. So it worked out. I cooked the excess separately as little meatballs and we'll have them with pasta or on a pizza this weekend.

We ate six of the cabbage rolls at lunchtime. There was no need to have anything else with them besides bread and wine. Cabbage, rice, pork, eggs — a complete meal. The pork stuffing was smooth and tender. It tasted good. I didn't take a photo of one of the rolls cut open, but I will next time. Oh, the rolls cooked for 2½ hours in a medium and then low oven. They were packed tightly together in a big baking dish and moistened with chicken broth and white wine. We served them with some tomato sauce yesterday. Next time I think I'll make a lemony oregano cream sauce to go with them.

With eight cabbage rolls left over to put in the freezer, we'll have them again soon. Next time maybe I'll make some kind of side dish to go with them. Potatoes. Chickpeas. Kidney beans. Carrots. Something like that. I'm glad I bought that big Savoy cabbage and cooked it the ways I did. It feels good to eat healthy, delicious food. There's a also feeling of accomplishment in that.