Home recipe kuchnia polska

Gołąbki

Name: Gołąbki
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 150 min
Cuisine: kuchnia polska
Ingredients: 500 g ground pork shoulder (or half and half with beef); 60 g white rice (weight before cooking; cooked and cooled); 1 pc onion (about 150 g, finely chopped); 1 tbsp oil (for sautéing the onion); 1 tbsp bread crumbs (not necessarily); ½ tsp salt; ¼ tsp ground black pepper; ½ tsp marjoram; 1 pc head of white or Savoy cabbage (about 1.5 kg; need 8 large leaves and a few small ones for the bottom of the pot); 500 ml broth or stock (hot); 400 g tomato passata (from a bottle or carton); 1 tbsp all-purpose flour (mixed with a little cold water); ½ tsp ground sweet paprika; salt and pepper (to taste); 2 tbsp 18% sour cream (not necessarily, 2–3 tablespoons)

Gołąbki with pork and rice wrapped in blanched cabbage leaves, stewed in broth and served in tomato sauce. This includes tips on how to remove leaves without tearing, what cabbage to buy abroad, and how to freeze gołąbki.

Servings: 4 servings
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Difficulty: Medium

Gołąbek w sosie pomidorowym posypany zieleniną

The story behind the recipe

Gołąbki are a filling wrapped in leaves of white cabbage, traditionally made with minced pork and rice or groats, onions, sometimes with mushrooms, and either stewed or fried. According to Polish Wikipedia, it used to be a dish for poorer classes, as cabbage was widely cultivated. The origin of the name is uncertain: Max Vasmer derived it from the word for pigeon, due to its shape, while Marek Stachowski considered it a borrowing from the East (Persian "kalam", Armenian "kałamb", meaning cabbage), transformed by a folk association with the bird.

In the Kresy region, gołąbki were baked in leaves of pickled cabbage, served on Christmas Eve with buckwheat, and throughout the year with meat and groats or rice. In the Kozienice region, they were called "zawijoki" or "kapuścioki". In 2021, the Mazovian "jaglaki" were entered into the List of Traditional Products by the Ministry of Agriculture: gołąbki with millet groats and chopped pickled cabbage, wrapped in blanched fresh leaves in summer, and in pickled leaves in winter, tied with string and eaten daily and on Christmas Eve.

Similar dishes are known throughout the area: holubky in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, голубці in Ukraine, balandėliai in Lithuania, Krautwickel or Kohlrouladen in Germany, kåldolmar in Sweden, sarma in the Balkans and Romania, and Ashkenazi Jews eat holiszki during Sukkot and Simchat Torah. In the USA, in cities with a large Polish diaspora, such as Chicago or Detroit, they are called "golumpki" or "golabki", and in Illinois, they are sometimes referred to as "pigs in a blanket."

Ingredients

Filling (about 8 gołąbki)

500 g ground pork shoulder (or half and half with beef)
Abroad: USA: ground pork; UK: pork mince; Germany: Schweinehackfleisch or Hackfleisch gemischt
60 g white rice (weight before cooking; cooked and cooled)
1 pc onion (about 150 g, finely chopped)
1 tbsp (15 ml) oil (for sautéing the onion)
1 tbsp (about 7 g) bread crumbs (not necessarily)
Abroad: breadcrumbs; Germany: Paniermehl
½ tsp (about 3 g) salt
¼ tsp (1.3 ml) ground black pepper
½ tsp (2.5 ml) marjoram

Cabbage and Stewing

1 pc head of white or Savoy cabbage (about 1.5 kg; need 8 large leaves and a few small ones for the bottom of the pot)
Abroad: white: green cabbage, Germany: Weißkohl; Savoy: savoy cabbage, Germany: Wirsing
500 ml broth or stock (hot)

Tomato Sauce

400 g tomato passata (from a bottle or carton)
1 tbsp (about 7.5 g) all-purpose flour (mixed with a little cold water)
½ tsp (2.5 ml) ground sweet paprika
salt and pepper (to taste)
2 tbsp (about 29 g) 18% sour cream (not necessarily, 2–3 tablespoons)
Abroad: sour cream; Germany: saure Sahne

Method, step by step

Cook the rice and let it cool. Sauté the onion in oil until translucent and let it cool as well.
In a bowl, combine the meat, rice, onion, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and marjoram, and mix well by hand. Do not taste the raw filling: fry a small patty in a pan and only then adjust the seasoning. Keep the filling in the refrigerator while you prepare the cabbage.
Cut out the core of the cabbage in a cone shape. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and place the cabbage in with the cut side down. Cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, then turn it over and cook for another 5 minutes. During this time, remove the leaves that come off easily and set them aside on a plate.
From each leaf, trim the thick vein with a knife, being careful not to cut through the leaf. If the leaf is still stiff, dip it briefly in boiling water.
On each large leaf, at the base, place an elongated portion of filling. Fold the lower part of the leaf over the filling, fold the sides inward, and roll tightly, like a croquette. If the gołąbki unravel, tie them with string.
Line the bottom of a wide pot with small and torn leaves. Arrange the gołąbki tightly on top, seam side down, in two or three layers.
Pour hot broth over the gołąbki; it does not need to cover them completely, as the upper layers will cook by steaming. Cover the pot and stew on low heat for 60–90 minutes. Do not stir with a spoon; just shake the pot occasionally and ensure there is always liquid at the bottom. The gołąbki are ready when the thickest vein of the leaf is soft and the filling's center reaches at least 71°C.
For the sauce: pour the broth from the gołąbki into a saucepan, add the passata and the flour mixed with water, and bring to a boil. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika, and cook for about 10 minutes uncovered. If adding sour cream, first mix it with a few tablespoons of hot sauce, then pour it into the saucepan.
Pour the sauce into the pot with the gołąbki and heat for a few minutes on low heat.
Serve with boiled potatoes sprinkled with dill or parsley, with mashed potatoes, or with bread.

Tips

Leaves tear easily. They were too stiff or the vein was too thick. Dip the leaf in boiling water again, trim the thick vein, and do not add too much filling.

Cabbage remains hard despite long stewing. This depends on the variety and ripeness of the cabbage. Add hot liquid and stew longer, but do not boil vigorously.

Dry, compact filling. The meat was too lean, there was too much bread, or the gołąbki were cooked too hard. Use shoulder meat and stew gently. Do not add raw rice to the filling: it absorbs liquid, the filling comes out dry, and the leaves may crack.

Rice or groats. Kwestia Smaku suggests 100 g of rice for 700 g of meat, AniaGotuje makes gołąbki without rice or with a little. Instead of rice, you can use buckwheat groats with dried mushrooms or, as in jaglaki, millet groats. Gołąbki can also be wrapped in Savoy cabbage or young cabbage.

Frozen cabbage. Canadian blog Peter's Food Adventures recommends placing a head with the core cut out in the freezer overnight, and in the morning thawing it for 3–4 hours at room temperature. The leaves will then come off easily, without cooking. This works best with delicate Napa cabbage.

From the oven. Arrange gołąbki in a baking dish lined with leaves, pour in 250 ml of broth, and bake covered at 180°C (top-bottom) for about 50 minutes. Then pour over the sauce and bake for another 20 minutes, uncovered at the end.

Other sauces. Instead of tomato sauce, serve mushroom, champignon, or dill sauce.

What to serve with. With boiled potatoes sprinkled with dill or parsley, with mashed potatoes, or with bread.

Storage. Cool gołąbki within 2 hours and keep in the refrigerator. AniaGotuje states that without rice they will last up to 3 days, and with rice, it is best to eat them within a day. Reheat covered, with a little broth, until hot in the center. Gołąbki can also be wrapped a day in advance and kept raw in the refrigerator until the next day.

Freezing. Freeze cooked gołąbki in portions with sauce or broth and eat within 2–3 months. Thaw them in the refrigerator. Raw, wrapped gołąbki can also be frozen for up to 3 months in a bag, but they must be thawed before stewing or baking.

Abroad. For wrapping, the best is regular white cabbage; in the USA, Canada, and the UK, green cabbage; in Germany, Weißkohl: it is the most durable and has the strongest flavor. Savoy cabbage is milder but its leaves tear more easily. Napa cabbage is the most delicate. In Polish homes in the USA, the filling is traditionally made with a mixture of pork and beef. Ground pork is called ground pork in the USA, pork mince in the UK, Schweinehackfleisch in Germany, and mixed meat is Hackfleisch gemischt. Buckwheat groats are known as buckwheat groats or kasha.

Photos

Trzy domowe gołąbki w sosie pomidorowym na talerzu

Gołąbki w sosie pomidorowym w szklanym naczyniu żaroodpornym

Meat dishes Polish cuisine Substitutes abroad

I made it

Did you make this dish? Tell us how it turned out and what you changed. You can add a photo and a rating.