Gumbumkies

Gumbumkies

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This recipe is attributed to Marge Zuzel.   

 I don't know who she was or why it is such a weird title for cabbage rolls.

I saw cabbage on sale one day for 25c / lb.  The next day I went to buy it and it had gone back up to 58c / lb...oh well - still relatively cheap.  I picked a small head and wound up using most of it.

I thought my 2 1/2 qt. pan would be plenty big enough but it was a pretty tight squeeze...I should've used my 4 qt. Magnalite pan  that my mom gave me.

The Corona Virus curve is still rising on the day I cook this so I didn't want to take any chances and removed any outer leaf that was exposed.

Removing the first few leaves was easy - they sort of flipped inside out.  I figured that would be helpful to put the filling into the rounded part.

Then the leaves got more difficult and I found that finding the edge and rolling it back worked pretty well.Once I got more than half-way down they were sort of tangled up in each other.  I began to wonder, since the recipe said "a cabbage with loose leaves" if they meant a different type of cabbage - the one that looks more like romaine lettuce?  But I'm pretty certain this head type is the one cabbage rolls are made of - at least it is what I used the once or twice I have made them in the past.

As I said, I underestimated the pot.  I lost count of the leaves but feel like I pulled 13 or 14 off.  I knew they would shrink a bit when they wilted so I went ahead and used this pot (sometimes I'm just that lazy).

I was going to cook the rice while the leaves wilted.  Normally I would cook 1/3 c. rice with 2/3 c. water to get 1 c. rice but I had some semi-Spanish rice left over in the fridge.  Basically it was rice with tomato because I didn't have tomato paste.  I scooped around the tomato and measured out a cup.

I flipped the pile after the lowest leaves had wilted.  I rotated again to get the thickest (stem) part into the water and make sure it was well softened.

Onion grating was not my favorite part.  And, as I have said before - how big is a small onion?

I used ground pork instead of beef because I'd gotten a bunch on sale.

After grating the onion it was pretty watery so I decided to strain the liquid out.

I mixed the ingredients with my hands, just like my mom taught me to do meatloaf.  It helps get the ground meat incorporated with the other ingredients - or vice versa.

I found it was easier to pour off most of the water and lift the leaves from the stem end.

I varied the size of the filling based on what fit naturally in the leaf.

I rolled all the leaves and set them aside.

I had a little filling left over so I boiled two more leaves.

I might've saved the outer leaves to line the pan with but I didn't plan ahead.  So I pieced together some of the smaller inside leaves to cover the bottom.

I had to stand some of the rolls on their edge to fit them all in the pan.

I added the sugar slowly to the water and vinegar and stirred well to make sure it was entirely dissolved.

After boiling I covered and turned down to a 4.  I checked a bit later and it was bubbling pretty well so I turned it down to 3 and later to 2.  I was also concerned that the pork get cooked through so I preferred too much heat to too little.  After 1 hour the filling seemed cook although while eating there were a couple of spots that made one wonder.  Perhaps more space between the rolls or a little longer cooking would've been a little better.  

When I was planning this meal I felt like I wanted something tomato-ey with it like tomato soup but we are not tomato soup people.  The gumbumkies were nice but a tomato soup side would've made it even better.  I feel like they were quite a bit of work though for just "nice".