Töltött Káposzta

Töltött káposzta was chosen as Hungary’s favorite main course in a 2010 online vote to find the nation’s most popular dishes. It is a classic holiday dish and often eaten at Christmas, Easter and traditional Hungarian weddings. This is a translation of a recipe published on kedvencetel.hu, the official site of the contest. It serves four people.

Ingredients:
200 grams pork blades
200 grams pork flanks
50 grams smoked szalonna
200 grams smoked rack of ribs
600 grams sauerkraut
8 pickled cabbage leaves
60 grams rice
50 grams fat
100 grams onions
10 grams garlic
10 grams paprika
5 grams ground black pepper
2 grams bay leaves
1 egg
200 milliliters sour cream
20 grams flour
30 grams salt

Method:
Lay out the pickled cabbage leaves and make the thick veins thinner by horizontally cutting them with a knife. Prepare the stuffing by first grinding dry and fattier meats. Wash and steam rice until half tender. Cut the szalonna into small dice and melt out the fat. Finely chop onions, crush garlic and roast a third of them in the fat. Add ground meat, rice and raw egg, flavor with salt, paprika and ground black pepper and mix. From the mixture, form equally sized bars and place them on the cabbage leaves. Roll up tightly and press on the ends so that they do not open during steaming. In a large pot, roast rest of the onions and crushed garlic in fat until golden yellow. Flavor with paprika, add a small amount of water and cook until water evaporates. Cut smoked rack of ribs into four pieces and add to pot. Add bay leaves, half of the sauerkraut, eight stuffed cabbage leaves then cover with the rest of the sauerkraut. Add a small amount of water, cover and steam. Make habarás with sour cream. Remove stuffed cabbage leaves from sauerkraut, add thickening agent and bring to a boil. At serving, place sauerkraut on a plate first and two stuffed cabbage leaves and a piece of cooked smoked meat on top. Pour hot sour cream on top if desired.