Cabbage Rolls - Japanese Style
Japanese Style Cabbage Rolls is one of the popular dishes originating from Western cuisine. Pork and beef mince (ground meat) is stuffed in cabbage leaves and cooked in chicken stock with a few bacon pieces.
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 40 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 4 large cabbage leaves ((note 1))
- 30g/1.1oz bacon (, cut into short 1cm/⅜” wide strips)
- 250ml/0.5pt chicken stock ((salt reduced) (note 2))
- 50ml/1.7oz water
- Salt to adjust flavour
- 1 onion (, minced)
- ½ tbsp oil
- ½ tbsp butter
- 200g/0.5lb pork mince
- 200g/0.5lb beef mince
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp cornflour/corn starch
- A large pinch of ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- Pepper
- Parsley finely chopped
Instructions
- 1
Heat oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat and sauté the onion for about 3 minutes until some onion pieces start browning around the edges. Turn the heat off and let it cool.
- 2
Trim the thick vein from the core-end of the leaf so that the thickness of the vein becomes similar to the rest of the leaf.
- 3
Bring a large pot of water to a boil with a pinch of salt. Add the cabbage leaves to the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes until the leaves become soft. (note 6)
- 4
Transfer the leaves to a bowl of cold water to cool them down quickly, then pat dry with paper towels.
- 5
Put the cooked onion and the rest of the Filling ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- 6
Divide the filling into 4 equal portions and shape them into a barrel shape.
- 7
Spread a cabbage leaf on a cooking bench with the core-end pointing to you (note 3) and place one of the fillings in the middle closer to the vein end (see the step-by-step photo in the post).
- 8
From the core-end, roll the leaf up tightly. When the core-end reaches to the other side of the filling covering the filling completely, fold each side of the cabbage leaf over to the centre so that the width of the unrolled cabbage leaf becomes the same as the filling.
- 9
Continue rolling the filling with the leaf until the end. If the side of the roll is sticking out, gently push it in to the centre and shape the roll into a fat log shape.
- 10
Place the cabbage rolls, the end of roll facing down, into a deep medium size frying pan that can snuggly fit the cabbage in.
- 11
Spread the bacon strips over the cabbage rolls. Pour the chicken stock as well as water over them and bring to a boil over medium high heat.
- 12
When it starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for 30-40 minutes with a lid on until the broth reduces to less than half (note 4).
- 13
Transfer the cabbage rolls to serving plates and pour over the broth. Garnish with parsley if using. Serve while hot.