Sarma (Stuffed Cabbage Leaves) is a traditional Serbian recipe for a classic dish of cabbage leaves filled with a mix of meat, celery and rice that are layered in a dish with pork ribs and sausages and cooked in water. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Serbian version of: Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Sarma).
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This is a classic Serbian Winter dish that gets better and better the more often it is re-heated. Ingredients are very variable with whatever is at hand being used, so feel free to modify the recipe given below to your heart's content. Typically this is made in an earthenware dish and a gratin-type dish works well.
Ingredients:
2 or 3 large white cabbages
500g fresh veal, pork or beef
250g dry boiled ham
250g cold, roast, turkey
50g bacon, cooked until crisp
salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 celery sticks (with leaves), finely chopped
80g rice
2 hot chillies, finely chopped (optional)
4 large onions, chopped
1kg pork sausages
1kg pork ribs, cut into sections
olive oil
Method:
Chop the meat as finely as you can by hand (this is a rustic dish and you need the roughness of doing this yourself). Combine the meats in a bowl and season to taste with salt and black pepper. Add the parsley, celery and rice and mix thoroughly to combine. If desired, add the chillies at this stage.
Remove the leaves from the cabbages (you need the larger, outer, leaves) and trim off the thick stem bases. Blanch in lightly salted water for 2 minutes (this will make them easier to roll) then drain and set aside to cool. Once the cabbage leaves are cool enough to handle place one in the centre of your palm, with the leaf base towards you. Add 1 tbsp of the filling near the leaf base. Fold the sides of the leaf over the filling then roll the leaf up, beginning at the stem end. Now add just enough olive oil to cover the base of your cooking dish.
Place the rolled leaf in the base of your cooking dish and continue rolling the remaining leaves, packing them tightly into the dish, until the entire base is covered. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top then take the smaller leaves from the cabbages and use these to form a layer covering the sarma. Now add a layer of sausages and/or pork ribs. Sprinkle the chopped onion over the top then cover with a layer of cabbage leaves before adding another layer of sarma (stuffed cabbage leaves). Continue this layering process until the pot is completely filled, finishing with a layer of cabbage leaves.
Fill the pot with water then cover with foil and place in an oven pre-heated to 150°C. Bake slowly for about 5 hours. The dish is best if cooked the day before and re-heated before serving.
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