Gołąbki - Cabbage Rolls

For the past few years, Terry has been asking me to find a recipe to try to match his grandmother's Cabbage Rolls.  She was Polish (Grabowski) and this was one of the many authentic polish dishes that she served to the family.  She called them Gołąbkis.  He remembers her serving a heaping platter to the family when he was a kid. 

1 small head of cabbage, cored
1 TB vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
16 oz. tomato sauce
2 TB brown sugar
2 TB red wine vinegar
2 slices bread
1/3 c. milk
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Boil the entire head of cabbage for 12 to 15 minutes or until you can peel off 9 leaves.  To peel the leaves off of the head of cabbage, gently grab the edge of a leaf with tongs and slowly pull it away from the head.  Place the leaves in a colander to drain.  Shred/chop the remaining cabbage head and place in the bottom of your slow cooker.

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.  Cook the onions about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic, cinnamon and nutmeg and cook for 1 minute.  Remove half of the onion mixture to a plate.  Stir the tomato sauce, brown sugar and vinegar into the pan and stir together.  Remove from heat.

Pulse the bread and milk in a food processor or blender until it forms a paste.  Add the reserved onion, uncooked ground beef, salt and pepper to the food processor and combine well. 

Note: I do not have a food processor, so I used my blender to mix the bread and milk.  I then added the onions and pulse it a few times.  I moved the mixture to a large bowl and mixed in the beef by hand.

Get out your chopping board and lay a cabbage leaf on it.  Using a sharp knife, cut out the hard stem.  If still joined, cut the remaining leaf in half.  Repeat this for each cabbage leaf.

Place approximately 2 tablespoons of the beef mixture in the middle of a cabbage leaf and roll up. Once you have rolled all of the cabbage leaves, place them (seam side down) into the slow cooker.  Pour the remaining sauce on top.

Cover and cook on LOW for 5 hours.

Serve over egg noodles or rice