Pigeons

No, they are not actual pigeons :) Gołąbki, or "pigeons" in English, are a very traditional Polish dish, which consists of cabbage leaves (I bet you didn't see that one coming) stuffed with rice, mince, mushrooms and herbs and spices. They can be served with a lovely, zesty tomato sauce or a wild forest mushroom sauce - both options are amazingly delicious and ridiculously easy to make.

Ingredients

• 500g of beef or beef/pork mince
• 250g of rice (500g boiled)
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 5 white mushrooms, chopped
• A small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 medium or one large white cabbage
• 1 glass of stock (can be beef, chicken or vegetable)
• Salt and pepper (you can substitute salt with Vegeta, if you have any)
• Oil for frying

1. First of all, you’ll need to prepare the cabbage leaves. A fresh white cabbage is quite tough and if you tried to separate the leaves they would break, so what you need to do is cut out the core of the cabbage with a sharp knife (without slicing the cabbage itself), then place it in a large pot of water (so that it’s fully covered) and boil it until the leaves become soft and start peeling off. You may find that a couple of layers of leaves will come off and the ones underneath are still tough – in that case just take the soft ones off and put the rest of the cabbage back into the boiling water. Repeat until you get through to the really small leaves, which will be of no use. You’re only interested in ones that are large enough to wrap them into a parcel (so probably no smaller than ca. 15cm in diameter). Be careful not to burn yourself when peeling the leaves off!
2. Once you’ve got all of your leaves separated, you’ll need to trim the big thick vein in the middle of each leaf. All you need to do is to take a knife and scrape off the large bulge in the middle of the leaf, so that it’s the same thickness as the rest of the leaf. This way it will be easier to fold the leaf.
3. Now on to the stuffing: Gloss the onions with the mushrooms in a frying pan with a bit of oil. Add the mince and brown it.
4. Boil the rice according to instructions in salty water.
5. Mix the rice with the mince and fresh parsley. Season the mixture to taste with salt (or vegeta) and pepper. You can actually taste it, because all the ingredients should be thoroughly cooked, so it’s safe to eat.
6. Wrap the stuffing in the cabbage leaf (a bit like a burrito) and pile the parcels up in an oven-proof dish. Pour some stock over the parcels and cover the dish with a lid.
7. Place the parcels in an oven and cook at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Tomato Sauce:

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp of flour
• 3 tbsp of unsalted or slightly salted butter
• 1l of stock (vegetable or pork would be best)
• 5 tbsp of tomato puree
• Salt and pepper

1. Prepare the roux by melting the butter in a pan and mixing in the flour. Fry until golden brown.
2. Transfer the roux into a saucepan and add in the stock. Mix until you get a nice, thick sauce base.
3. Mix in the tomato puree. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed.

Mushroom Sauce:

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp of flour
• 3 tbsp of unsalted or slightly salted butter
• 0.5l of stock (vegetable or pork would be best)
• A pack of dried wild forest mushrooms
• Salt and pepper

1. Place the mushrooms in a pot with about 0.5l of hot water and leave it overnight to let the mushrooms plump up and give off some of their flavours. By the next day the water should be dark brown.
2. Bring the water and the mushrooms to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Fish the mushrooms out (keep the water) and let them cool. Then chop them up very finely and return them back to the water.
3. Prepare the roux by melting the butter in a pan and mixing in the flour. Fry until golden brown.
4. Transfer the roux into a saucepan and add in the stock. Mix until you get a nice, thick sauce base.
5. Mix in the mushrooms with the mushroom-infused water. Mix until you get a nice, uniform mushroom sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed.

Serve the “pigeons” with either sauce. Both the “pigeons” and the sauces are also perfectly freezable, so if you end up cooking a huge batch, just split up some portions into Tupperware boxes and chuck them in the freezer for later.