Vegetarian Dolma (or Sarma) made with Cabbage Leaves (my mom's recipe)

Note: The intro paragraphs were written on 10/21/08 when I started this post.

I am very hungry right now because I've been in a clear liquids diet since 1 pm today. I'm going to have a colonoscopy done tomorrow because I want to find out whether I do have IBS or some other condition [I didn't have anything, so IBS was "diagnosed" as culprit for my past problems]. So, anyway, I cannot help but think about food, and since last week I did some cooking and took photos (yeah, my husband is beginning to think that I am the crazy photo taking woman, but I'm simply his crazy blogging wife).

So, this is not exactly a recipe, it's more just photos and a description of how to make one of my mom's and, coincidentally, my husband's most favorite dishes. I think this must be the fifth to seventh time (maximum 10th perhaps) that I prepare this dish since we got married 13.5 years ago. It's not even that it's hard to make (it is, in fact, very easy), it's just that I'm horribly lazy, that's why.

Before coming here to post this I had no idea that this dish was called "Dolma" (I googled the original ingredients, "grape leaves, rice, meat" and found the name. Apparently, if it's made with cabbage, it should be called "Sarma," and it is a Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern dish. I think we have it in Brazil because there are many Turkish immigrants there (as well as Lebanese).

My mom calls it by a funny name, trouxinha , which means a small bundle of cloth. Trouxa [pronounced something like trow-shah] actually refers to clothes put inside a larger piece of cloth, and then bunched and tied up at the top. It's something that could be put on the tip of a stick and carried on one's back, like the one that the boy in Norman Rockwell's The Runaway was carrying. Please let me know if there's another word for "trouxa"* in English -- maybe it's just bundle! But I digress, of course... another name that this dish (more often the grape leaves variety) has in Portuguese is charuto (cigar).

OK, so how do I make it?

Ingredients:

• large cabbage or cabbages, since only the biggest outer leaves are used, remove them carefully so they come out whole.
• several cups of white rice (I used basmati, but any variety will do)
• one (or more, depending amount of rice) minced onion
• vegetarian ground "beef" (I used the Boca burger crumbles, but my favorite is actually the Quorn grounds -- I highly recommend Quorn, from the U.K., as having the best veggie meats ever)
• salt, seasonings (such as Goya Adobo -- I use it a lot because it doesn't have MSG, or Sazon - lots of MSG, but yummy) olive oil, pepper [if you like]
• whole garlic cloves
• fresh mint leaves, minced (optional)

First blanch large cabbage leaves in boiling water and trim some of the hard, thick stem part off. Then, rinse the white rice and drain it. Sautée the chopped onion in vegetable oil until it's nice, soft and tasty (it caramelizes -- this is how every single dish I make starts, sautéeing onions, Brazilian style) and add the vegetarian ground beef, the garlic, salt and any seasonings and cook for a bit. After this mixture cools off, mix it with the raw rice and the chopped mint leaves (optional). That's how it looks like:
Then prepare a few pots, oiling them lightly - I use at least two pots, because they cook better if there are not that many layers. I then fill each leaf with the rice mixture making a bundle and close each bundle, putting it seam side down in the oiled pots. I then put several cloves of garlic in between the bundles. Those will cook and be very delicious to eat with the finished dish. I then add water to the pot, enough to cover the bundles. Add some salt to the water, so the dish won't be too bland. Cook until the rice is done and enjoy!

Uncooked:

Cooked:
Ready to enjoy (with garlic clove):

I think I'm really hungry now. Too bad that's not the dish I'm making tonight (it's brown rice -- already cooked in my rice cooker and vegetarian stroganoff). ;-)

* Of course I need to make everything even more confusing for you by adding that "trouxa" is also a term used to describe a "good for nothing" person in Brazil... ;-)