Variations on a theme

I was eating some dolmades from a jar earlier this week and got to talking with some friends online about the origin of the stuffed grape-leaf concoction and the variations that have sprung up as foods like this one have traveled home to other lands and taken on new life. I discovered during that chat and my subsequent online research that there is a Swedish version of dolmades known as Kåldolmar, using cabbage instead of grape leaves as a geographical concession. I then trolled the internet for a recipe and started with one I found in the food blog of a young woman from Stockholm. She was gracious enough to provide a recipe in English, though I daresay it was a bit of an adventure determining how much of the various ingredients to use without the benefit of precise measurement translations and a kitchen scale. So, while what resulted from my labors was quite tasty, I am not at all sure I used her recipe in the end!

I have since found a few other recipes and will probably modify the stuffing to include some allspice and grated onion next time. The basic ingredients for this go-around were ground beef and pork, rice (I used brown), white pepper, salt and milk. The filling is wrapped up in softened cabbage leaves (which were carefully removed from the head one-by-one when they were just soft enough to work with), topped with pats of butter and drizzled with golden syrup (something we happily have in the pantry due to our adventures in England). The whole thing is baked for about 40 minutes at about 375, and then a nice gravy is made from the drippings, water, bouillion and (since I was out of cornstarch) flour. I served the cabbage rolls with boiled potatoes, the drippings gravy and strawberries.

Footnote to IKEA: it's about time you show up in the Raleigh area. We've waited long enough. Not only do I miss your housewares, I have a hankering for lingonberries!