Lamb Cabbage Rolls

NaNoWriMo is over!  I can finally get my life back, just in time for December holidays.  I am so far behind on everything.

This recipe is kind of a mash up of three ideas in the Mediterranean cookbook.  One kind of meatball had potatoes wrapped inside it, the souvlaki recipe used sliced cabbage, and a third recipe put wine in the sauce and chickpea flour with the meatballs instead of breadcrumbs.  What you end up with here is something that tastes sort of Greek with Midwest American overtones.  While not specifically a recipe from the NaNo novel, it is something my character might have made to challenge herself.

(There ended up being a lot of words spent discussing food and cooking in the book.  It's something I'm used to doing.  It's amazing what random stuff you can stick in a novel when you're trying to hit a certain number of words in a fixed time.)

*1 lb lamb
*1/4 C garbanzo bean flour
*1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper
1 medium Russet or Yukon Gold potato
1 head cabbage
8 oz can tomato sauce
1/4 tsp paprika
2 Tb lemon juice
*1/4 C white wine or Marsala

1.  In a bowl, knead together lamb, garbanzo flour, oregano, cumin, some salt and pepper, and 1/4 C water.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld and flour to hydrate.

2.  Dice potato into 3/4" cubes.  Peel or not, your choice.  Blanch in lightly salted water until half cooked, about five minutes.  Drain and set aside.

3.  Peel 8-10 leaves off the cabbage.  It's not easy, but hey, the lamb has to sit for an hour anyway.  Blanch the leaves in more lightly salted water until pliable.  Drain and set aside.  Put the rest of the cabbage back in the fridge and start thinking about how you're going to use it before it spoils.

4.  Mix the tomato sauce, paprika, lemon juice, wine, a touch of salt and pepper, and half a cup of water to make the sauce.  Start preheating the oven to 350º and get out a medium baking dish.

5.  Spread a couple of spoonfuls of sauce in the bottom of the pan.  On a work surface, lay out a cabbage leaf.  Piece together two if they tore.  Divide meat into 8 pieces.  Shape each into a disc and fit several pieces of potato in the middle.  Close into an elongated meatball and place on the leaf.  Fold up leaf burrito style and place seam side down in pan.  Repeat to make eight rolls.

6.  Sprinkle any remaining potato pieces among the rolls, then evenly pour sauce over everything.  Bake until meat temps to 165º, about 45 minutes.  Allow to rest ten minutes before serving.

Difficulty rating  :)