Saturday: Kohlrouladen

The head of savoy cabbage in the fridge led both of us to the idea of doing rouladen. I deviated from the usual ground beef preparation since it was the weekend and I felt like playing around a bit.

Brown some pieces of pork stew meat well in olive oil in the pressure cooker. Add chopped onion and garlic along with some diced carrot and a bit of diced celery root. Cook about five minutes longer. Add water to by about 1cm, a bay leaf, and a good pinch of salt, cover, and bring up to pressure. Let cook 15 minutes at pressure, then allow to cool and open the pot. Bring the heat back to high, add some veal stock, and reduce the liquid by about 50%. Strain the solids, reserving the liquid, and shred the pork pieces; add a bit of the liquid if it's not moist. Set aside. Taste the liquid, add a bit (1 tsp or so) of red wine vinegar to brighten it up, and adjust seasoning.

Carefully remove the outer leaves from a head of savoy cabbage and boil them in well-salted water for a couple of minutes to soften them. Transfer to a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Pick the best looking of the leaves to use for the rouladen and finely chop the rest. 

Combine the chopped cabbage with the pork mixture and season well with salt and pepper. Fill the reserved cabbage leaves with this and tie into neat little bundles. Brown on both sides in a bit of olive oil, then pour in the reserved liquid around the rouladen. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, turn and simmer another 5-10 minutes. Thicken the sauce with a bit of potato-starch/water slurry then serve.

We ate this with some cooked mixed grains (Getreiderisotto) and a green salad.