Sweet Roasted Káposzta Töltött Paprika (Cabbage-Stuffed Peppers)
I was so excited when I saw cabbage-stuffed peppers on a menu in Hungary. How wonderful, I thought. But when I ordered them, they turned out to be pickled. I’m sure that is delightful to some of you, but personally, I do not like pickled anything. (Oh, all right, Japanese pickled ginger. And mango slices pickled with habañeros very briefly in a jar of salt water in the fridge, used later in making sauces.)
When I got home, I decided to try making cabbage-stuffed peppers the way I had originally imagined them to be: cabbage sauteed with sugar and cinnamon, almost as if you were making strudel, stuffed into fresh bell peppers, then roasted to perfection.
These end up soft and sweet, very richly flavored, and sometimes with a touch of bitterness depending on your peppers. If you are concerned about that last, you may want to throw together a tomato sauce to serve them in. That would reduce their finger food managability, but I imagine it would appeal to some palates.
At some point, I may have to post my family recipes for more traditional stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage. If only I could get over the fear that my mother would never forgive me if I did.
Sweet Roasted Káposzta Töltött Paprika (Cabbage-Stuffed Peppers)
Cut tops off of sweet bell peppers, and remove their innards. Stuff them full of the cabbage filling (recipe below). Place in a lightly oiled roasting pan and roast at 375º for an hour or so, turning them over halfway through if necessary.
Cabbage Filling
1 medium cabbage
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
olive oil
salt
black pepper
Pull off the most wretched outer leaves of the cabbage, and rinse the rest. Chop it up into chunks that your food processor can handle, but remember to remove and toss out the core. Grind pretty finely in your food processor.
Mix the ground cabbage with plenty of salt and leave covered in your fridge for at least two hours. The point here is to allow the salt to draw some water out of the cabbage. Once that’s done, you rinse off the salt and squeeze as much water as you can out of the cabbage.
Saute the cabbage in a saucepan with some olive oil, along with the sugar, cinnamon, and salt and black pepper to taste.
September 11th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
How creative you are, Danielle! This is really something very different then the traditional pickled peppers but it sounds absolutely delicious!!!
September 12th, 2006 at 1:50 am
Wow, you done it again! I don’t know which way to turn.
That is a most unusual stuffing - I would never thing of cinnamon and cabbage to gether but when you put them together, it starts looking and sounding wonderful. And then you put it all in a pepper and it get really interesting.
And poor kitty, did his nose come out?! Pretty cat.
I do hope your able to bring your mom around, I am so looking forward to her recipe.
September 12th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Zsofi - I was really wondering what you in particular would think of this. I’m glad you think it sounds good!
Tanna - My grandmother has always made cabbage strudel filling that way, except with even more cinnamon and sugar mixed in. It really works. I actually have some left over cabbage filling from this, and I hope I get a chance to turn it into strudel before it goes bad. If nothing else, I truly recommend making some cabbage strudel and giving it a try.
September 12th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
I once mentioned offhand to my mother that I’d lost one of her recipes because I forgot to put it online and she freaked. “Those are my recipes! They’re private! Don’t be putting them online for the world to see!” I was and still am at a loss for how to respond to that. I just said, “Um OK” and moved the conversation forward, neglecting to mention that A) Every recipe she’s ever given me is up on my recipe page, B) Recipes are not private, and C) Lots of people really like the recipes of hers I’ve shared with them.
BTW, how on earth can you love vinegar so much and not like pickled things? :)
September 19th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
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February 12th, 2007 at 12:39 am
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December 31st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
i love those stuffed pickled peppers, they are a great side dish like a side salad or pickled veggies. we eat them a lot in austria when going out to the wine cellars, heurigen, where we eat hefty foods like ham, blood sausage, pork roast, cheeses, good dark handmade breads etcetc…pickles and stuffed peppers are a lift and good for digestion too. ever had rollmoepse? stuffed herring