Sarma is Croatian meal made of sour cabbage stuffed with minced meat and rice. This meal is number one when it comes to Croatian kitchen and even though it is found in cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and it is known as Bulgarian national meal, this version of sarma, with sour cabbage, we like to call our autochthonous meal. Bulgarian version is made of sweet cabbage. It can also be made with grapevines, but I must say, it is not sarma, it is just minced meat in leaves of sweet cabbage or grapevines. Sarma is also known as the meal to start the New year.
Sarma is the queen of winter, she warms us up and protect us from viruses because she is full of vitamin C. We can call her the winter ice cream!
It would be a sin not to try sarma if you are visiting Croatia because it is like the souvenir that you carry in your heart forever!
This recipe is how my grandma taught me:
Ingredients
- 1sour cabbage
- 1 small Onion
- 1 kg minced pork
- Half cup of rice
- 2 clove of garlic
- 1 egg
- 100 g smoked bacon
- 300 g smoked pork ribs
- Salt and pepper
- 2 Laurel leafs
- 5 g flour
- 2 g red, dried sweet paprika
- 5 spoons of oil
Preparation
Carefully remove leafs from sour cabbage and cut the tick part on the bottom.
Mix pork, finely chopped onion, rice, egg, salt and pepper.
Take the leaves and put prepared meat in it and make small packages, take care that you close it well.
Take a large pot and put some sliced cabbage on the bottom, then put sarmas on it. On top of sarmas put smoked bacon and pork ribs. After you lay all sarmas, bacon and pork ribs put some more sliced cabbage and Laurel leafs, add water to cover everything.
Cook for about hour and a half on mild fire.
At the end of your cooking, you can do this: take a small pot, heat the oil and put flour in it until brownish. Then put paprika and mix it. Overflow sarmas and cook for five minutes more.
Sarma is the best to eat day after cooking and you can eat it up to whole week, as we usually do. The best way to eat sarma is with mashed potato.
(Dobar tek)!
Napisala: Andrea Mioč
Source: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/sarma-croatian-sauerkraut-rolls-255049
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarma_%28food%29
Photo: Andrea Mioč