A Stuffed Cabbage Five Generations Strong

Shared by Miri and Yoav Polachek
Recipe Roots: Transylvania, Romania > Netanya, Israel > Lexington, Massachusetts > Tel Aviv > New York City > Tel Aviv 

As we settle in for an afternoon of cooking at Miri and Yoav Polachek’s home in north Tel Aviv, Miri offers a disclaimer: “There are no [written] recipes in this house.” Yoav, a professional jazz musician, is the main cook in the home, with Miri acting as his sous chef. Much like in his recording studio, Yoav improvises in the kitchen. Improvising, “that’s my life,” he explains. 

Still, there are recipes in their home with deep roots like cabbage stuffed with meat and rice and cooked slowly in a tomato sauce, a simple and light eggplant salad that’s served with raw onion and challah, and a rich and roughly chopped liver. 

The first two come from Miri’s family. The recipes trace back to Miri’s paternal grandmother Ema Lazar Abraham and her mother Sara who died in Auschwitz. Ema was in her 20s when the second World War broke out, Miri explains. Living in Transylvania, a region of modern day Romania, she was spared for much of the war. They “only came for the Jews there in 1944,” Miri explains. Ema was sent to Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz and survived, returning to Transylvania, after the war ended.

In the early 1960s, the family made Aliyah, resettling in Netanya, a city in the north of Israel, bringing Sara’s stuffed cabbage, called sarmale, with them. Ema was the type of grandmother who liked to cook the dishes her family loved. “She made everyone the dish they liked. We had foods named after us,” Miri explains. For Miri, it was a cake. And, “It was well known that Yoav loved stuffed cabbage,” Miri explains. 

Twenty years ago, Yoav explains, he asked Ema to teach him the family sarmale recipe. She agreed and told him to come at a specific time. When he arrived, most of the recipe was already made. Perhaps it was her desire to keep the recipe a secret, or she simply wanted to finish her work for the day early, no one is certain. Fortunately, having attended culinary training courses when he lived in New York, Yoav was able to recreate the recipe. Today, in Miri and Yoav’s home, it’s made periodically throughout the year, served on its own or over simple mashed potatoes.

And Yoav isn't the only one to make sarmale in the family. Miri’s mother Carmela keeps the sarmale tradition going in Boston. The recipe is cherished up and down the generations. In Israel, children are often assigned a “roots” project in school where they explore their family history. One of Miri and Yoav’s children focused his on the family’s sarmale — making him the fifth generation in the family to know and love the recipe. 

Sarmale (Stuffed Cabbage)

Makes: 12 to 14 servings
Total Time: 3 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients
For the stuffed cabbage:
2 large green cabbages
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ large yellow onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 lb ground beef
½ tablespoon sweet paprika
¾ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped cilantro
6 ounces tomato paste
3 eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup basmati rice

For the sauce:
12 ounces tomato paste
3 cups water 
1 tablespoon soy sauce (optional)
1 lb sauerkraut
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preparation
1. Prepare the cabbage: In a large pot that can hold the cabbage, add boiling water and 2 teaspoons of salt, cover and simmer for at least one hour. Discard the cooking water and fill the pot with cold water and ice, until the cabbage cools down to room temperature, about 15 minutes. 

2. Prepare the stuffing: In a large pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat, and saute the onion until the edges caramelize, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the minced garlic and saute for another minute. Place the ground beef into the pan with the onions and garlic. Mix the beef and break down any large pieces into smaller pieces. Saute the mixture until the beef is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add paprika, parsley and cilantro, and the remaining kosher salt. Mix to combine well and remove from the heat. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and let it cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste into the filling, mix to combine and let it cool for 10 more minutes. Add the eggs, salt and pepper, and rice into the filling and mix well. Roll a tablespoon of the mixture between the palm of your hands to see if the mixture can hold together as a patty. If the mixture feels too loose and wet, add more rice and mix well. Mix the patty back into the filling.

6. Stuff the cabbage: Clear a large working surface. Cut the core out of the cabbage in a traingular shape. Starting with the outermost layer of leaves on top of the cabbage, gently separate each leaf from the cabbage using your fingers, trying to keep the leaves as whole as possible. Stack the cabbage leaves over each other on a plate, making sure the leaves are laid flat. Continue until you reach the smaller leaves that are too small to hold the filling. These leaves should have a diameter of about 5 inches or less and should not be used. Take one leaf, flatten on a plate or counter with one hand and carefully cut off the tough part of the stem with the other hand, making it easier for rolling. Turn the left over, to have the vein side face inward. Take about ½  to ⅓ cup of the stuffing and shape it into a cylinder in your hand. Place it close to the base of the leaf, Using your fingers cover the stuffing with the base of the leaf, then fold over the right and left both sides of the leaf, and the roll the leave forward it until you reach the end of the leaf. Place it in a large pot with the seam side down. Continue with the rest of the leaves, adjusting the amount of stuffing to the smaller leaves, arranging them in one or two tight layers in the pot.

8. Make the sauce: In a bowl, dissolve the tomato paste in warm water. Add the soy sauce (if using) and mix well. Drizzle the sauce all over the stuffed cabbage leaves in the pot. It should reach about ¾ up the leaves.

9. Spread the sauerkraut all over the top, then sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper. 

10. Cook on high until the sauce is boiling, about 3 to 5 minutes, then lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for at least 1 ½ hours until soft and most of the liquid is absorbed. You can also bake it in a 325F oven for 1 ½ hours, loosely covered with foil.

11. Serve the stuffed cabbage hot and topped with some sauerkraut. 

Make Ahead:

• The boiling of the cabbage can be done one day ahead, and kept in the fridge until ready to use.  

• Stuffed vegetables are believed to taste better the second day. After the cooking is done, it can be kept in the fridge and gently heated, before serving, on the stovetop or in the oven.

Cook’s Notes: Soy sauce is optional. It adds a salty balance to the sweet and sour flavors of the stuffed cabbage.

Romanian Eggplant Salad

Like the sarmale or stuffed cabbage recipe, this dish has its roots in Transylvania. In Miri’s family growing up, it was accompanied by chopped raw onion. Today, she serves it as a first course when they have guests, often with freshly baked challah that Yoav makes.

Makes: 8 servings
Total time: About 35 minutes

Ingredients
For the salad:
3 medium eggplants
½ teaspoon kosher salt 
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the garnish: 
½ medium yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tomato, halved and thinly sliced

Preparation
1. Prepare the eggplants: the best result is from grilling the eggplants. Heat the grill. With a large knife, make a slit in each eggplant, and grill it covered for about 10 minutes.Open the slit wider, sprinkle a bit of kosher salt, and continue grilling for 5-10 minutes until the eggplants are soft. Remove from grill to a baking sheet and let cool. Alternatively to grilling,  you can either char the eggplant directly on a stovetop for about 10 minutes on each side, or broil in an oven turning the eggplants over every 3 minutes for about 15 minutes until cooked.

2. Once the eggplants are cool enough to handle, scoop out the eggplant meat into a blender. Discard the eggplant stems and skins. 

3. Prepare the salad: Add kosher salt, oil and lemon juice into the blender with the eggplants. Pulse the mixture 3 times until the mixture combines and still has some chunks. 

4. Transfer the eggplant mixture to a serving plate with a raised rim. 

5. Mix the chopped onion with oil. 

6. To serve, spread the onions over the eggplants in the plate and arrange the tomato slices around the eggplant salad. Serve at room temperature with fresh challah.  

Chopped Liver

Photos by Penny De Los Santos

Both Miri and Yoav were raised eating chopped liver, but decided to share a rendition from Yoav’s family that’s rich and roughly chopped. It comes from Yoav’s mother Ziva, who was born in Poland and survived World War II as a toddler with her mother who escaped from a ghetto near Krakow east to Russia. The family ultimately made their way to Palestine just before the founding of the modern state of Israel. When Yoav went to college to study music in the United States, Ziva prepared a notebook of her recipes for him so that he could make them when he was overseas and missing home. Included in the mix, was her chopped liver.

Makes: 10 to 15 servings
Total time: About 1 hour and 40 minutes

Ingredients
For the marinated liver:
2 pounds chicken liver, room temperature
¼ cup red wine or sake
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the pan:
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 large light green peppers, roughly chopped
¼ cup red wine
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

For the food processor:
1 apple, cored and roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup chopped parsley
½ cup chopped cilantro

For the topping: 
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped

Preparation:
1. Marinate the liver: In a medium bowl place the chicken livers, drizzle with sake or wine and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 10 minutes. Mix, and let stand for 10 more minutes. Strain the livers from the marinade. Discard the marinade. 

2. Heat a large skillet on high heat. Once the pan is hot add the oil and then the livers. Saute the livers until golden brown on one side, about 2 minutes. Flip the livers and add the onions and peppers into the pan, cook for 2 more minutes. Add the wine, salt and pepper into the pan and continue cooking, stirring once in a while, until the livers are cooked but still slightly pink inside, 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for one hour.

3. Prepare the chopped liver: Use a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked mixture from the pan to the food processor, avoid placing any pan liquids into the blender. Add the apple, garlic, parsley and cilantro. Pulse the blender about 20 times, until mixed and sliced into a chunky mixture. Taste to check the seasoning, adjust accordingly. 

4. Transfer the chopped liver into a serving bowl, or line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and press the chopped liver into the pan and cover with more plastic wrap. Chill the chopped liver in the refrigerator.

5. Make the topping: In a medium pan heat ¼ cup of vegetable oil and add the chopped onion. Saute over medium to low heat for about 30 to 40 minutes until deeply caramelized. Set aside.

6. To serve: Remove the top layer of plastic wrap from the loaf pan. Place a flat plate over the loaf pan and invert the chopped liver onto the plate using both hands. Dispose the plastic wrap. Sprinkle the caramelized onion over the chopped liver. Serve cold or at room temperature with bread.

Make ahead:

• The chopped liver can be made in advance and kept for up to 2 days in the fridge.

• The caramelized onions can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use, and up to 1 week.