INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE
• 300g minced meat broth
• 30g lemon juice
• 200g yoghurt
• 3g lemon zest
• 5g salt
• Some water
• A pinch of corn flour
INGREDIENTS FOR THE VEGETABLES
• 12 boiled cabbage leaves
• 80g minced meat filling for each cabbage leaf
INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING
• 500g minced beef (lean)
• 100g olive oil
• 200g onions, finely chopped
• 5g chopped garlic
• 100g zucchini cut into small squares
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 400g crushed tomato
• 200g vegetable broth
• 20g salt
• 1g pepper
• 15g fresh chopped mint
• 50g. dry red wine
• 1g lemon zest
• 50g crushed almonds
SERVING INGREDIENTS
• 5g chopped mint
• 10g olive oil
STUFFED CABBAGE PREPARATION
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions. Add the garlic and stir thoroughly until soft. Add the zucchini and continue sautéing. Then, add the minced meat and break it with a whisk. Lower the heat and extinguish with the wine. Allow the alcohol to evaporate. Then add the bay leaves, cinnamon, tomato, vegetable broth, crushed almonds, salt, pepper, mint and lemon zest. Turn up the heat and let it boil with the lid open until the liquids surface. Strain the minced meat and keep the broth to add to the sauce. Spread the minced meat in a pan and leave it to cool.
MASH PREPARATION
In a saucepan, mix the milk with the cauliflower and let it boil for 10-12 minutes. When the milk starts to rise, lower the heat.
Remove the pot from the stove and with a slotted spoon transfer the cauliflower to a blender. Then, add the mint, half the olive oil, the apple cider vinegar, half the salt, the lemon juice, the zest and beat it all together. Add the remaining olive oil and the remaining salt. Mash until it becomes a smooth purée. Transfer the purée to a saucepan.
PREPARATION FOR THE SAUCE
Put the minced meat broth in a saucepan to heat and add the yogurt. Stir and raise the heat. Then add the lemon zest, salt and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil.
Dissolve a little corn flour in cold water and slowly pour it into the pot (into the hot broth). Stir and as soon as the sauce sets, remove from the heat.
PREPARATION FOR THE VEGETABLES
Put about 80gr. of minced meat filling on each cabbage leave and wrap it in membrane. Then, in boiling water, steam the cabbage stuffing for 7 minutes. Take them out of the water and remove their membrane.
SERVING
Put 2 stuffed cabbages on a plate and pour the sauce on top. Garnish with a little mint and sprinkle with a little olive oil.
Wine pairing by Konstantinos Lazarakis
The cabbage filling is quite intense and thick, yet the cabbage itself and the sauce make the dish lighter and cooler. Because of the ground beef, many would marry this dish with a red wine. However, a rose wine from the Agiorgitiko variety could give a note of freshness, and also emphasize the texture of the dish without the astringent feeling that a red wine of the same grape variety would.
