Down East Asia

Asian Pork Cabbage Rolls

 It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention and that is exactly the case with this dish.  I realize it is likely that someone somewhere has made these before, but not that I was aware of at the time.  We have all heard of stuffed cabbage, of course, but this is stuffed cabbage with an Asian twist and it is absolutely delicious.

This invention came about one evening when I was making Asian pork dumplings and I had not done a very good job of calculating my dumpling wrapper to pork mixture ratio. I ran out of wrappers and had quite a lot f pork mixture left. I was having a pretty good crowd of people for dinner that night and it was far too late to run to the grocery store at that point.  I thought about making my own wrappers but there was just not enough time to do that either. I opened the refrigerator, desperately scanned for something I could use and came out with a head of cabbage.  Of course, stuffed Asian cabbage rolls...brilliant! 

Here are the ingredients for the pork mixture

  I have close to a pound and a half of ground pork, rice wine vinegar, Chinese Shao Shing cooking wine, tamari (a type of soy sauce), sesame seed oil, white pepper, Chinese five spice, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes (optional). Finally, you will need a large head of Napa cabbage to roll the pork mixture in.

Here are the tools you will need

 I have wok, a wok ring; which you would need for an electric stove top, A bamboo steamer basket, ( you can easily find one of these steamer baskets at a local Asian market or any number of stores that sell kitchenware), a micro plane for grating the ginger, and a Chinese chef's knife but any decent knife to mince the garlic will do.  

You do not have to use this method or these particular tools for steaming.  There are a number of different tools that you can use to steam these rolls.  If you have different tools for steaming, they will work just fine.

You will also need cooking twine to tie around your cabbage rolls to keep them together while steaming.

To prepare the pork mixture

Start by adding one clove of garlic (finely minced or grated), a one inch piece of grated ginger, a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes (if you like the spice), 1/8th of a teaspoon of white pepper, 1/4th of a teaspoon of Chinese five spice, a tablespoon of tamari, a table spoon of rice vinegar, a tablespoon of Shao Shing cooking wine and a teaspoon of sesame seed oil.  Add a couple of finely chopped scallions or spring onions at this point as well if you like them.  You will not see them in any of my recipes so feel free to add them to any recipe you feel is appropriate. 

At this point, add a tablespoon of corn starch and mix to incorporate the pork and all of the ingredients thoroughly.  The cornstarch will bind all of the ingredients together so the mixture is nice and firm.  If your mixture is a little soupy, try adding a little more corn starch and stick it in the refrigerator for a while to let it set up.

Preparing the cabbage rolls

First, cut the stem of the cabbage leaf as well as the two long pieces on either side of it so you are left with just the very top of the cabbage leaf.  Save the stem and parts of the leaf that you cut off for a stir fry, egg rolls, or any other recipe that calls for Napa cabbage.

Once you have trimmed the cabbage, you should be left with a piece that looks like this. Take a teaspoon full of the pork mixture and place it in the middle of the leaf.  Fold each side of the cabbage leaf over the pork and then starting from the bottom of the leaf, roll the pork up inside the cabbage.  Take a piece of the cooking twine and gently wrap it around the cabbage roll and tie a small knot in the front.  Repeat until you have used all of the pork mixture or have run out of cabbage leaves that you can work with.

Not all cabbage leaves are going to look like this one so you will need to change the technique with each piece that you work with.  Just roll them however you can.  Also, the leaves of Napa cabbage are delicate so you will find that it tends to split in places as you are rolling it and some of the pork will start poking out.  Don't let this bother you!  This is a rustic little finger food and it's ok for it to look as though it is.

This is what you should end up with

Now to prep for steaming

With your wok in place on the wok ring, fill the bottom of the wok with water.  Be careful not to add too much water as you do not want it to touch the bottom of the steamer basket.  

Place the steamer basket down into the wok and then place the plate of cabbage rolls in the steamer basket.  Cover the steamer basket and turn your burner on to medium high heat.  The water will heat quickly and start to steam your rolls.  Continue steaming for about 10 to 15 minutes.  To be certain the pork is cooked all the way through, take the largest cabbage roll out of the steamer and cut in half.  Steamed pork has a tendency to still be a bit pink in the middle but as long as the meat looks and feels cooked, it is fine to eat.

To serve as an appetizer or a party snack, place the cabbage rolls on a large plate with a small ramekin in the middle of the plate for the dipping sauce.

For the dipping sauce, I combine two tablespoons of tamari, one tablespoon of rice wine vinegar and just a few drops of sesame seed oil.  To finish the dipping sauce, sprinkle in some sesame seeds and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  You can also add minced scallions or spring onions if you wish.

This dish may have come about completely by accident; but it is one of those lucky

mistakes that has stuck with me and it has proven to be my trusty go to snack to serve at number of gatherings.  It is also an excellent conversation piece whenever someone asks how and where I learned to make these.  

There are times when something brilliant is born in a moment of desperation.  This was most definitely one of those times for me.  Don't ever be afraid to improvise in the kitchen if you need to or even if you just feel the urge to create something new.  You never know...you might just be creating the next big culinary masterpiece!

Enjoy!