Recipe - Pams Malfuf (Middle Eastern Cabbage Rolls)

1 lg Head of cabbage
1 pound Ground beef
One half cup Onion; finely chopped
2 Cloves garlic; minced
1 cup Parsley; finely chopped
16 ounce Canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Seasoned salt
1 Egg
1 cup Regular or basmati rice;
uncooked
One fourth cup Oil
1 cn (large) tomato juice (11
One half quarts)
4 tablespoon Oil; extra
Salt and pepper; to taste

Core cabbage sparingly and boil in a large pot of water over medium heat
until leaves begin to come apart. Remove leaves as they soften and
separate. When cool enough to handle, thin out center vein of each leave
with a paring knife. Drain tomatoes, reserving liquid, and dice. Mix the
ground beef with the, onions, garlic, parsley, tomatoes, seasoned salt,
pepper, egg, rice and One fourth cup oil. Spoon out mixture on each cabbage leaf,
at the thicker edge, and roll, either tucking sides in once or like a
cigarroll snugly but with enough room for the rice to expand. Coarsely
chop up the leftover cabbage and place in the bottom of a large pot or
Dutch oven (This will prevent the cabbage rolls from scorching). Place
cabbage rolls on top of chopped cabbage Combine the reserved juice from the
canned tomatoes with the large can of tomato juice, 4 tablespoons oil and
salt and pepper. Pour over the cabbage rolls. The liquid should cover or
nearly cover the rolls. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 1 hour; reduce
heat to mediumlow and cook for a further
30 minutes.

NOTES : I was told that authentic Malfuf does not have tomatoes in the meat
mixture. My neighbor in Saudi, Phil Habib, of Lebanese heritage, taught me
to make these. For the most part, Arabic food is not highly seasoned, so I
have adjusted the seasoning to our taste.
Recipe by: Pamela Creeden Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #671 by
Creedenite@aol.com on Jul 14, 1997