Recipe: Sarma

Today I reached years back in my food memory and made for the first time every (by myself) the Sarma that I remember my mom making. I great up with a variety of Armenian recipes, and this one was always good for a cold winter night. Of course, we're not quite at winter just yet...but we're getting there!

I was a little nervous about making this - I've never made it, only watched my mom make it and that was even almost a decade since I've last had it! I used a recipe my mom sent me and it turned out quite well (Felipe even liked it!)...and I have lots of left overs for later. Yummy!

Sarma
(by the way - Sarma can vary in ingredients - sometimes using grape leaves instead of cabbage, and other indgredients for the fillings as well. It all depends on the region it's from)

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs ground beef
3/4 cup rice
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika
(Mix all of the above ingredients together thoroughly)

1 head of cabbage
2-3 cups of chicken broth
8 oz. tomato sauce
Juice of 1 lemon

De-core the cabbage head. Boil a large pot of water. When at a rolling boil, place the head of cabbage in the water and cook until softened (about 10 minutes). Remove the cabbage from the water, place in a colander for extra drainage.

Remove some of the tougher leaves and line the bottom of a casserole dish. With the remaining cabbage, remove one leaf at a time, use a knife to take out the thick part of the vein. Most of the time you can use a half leaf, depending on the size. Take a thumb sized portion of the meat mixture and roll it into the shape of a cigar. Place onto one end of the cabbage leaf and roll. Place the rolls in layers in the casserole dish. When all the meat mixture has been used, cover the rolls with the chicken broth, tomato sauce and lemon juice. Cook in the over at 350 degrees for one hour.

Serve the rolls in a bowl with the broth.