From Feigie’s kitchen: Holishkes stuffed cabbage

By Feigie Ceitlin

Simchat Torah at our shul is famous around town for its unbridled joy and energetic dancing. In addition to the frequent l’chaims throughout the evening (celebratory shots of alcoholic beverage), there is also our lavish buffet. There are many people who will attend High Holiday services elsewhere, but make it a point to be with Chabad Tucson for Simchat Torah.

One dish on our buffet that most everyone looks forward to is holishkes, or cholopchkes (stuffed cabbages). These delicious delectables keep coming out of the kitchen during the celebration, as tray after tray get consumed by jubilant participants. The stuffed cabbages are both sweet and savory and traditionally eaten on this holiday.

Simchat Torah concludes our annual cycle of the weekly reading of the Torah, when we don’t open the scrolls, but we dance with them and sing and generally celebrate their existence. Many believe that when two rolls of holishkes sit side by side, they resemble the closed Torah scrolls, and that is how they explain the tradition.

But there is another opinion about the origin of the tradition of eating stuffed cabbage on Simchat Torah. The word cabbage in Hebrew is keruv and its letters in reverse spell baruch which means “blessed.” On Simchat Torah we are all blessed through the Torah. Whatever the reason, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 large cabbage head

Meat Mixture:

2.5 lbs ground meat 1/2 cup sushi rice (uncooked) 1 small onion (grated) salt, to taste black pepper, to taste garlic powder, to taste

Sauce:

1 large onion, diced 2 TBSP oil 2-16 oz cans of tomato sauce 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 TBSP lemon juice 1 cup of water salt, pepper, garlic powder and Italian seasoning to taste

Directions:

Cabbage:

Cut out the core of the cabbage head and then drop the entire head of cabbage into a boiling pot of hot water.

Shut the fire, cover the pot, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the leaves start to visibly soften.

Remove from the pot and cool. Once cooled, pull apart all of the leaves.

Meat Mixture:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Sauce:

Heat oil in a large pot over a medium heat

Add onions and saute until light brown

Add tomato sauce, water, brown sugar, lemon juice and spices, stir to combine.

Bring to a simmer.

While the sauce is coming to a simmer, make the cabbage rolls:

Lay one cabbage leaf flat, place a large tablespoon of the meat mixture in the center near the bottom of the cabbage leaf. Fold the top (the firmer side) over, then the right side, then the left side then roll until you get a smooth roll.

Repeat until you finished the mixture.

Place the cabbage rolls into the simmering pot of sauce for two hours, covered on a low flame. *

The blessing:

Baruch atah A-donay, Elo-heinu Melech Ha’Olam shehakol nihiyah bed’varo.

Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word all things came to be.

Enjoy!

— Feigie Ceitlin is the program director of Chabad Tucson

Photo by Jacqueline Soffer