Romanian Cabbage Rolls Tutorial for Holidays (pic heavy)

In response to this thread (Christmas Meal Help - Romanian Cabbage Rolls in Dutch Oven on the BGE?), I thought I'd post a step by step tutorial of my wife's exceptional Romanian cabbage rolls (sarmale in Romanian) recipe, that we make four-five times a year, especially around special occasions and Christmas. 

Note: due to the advice on this forum, I decided *not* to smoke the dutch oven with the top off during this cook. *

She allowed me to take pictures of each step, as well as notes, so that I could give an accurate tutorial on the process. Just about every Romanian has their own "best" recipe, but here is ours, honed by years of practice and substitution with American ingredients, and honed into a truly exceptional dish. If you try it, you will not be disappointed.

1. Ingredients - all of our ingredients came from Wegman's, a great east coast store based out of NY. You can substitute almost everything on this list, but certain ingredients are key: good ground veal and pork, hamhocks, and good quality (fresh) sauerkraut.

Here' s a shot of most of our ingredients - 5.5 quart dutch oven (or whatever you've got handy - this recipe's scalable), fresh Silver Floss sauerkraut (or your own, or anything else fresh and crunchy), tomato/sausage/pepper sauce, ground veal/pork, fresh hamhocks. The meat is 80/20, since you need a good bit of fat to render down for flavor.

Total recipe (one pot):

- 1 lb ground pork

- 1 lb ground veal (or beef if you're against veal)

- 1 lb bag Silver Floss or other fresh sauerkraut (use half lbl at the bottom and remaining lb at the top) 

- Need a dutch oven of some sort (we used 5.5 and 7 quart pots)

- 2 bags of Silver Floss fresh (refrigerated) German sauerkraut

- 1 TSP thyme 

- 1 large yellow onion, or two medium yellow onions

- 1 cup chopped bacon (or 1 cup of Costco/Sam's chopped bacon)

- 2 TSP chopped dill

- 1 TSP sea salt

-- 1 TSP whole peppercorns 

- 1/2 cup water

- A good dutch oven / Le Creuset DO 

2. Mix 2 lbs ground pork and ground veal (80/20). If you have a problem with veal you can substitute ground beef. Note: this makes two big pots of sarmale. If you just want to make one pot of rolls, halve everything. 

3. Layer tomato/pepper/sausage sauce at the bottom of dutch ovenm, about half a 24 oz jar

4. Then layer sauerkraut on top of the sauce (we used Silver Floss fresh brand); half a bag

5. Add ham hocks. We cut the hocks into rondelles, a full hock for each pot.

6. Add unground 1/2 TSP whole peppercorns

7. Put a pot on the oven and boil water, just enough to submerge cabbage entirely. Steam the cabbage for around 20 mins, then rest if and put another in the boiling pot. What you want is pliable, flexible, and workable cabbage without the crispiness, since we're using the cabbage as an envelope for the rest of the meat filling. 

8. Chop up one large onion and sautee it, or two medium yellow onions. Sautee with 1 TSP of EVOO, and add enough water to cover the chopped onions. Cook until translucent on medium heat on the oven. Add 4 TSP of medium grain white rice, and add salt and pepper to taste (we used ~1 tspn of each)

9. Chop up one cup of fresh bacon, or 1 cup of Costco or Sam's Club-brand bacon crumbles. Add to meat bowl.

10. Add 1 tbsp of crushed dill weed to meat bowl

11. Cook rice in saucepan with onions. You want to do this first, as you don't want the rice to expand inside the cabbage rolls and break them later

12. Add 1 TSP of salt to meat bowl, and add 1 TSP of course ground pepper

13. Add everything to your meal bowl and mix together with hands. What you are doing here will comprise the rolls's stuffing. We use a large mixing bowl

14.  Okay, onto the leaves (the exterior packet themselves): the boiled cabbage leaf will comprise the exterior or the envelope of your meat interior. That's why it's important to steam the cabbage beforehand, so that you have a pliable medium to fold up your meat. One exterior cabbage leaf produces around 2-3 rolls at the outset (when you get down to the smaller leaves, 1 leaf will equal one roll, as you approach the center. 

Here is a typical boiled cabbage leaf. Notice that there' s tennis/golf ball-sized chunk of meat in the center. This is the amount of filling you want for your stuffed cabbage roll.

Fold it on three sides to make a nice packet of stuffed awesomeness.

This is a typical exterior-leaf packet.

Layer your stuffed packets around the bottom tier and up as far as you want to go in your dutch oven. Leave a good inch plus at the top for sauce, kraut, and spices.

First layer of stuffed goodness.

Layers packed. Now let's go to the final steps...

15. If you've come this far you're near the home stretch.  Layer as many layers as you can in your dutch oven - for us, it's 3-4, depending on the size of your DO. As you get down the cabbage roll, you'll have less to work with. When the cabbage leaves are no longer pliable, put them back in the boiling water until they're workable. When you get down to the inner parts, you'll only have approximately one leaf per roll. Don't worry, this is normal. 

16. Finish her up. Just like you did at the very bottom, repeat at the very top: Put the remaining half of sauerkraut on top of the DO, asl well as the juice. (about a 1/2 of the package). Add 1/2 TSP of whole peppercorns, 1/2 TSP of tyme. 

Second half of the kraut bag to the top of the cabbage rolls.

17. Dump the second half of your sauce to the top of the DO:

17. Make sure to add approximately 1/2 of water to the top.

18. Replicate those first steps.  Add the second half of ham hock rondelles to the top of the DO:

19. Add in the peppercorns and tyme. Now put it in the oven at 325.