Sarma (no English equivalent, I’m afraid) is a traditional winter dish of Croatia and the Balkans.
It’s made of minced meat, rolled into sour cabbage leaves, and cooked with more sour cabbage. It’s also one of those meals a woman should know how to make to get married (so they say).
Although sarma is considered a national dish in Croatia as well as in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia (even Bulgaria and Romania), its historical roots come from the Ottoman Empire, all the way back in the 16th century. And they stole the idea from the Persians! So, it’s little to say that sarma has been around for some time.
The original version was meat-free, made with wine leaves and stuffed with rice, then boiled in hot water, which is the recipe known today as yaprak sarma (yaprak is the Turkish word for leaf). This kind of sarma is still eaten in more Muslim-oriented countries like Turkey and Bosnia. Other countries prefer the meat filling and sour cabbage combination, although in the south of Croatia and Herzegovina, they use leaves of a plant called raštika (wild blitva), and that dish is called Hercegovački japrak. Many nations, twice as many varieties of sarma.
The most common sarma in these areas is the one with cabbage and meat. Each household has its own ”unique” recipe, and while some use only minced pork meat, others use a pork/beef mixture. Some put more spices in the meat mixture, while others keep it clean with salt, pepper, and paprika. Some make the sauce more flavourful by adding a bit of ajvar to the whole story; others don’t. Some roll big sarmas; some make them small. And there’s also a dispute over the right amount of ”sourness” regarding the cabbage. As it usually goes in Croatia, everyone is right and wrong at the same time.
Now, if you’re looking to ride an emotional rollercoaster when you say you’re now going to deconstruct the almighty sarma (they’ll hate you before they love you for it), just get your normal sarma ingredients and a little bit of patience. Let’s recap what you’ll need to feed a family of 6, twice (the right way).
Ingredients for deconstructed sarma:
– 1 kg of shredded sour cabbage or a cabbage head that you can chop up
– 1 kg of mixed minced meat
– 2 cups of rice
– 2 medium onions
– 1 tbsp of lard
– salt, pepper, sweet paprika
– sour cream
Instructions:
1. Boil your sour cabbage in enough water to cover it. Cook for about 30 minutes.
This is to soften it up a little and release any extra sourness (depending on how sour you like it, you might want to leave it on for a bit longer).
2. Chop up and saute the onions in lard, add the meat and spices, cook until 80% done. Drain and save the flavourful liquid.
3. Cook the rice in the meat liquid; add water if needed (about 6 cups of liquid for the 2 cups of rice). Season to taste.
4. Heat the oven to 180 °C.
5. Layer the ingredients in a mirrored fashion: cabbage, rice, meat, rice, cabbage. Finish off with a thin layer of sour cream.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the sour cream starts looking golden.
7. Eat way too much deconstructed sarma.
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