Sour Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup salted butter
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 3 1/2 cups cooked Arborio rice or other short or medium grain rice
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 head sour cabbage
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. To prepare filling, melt butter with oil in a medium frypan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Add rice and pepper; stir to combine. Set aside.
4. Drain cabbage and cut out the core. If cabbage has a strong smell, rinse with water and drain. Separate the leaves and cut out thick centre ribs or trim them thinner. This makes the cabbage leaves easier to roll.
5. Line the bottom of a deep 3 quart baking dish with a single layer of cabbage leaves. Broken leaves may be used for this. Reserve the same number of leaves for covering rolls; set dish and reserved leaves aside. Trim large cabbage leaves into pieces no smaller than 4x4 inches.
6. Spoon 2 – 3 tsp of filling onto bottom edge of cabbage. For each cabbage leaf, fold bottom edge over filling. Fold sides to centre and roll up to enclose filling.
7. Layer cabbage rolls in prepared baking dish, working until no filling or cabbage leaves remain.
8. Pour boiling water over cabbage rolls so that it reaches half way up the top layer of cabbage rolls. Cover with a single layer of reserved cabbage leaves.
9. Bake, covered, until cabbage is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.