Fiction-Food Café: Cabbage Rolls

Item:
Cabbage Rolls
Acquire:
Cook Adept

Ingredients:

Cabbage x 2

Beef x 1

Cow's Milk x 1

Love me some "Fantasy Life", the wonderful 3DS game from Level 5 and Nintendo. It's been a while since it's release (Oct. 2014), but I had so much fun with it (still have some fun to be had, just need to make time!), and there's so much yummy food–especially since there's a whole cook life that you can have–that I wanted to revisit the game in a post. I previously posted a recipe for Pumpkin Quiche from the game (actually, about this time last year) and have had this one waiting in the wings to post when the weather started to get chilly again. It's such a cozy and crazily delicious recipe!

"Cabbage leaves wrapped around a tasty filling. Restores HP, raises Dexterity."

Reveria Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients:
1 Large Head Cabbage, regular green or Nappa
6 oz. (1/2 lb) Ground Beef
6 oz. (1/2 lb) Ground Sausage
1 Small Onion, finely Chopped (~4 Tbsp. -1/4 Cup)
1 tsp. Minced Fresh Ginger
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp. Milk
3 Tbsp. Panko (Plain Bread Crumbs are okay too)
3 Cups Dashi Stock (3 cups Hot Water + 1 1/2 tsp. Dashi Granules dissolved in it)

Important items:
Plastic Wrap
Rice Cooker
Toothpicks

Directions:
1. Carefully peel the leaves from the cabbage, trying to keep them as intact/large as possible. Once you get down to the small inner leaves you can stop & put what's left in a plastic bag & save it for soup later*. Put a couple paper towels on a large heat-proof plate & lay/stack the cabbage leaves you just peeled off onto the plate (should be a pretty decent pile). Cover completely with a few large sheets of plastic wrap & then place in the microwave. Cook for about 7minutes & then remove with a pot holder & peel off the plastic wrap. The cabbage leaves are now nice and lip, perfect for wrapping!
2. In a medium bowl combine the meats, onion, ginger, salt, pepper, soy sauce, milk, & bread crumbs. Mix thoroughly with your hands & then break off into golf ball-size bits, & then shape these into little logs about 2 1/2" long.
3. Wrap each meat log with a limp cabbage leaf, covering the meat completely. It's all right if the leaves are ripped, just wrap it in such a way that the meat is covered, & you can use toothpicks to secure the leaf if needed. And feel free to double up on the smaller leaves if needed. The point is simply to wrap the meat as nicely & as well as you can.
4. Place the little cabbage/meat bundles snuggly into the bowl of your rice cooker & cover with the dashi stock. Close the rice cooker lid & cook on the regular rice setting (the cooker I have just has a switch that flips between "warm" & "cook") & cook for about 20 minutes. Remove a few cabbage rolls using a fork or tongs & spoon on a little of the broth. Oishii! >_< It's so delicious! Very nice served with fluffy white rice.
*Suggestion: If you'd like, pour the broth into a large pot & chop up the leftover cabbage that you saved in the beginning. Put the chopped cabbage in the pot, cover, & simmer until the cabbage is tender. This makes a delicious & cozy soup!