Strictly speaking, nobody needs a 9-pound head of cabbage. Did that stop us from purchasing this $3.99 beauty? It did not. We love and regularly make at least two cabbage-based dishes, bierrocks and halushki, but after making those, I suspect I would still have enough cabbage left to feed a small Eastern European country. Ben suggested a salad. We’ll probably also do something with kielbasa. At a certain point, though, I will need to face the reality that there is a limit to the number of cabbage dishes I can serve in a week. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fans may remember that when the Weissmans’ fortunes turned and they had to move in with their daughter’s in-laws, a pair anybody would find exhausting, Abe complained that Shirley was using cabbage in a “very punitive manner.” I guess that’s the risk you take when you purchase a ridiculously large head of cabbage.
Ben picked bierrocks to make with me, and I’m glad he did. They were delicious! Bierrocks are traditional Ukrainian Mennonite fare: bread pockets filled with hamburger, cabbage, and onions. The recipe is adapted from the More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. They freeze and reheat well, so it is a great way to have a tasty lunch any time. We often use the dough recipe and stuff it with whatever combination of protein and vegetables strikes us, but bierrocks are the alpha “pocket”. Don’t get me wrong, pulled pork BBQ, banh mi, sausage and egg, or ham and cheese are all great alternatives, but there is something about bierrocks that make them more than the sum of their parts.
If you are aiming to make bierrocks, start by halving the pocket dough recipe, found in the “Breads, Sandwiches, and Pizza” section of our recipe index.
Bierrocks
½ batch of pocket dough
1 ½ pounds ground beef or sausage
1 onion, diced
3 cups cabbage, (or in our case, about 68￠worth) thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
Begin sauteing the meat. When it is mostly cooked, add the onions and cabbage. Continue cooking until the cabbage is soft and season to taste.
Roll out dough into a large thin sheet, about 25” X 20”. With a slotted spoon, scoop a dollop of the meat and veggie mixture into 20 (5 X 4) little piles on the dough. Cut the dough into 5″ squares. To seal, bring corners together, pinch the sides, and tuck the corners under. Place seam side down in rows on greased cookie sheets, let rise for 15 minutes, and bake at 350° for 25 minutes.
We used another 60￠worth the next day to make halushki, and we still have over half the cabbage left. Now we are taking a little cabbage break, lest we be accused of using it in a punitive manner, but if you have any brilliant cabbage ideas, patch them through to us!
