Succulent cabbage rolls cooked in tomato sauce with plenty of Egyptian dukkah

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Whilst waiting for the launch of Mrs. Ahlam's food blog and her Caironese family recipes, I have been sprinkling Ahlam's dukkah in many foods. Even though I used plenty of dukkah in this dish, these are not Egyptian-style cabbage rolls (Mahshy Kromb), but merely my own take on stuffed cabbage leaves that Eurasians and Egyptians love to cook in multitudinous ways.  The ingredients for my version include:

  • 12-16 cabbage leaves, boiled
  • 1 Portobello mushroom, finely minced & sauteed 
  • 3 Button mushroom, finely minced
  • 1 Onion, finely minced
  • 2dl Cooked short-grain rice (cook the rice in vegetable stock)
  • 400g Ground lamb meat
  • Fresh mint, QB (as much as necessary)
  • Fresh oregano, QB
  • 1 Solo garlic (or use normal garlic)
  • Dukkah, QB
  • Freshly ground black pepper, QB
  • 500g Tomato purée
  • Evoo, QB
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 tsp Honey

Cabbage rolls in tomato sauce served with fried Parisienne potatoes (recipe for the potatoes can be found at the end of this blog post.).

Chop the mushrooms and the onion finely with a food processor. Place solo garlic slices in a frying pan with plenty of evoo and fry until garlic becomes translucent, now add chopped mushrooms and onion, and fry until water has evaporated from the mushrooms. Then add the ground lamb meat and fry until meat is cooked through.

Stuffing: Mix in a bowl the fried meat and mushrooms with the cooked rice, eggs, oregano, mint, dukkah and black pepper. Tomato sauce: Pour in an oven-pan evoo and the tomato puree. Sprinkle over some dukkah and fresh oregano. 

Cut off the thick spine for easier rolling. Place as much as stuffing as you like, roll, and place the stuffed cabbage leaves in the tomato sauce. Sprinkle over dukkah, evoo and drizzle runny honey on top. Bake in a 180 degree Celcius oven for an hour or so, basting the rolls a few times.  


Parisienne potatoes: 500 g pre-cooked Parisienne potatoes first coated with 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs and 2 tps of Spanish paprika powder. Fry in pan with evoo and garlic. Finish the potatoes with fresh thyme and salt (QB).