Home > Worldwide Recipes > Russia > Specialities From The Republics > Ukrainian Steamed Cabbage Souffle
Nakiplyak Iz Kapusty
Ukrainian Steamed Cabbage Souffle
Nakiplyak Iz Kapusty
A festive, delicious way with cabbage.
Ingredients
1 head of white cabbage, about 2 lb (900 g), with large outer leaves intact
1 teaspoon sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
¼ pint (150 ml) milk
2 oz (60 g) butter
Dash of cayenne
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon marjoram
2 oz (60 g) fine dry breadcrumbs
3 egg yolks
5 egg whites
Details
Serves: 8
Method
Core the cabbage, peel off the large outer leaves and blanch them in boiling water for 5 minutes to soften. Drain and set aside.
Cut the cabbage into chunks and place it in a large pan. Pour the milk over the cabbage and simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain the cabbage and chop it finely.
Meanwhile, saute the chopped onion in the butter. In a large bowl mix together the chopped cabbage, sauteed onions (along with all the butter from the frying pan), the breadcrumbs, seasonings and egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold them into the cabbage mixture. Spread a large, clean linen tea towel on a table. On the towel arrange the blanched cabbage leaves in an overlapping pattern, making a circle large enough to contain the souffle filling. Pile the filling in the centre, making sure first that there are no openings in cabbage leaf circle that the filling could seep out of. Carefully fold the leaves up to cover the filling. Then bring the ends of the tea towel together in the centre and tie them securely with kitchen string.
Place the towel-wrapped cabbage in a colander to retain its round shape. Place the colander in a large, deep pan over a few inches of water. If the pan lid will not fit over the colander, don't worry, use foil to cover the pan, sealing it tightly.
Bring the water to the boil and simmer the cabbage for 50 minutes. Remove the cabbage from the colander and untie the string. Open the tea towel and place a plate over the cabbage leaves. Invert the plate to turn out the souffle and peel off the towel from the top.
To serve, cut the souffle into wedges.
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