Sou Fassum is a sublime stuffed cabbage, a creation of French peasant cuisine. I found it while researching alternative methods of stuffing cabbage. I knew I had to try it as soon as I saw it.
Stuffed cabbage rolls, a classic comfort food, were a beloved dinner of my immigrant childhood. We had them at least once a month, but I did not realize until I did my own cooking years later that preparing holubtsi called “little doves” in Ukrainian was an all-day undertaking: blanching the cabbage head, removing the core, separating the leaves and trimming the thick ribs, preparing the filling, rolling individual “doves” and baking for several hours. Mama, always in a hurry, made them quite large – usually one roll or a maximum two per cabbage leaf, not “little doves” at all! But her sister, Titka Hanna, who had more time on her hands, made petite holubtsi which were perfect for a child and which I fancied.
Over the years stuffing cabbage seemed like a lot of work and I limited preparing the dish to occasional holidays or enjoyed it in ethnic restaurants. After a lapse of several years, I recently spent a day stuffing cabbage rolls for Ukrainian Christmas Eve. Their humble, comforting taste reminded me of childhood and reignited a craving to stuff cabbage more often. So, I researched other less labor-intensive approaches to stuffing cabbage.*
The practice of stuffing individual leaves of headed cabbage into rolls was apparently introduced to Eastern Europe by the Tartars in the 14th century and quickly spread among cooks throughout the region where colonialism and shifting borders mingled populations and culinary practices. Polish gołumpki, Ukrainian holubtsi, Czech and Slovak hulubky, Serb and Croatia sarmi, Bulgarian sarma, Hungarian toltott kaposzta, Russian golubtsy, Romanian sarmale, Lithuanian balandėliai and Ashkenazi Jewish holishkes are a result of such cultural co-mingling and incorporate various forcemeat combinations of fresh beef or pork or veal or lamb and grains (such as rice, barley, millet or buckwheat). Enterprising frugal cooks add leftover meats or vegetables or herbs or sauerkraut or mushrooms or dried fruit, nuts, breadcrumbs and eggs and serve cabbage rolls with locally preferred sauces such as egg and lemon or tomato or sour cream or poaching broths.
Recipes for stuffed cabbage (kålruller or kåldolmar) arrived in Sweden after King Karl XII and his cooks returned from a five-year exile to Turkey in 1714 and eventually spread throughout Scandinavia.** Finnish kaalikääryle, Norwegian kålruletter or kålruller and Danish hvidkaalsrouletter follow the Swedish recipe stuffing cabbage leaves with lamb, beef or ground pork and various vegetables and spices and serving them with lingonberries.
Food historians differ on how and when the practice of stuffing cabbage arrived in Western Europe. One view holds the practice was brought to the Hapsburg Empire by the Ottomans and spread from there throughout the West.
German kohlrouladen incorporate caraway, mustard, or tomato sauce into the meat or sauce. Italian stuffed cabbage, called rambasicci or cavaolo ripieno or fagottini di verza depending on the region, add assorted vegetables, pine nuts and shredded cheeses. Still, other local historians claim the practice arrived in western Mediterranean centuries much earlier, about 6th century BCE, with the Greek colonization of Provence. By the 18th-century individual cabbage leaves were stuffed into rolls throughout Europe.
As I learned about national stuffed cabbage practices, an article on a French culinary webpage entitled Stuffed Cabbage, a Gourmet Treasure of Peasant Cuisine (Le-chou-farci-trésor-gourmand-de-la-cuisine-paysanne)*** caught my attention. Combining the words “stuffed cabbage,” “peasant cuisine” and “gourmet treasure” in one title seems to be an oxymoron, but the author, French food journalist Blandine Vié, explains — Poor cooking has never been sad. On the contrary, it often generates creativity, and consequently enhances the country’s gastronomic heritage. Madame Vié explains that for centuries French peasant cooks were creative out of necessity and prepared stuffed cabbage three ways—leaf by leaf like cooks in other countries or layered with stuffing into a terrine or reformed as whole cabbage head.
Madame Vié adds that French regional peasant cooks demonstrate their inventiveness by economical use of whatever fresh and leftover ingredients are on hand. Regional forcemeat variations also are inspired by what is locally available. For example, in one region the basic forcemeat mixture is supplemented with other meat leftovers, bacon, shallots and garlic, herbs (parsley, chervil, chives), eggs and buckwheat flour as a thickener. In another region, bacon and greens (chard, spinach, sorrel, onions, garlic), breadcrumbs and eggs are added.
In still another region, the filling consists of rice, bacon, onions, sausage meat, chard, tomatoes, sage, parsley, thyme, eggs and seasonings. rooms. The fillings are also sometimes prepared with rabbit, partridge meat, poultry (guinea fowl in particular), or with fish or seafood. Whatever the stuffing composition and its assembly method, the end product is either boiled, poached, baked or steamed.
Intrigued by French creativity with cabbage, I was ready to try stuffing a whole head, following a recipe known as chou farci à la Niçoise – stuffed cabbage Niçoise style, also called sou fassum or lou fassum in the Provençal Occitan dialect, a specialty of the region around Grasse.
I was initially apprehensive about making sou fassum. Visually, sou fassum looks intimidating — a whole stuffed cabbage head, but, in fact, it is made by layering individual cabbage leaves with a savory stuffing, then forming the layered leaves into a head of cabbage and poaching in a chicken or beef broth. Traditionally, French cooks use savoy cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. sabauda L.), known as choux de savoie in France, a loose-headed cabbage with crèpe-like, crinkled, frilly leaves and a sweet, earthy, milder, mellower flavor. It is not as hard as conventional white/green and red cabbage, but its leaves are still crunchy, more tender. Savoy cabbage is a winter cabbage available in Italian and other grocery stores in the United States from December through March.
I followed the relatively simple sou fassum recipe from The New Larousse Gastronomique**** which produces an appetizing, multi-flavored and eye-catching filling of readily available ingredients. I used the overnight freezer method to prepare the cabbage eliminating the need for boiling water and involving shorter hands-on time. The recipe is quite easy and, in fact, can be assembled faster than rolling individual cabbage leaves but produces phenomenal results. The sausage meat, bacon, onions, chard, tomatoes, peas, garlic, herbs and beef broth each enhance the sweet, earthiness of the savoy cabbage. Pairing the stuffed cabbage with a sweet-sour homemade tomato sauce adds a pleasant piquancy. Sou fassum is an easy, impressive alternative to traditional cabbage rolls and a soul-warming dish that brightens winter’s cold, gray, short days.
As we were enjoying thick slices of sou fassum, I thought about how I would make it again. This recipe is certainly worth repeating. It occurred to me, however, that the technique of layering cabbage leaves with filling and reforming them into a cabbage head shape is versatile and can be applied to other stuffing formulas, even Mama’s cabbage roll filling, and plain cabbage, if savoy cabbage is unavailable. Another combination of stuffing and cabbage should produce a flavorsome and comforting dish as well.
Sou Fassum–Sublime Stuffed Cabbage, adapted from The New Larousse Gastronomique****
2- 2 ½ pounds (907-1133 g) savoy cabbage
1 tablespoon salt
For the stuffing:
18 ounces (500 g) sausage meat or any other preferred meat(s)
7 ounces (200 g) streaky bacon, diced, blanched and fried
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 ounces (100 g) onions, chopped, lightly cooked in butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 ounces (100 g) chard, washed and chopped
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 ounces (100 g) peas, fresh or frozen
4 ounces (100g) long-grain rice, blanched
1 cup cabbage heart, chopped
2 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
For poaching broth:
3 quarts beef stock
1 carrot
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme
2 teaspoons salt, if stock is unsalted
For the tomato sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces (50 g) carrots, shredded
2 ounces (50) g onions, diced
1 can (14.5 ounces – 411 g) tomato purée
Bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 4 parsley sprigs, 4 thyme sprigs)
1 unpeeled garlic clove
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
½ teaspoon salt, more to taste
½ teaspoon sugar, more to taste
Pinch pepper
Pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1½ cup beef broth from poaching cabbage
Preparing the cabbage — Boiling method: Rinse cabbage head, remove outer leaves and with a sharp knife, remove cabbage core. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil and plunge the whole cabbage in until the leaves can be unrolled without tearing, about 5-7 minutes. Drain well and refresh in ice-cold water. When cool to the touch, remove leaves, trimming thick ribs as necessary and place on a kitchen towel-lined sheet pan. Finely chop the heart of the cabbage. Set aside.
Freezer method: Rinse cabbage head, remove outer leaves and with a sharp knife, remove cabbage core. Dry cabbage and place in a zip-top plastic bag and freeze overnight. The next day, thaw cabbage a few hours before separating the leaves. Then follow the remaining instructions above. (Freezing breaks down the structure of the leaves, making them pliable and unlikely to crack or break when separated from the head for stuffing.)
Preparing the stuffing: Dice bacon. In a small saucepan, heat 2 cups of water to boiling. Remove from heat, add bacon and blanch for 3 minutes. Drain, dry, fry in a skillet and drain fried bacon on a paper towel-lined plate.
Using the same skillet, sauté onions in butter. Season with salt and pepper and add garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Set aside to cool.
Wash chard in plenty of water, dry and chop into small pieces. Blanch for 4 minutes in boiling water. Drain, dry and set aside.
Blanch tomatoes in boiling water for 4 minutes. Peel, seed, dice and set aside.
Place rice in a small strainer and dip the strainer into a pot of lightly salted boiling water for 1 minute. Remove and set aside.
In large bowl, combine the sausage meat, bacon, onions-garlic mixture, chard, tomatoes, peas, rice, parsley and chopped cabbage. Season with ground black pepper and salt. (Test mixture for flavor by sautéing a small amount and adjusting salt and pepper as necessary.)
Assembling and cooking sou fassum: Line a 9.5-inch (24 cm) diameter bowl with a large sheet of plastic wrap. Place the largest and best cabbage leaf first with the prettiest side out, add other large outer leaves in a circle, overlapping as necessary. Spread a layer of stuffing over the leaves, packing well.
Top with another layer of leaves and repeat until all stuffing is used. Pull up the edges of the plastic wrap and twist to a cabbage head shape. Add more plastic wrap if necessary.
Freeze stuffed cabbage for an hour to firm up or refrigerate overnight. (The cabbage can be prepared to this stage in advance, refrigerated and cooked before serving.)
When ready to cook, spread a kitchen towel on the counter. Cut butcher twine into 14-inch (36 cm) strips crossing them over the towel. Unwrap the stuffed cabbage and place in the center and tie with the twine.
Preheat oven to 350ºF(180ºC). In a large Dutch oven, bring stock, carrot, bay leaves and thyme to boil. Reduce to simmer.
Lift the cabbage using the kitchen towel and place the cabbage along with the towel into the Dutch oven. Ladle hot stock over the cabbage. Bring to a boil, cover and finish cooking in the oven for 1½ hours.
Preparing tomato sauce: Melt butter in medium saucepan. Add carrots and onions and sauté until softened but not browned. Add tomato purée, bouquet garni, garlic and ½ cup cabbage poaching liquid and cook over low heat for 20 minutes until vegetables soften. Remove from heat, discard bouquet garni and garlic and cool. Then process tomato mixture in a food processor until smooth.
Melt butter in small frying pan over medium heat. Add flour and cook roux for 4 minutes, stirring constantly without browning. Slowly add 1 cup poaching liquid and cook until mixture thickens. Add roux, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce to tomato sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust flavor. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to use. Warm before using.
Finishing sou fassum: After 1 ½ hours, remove Dutch oven from oven and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove lid and check for an internal temperature of 150ºF(65ºC). If reached, using kitchen towel, remove cabbage from the pot and drain on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. (Save the flavorful poaching broth for another use, such as beef soup.)
Cut off twine and glaze cabbage with olive oil. Slice into 8 portions. Serve hot or room temperature with tomato sauce.
*https://www.pearsoned.com/stuffed-cabbage-recipes-history-food/
**http://swedishspoon.com/cabbage-rolls/
*** https://singulars.fr/gastronomie/le-chou-farci-tresor-gourmand-de-la-cuisine-paysanne
****The New Larousse Gastronomique, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1977.
One year ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/chicken-paprikas-2/
Two years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/italian-oxtail-stew-coda-alla-vaccinara-2/
Three years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/morocco-travelers-sampler-sights/
Four years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/discovering-perus-foodways-part-2/
Five years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/sausage-and-white-bean-stew/
Six years ago:http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/spaetzle-the-ubiquitous-noodle/