Cabbage Rolls in Italian Sauce

Roll it Right!
Cabbage is usually not a popular vegetable. It has to be cooked with enough added flavours to make it enjoyable. My favourite method is to turn it into cabbage rolls by using Verka Paneer and a few more ingredients. It looks spectacular and is an absolute hit with the family!
Ingredients:
- 7-8 whole leaves of cabbage
- 3 tbsp Verka Butter
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 400 gm tomatoes, pureed
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 4 tbsp raisins
- 2½ tbsp brown sugar
- Salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste
- ½ cup cooked rice
- 1 cup spring onion greens, chopped
- 2 cups grated Verka Paneer
- 1 egg
- 4 cloves chopped garlic
Method
- Heat half the butter in a pan and saute the ½ cup of onions till they are softened and brown.
- Add half the garlic and cook for a minute. Then add the tomatoes, some salt and pepper.
- Pop in the brown sugar, raisins, chilli flakes and vinegar. Cook till you have a semi-thick sauce.
- Boil lots of water in a large vessel. Add a tbsp of salt and submerge the cabbage leaves in it. Blanch till tender (about 3 minutes), then drain.
- For the filling, fry the rest of the onions in the remaining butter.
- Add the remaining garlic, salt, pepper and chopped onion greens.
- Scatter the rice and crumbled Verka Paneer into the pan and cook the mixture till the flavours have melded and most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Lay out the cabbage leaves on a clean surface and place the filling on each of them at the stalk side.
- Spread it into an oblong shape across the width, and roll up each leaf tightly folding the sides in as you go along.
- Lay the rolled leaves side by side in a flat dish. Tuck in the seam-side.
- Generously spoon hot sauce over the rolls and serve with some buttered buns.
Note: Ready tomato puree can be used instead of processing fresh tomatoes. It will reduce your cooking time. Replace onion greens with chopped and blanched spinach for a variation. Even cooked and shredded chicken can be used as a stuffing along with capsicum or bell peppers. Raisins balance the chilli quotient and the acidity of tomatoes. You can omit them if you don’t want the sweet dimension.