Cabbage Rolls in Sour Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• 
  For rolls:
  1.5lb of ground beef
• 2 onions
• 1/2 cup of rice
• 1 big cabbage (5-6lbs)
• Ground black pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• 1-2 table spoons of oil
• 
  For sour cream sauce:
  14 oz sour cream
• 2 onions
• 1 cup of water
• Dill
• Salt to taste
• 1-2 table spoons of oil

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients: select cabbage with big wide leaves, you will not use all of it but big leaves are easier to roll:

   

2. Boil rice till it is half ready (still hard) in a pot of salted water, drain the water, let rice to cool down till room temperature (read here how to do it):

   

3. Peel and chop 2 onions, warm up a skillet with 1-2 table spoons of oil and fry onions until soft and brownish in color, then set aside to cool down till room temperature:

   

4. Now it is time to prepare cabbage leaves: take cooking pot big enough to fit whole cabbage, add a bit of water (1/5 of the pot), put on burner and bring to boil; then remove top layer of leaves from cabbage, slice stem off and put cabbage into pot stem part to the bottom and let it it boil for 5-10 mins:

   

5. While cabbage is getting ready, prepare stuffing:
   

   

   

   

   
   
   
6. Now it is time to assemble cabbage rolls: carefully get cabbage from the boiling water (turn it stem part top, get hold of cabbage stem with fork and get it out from the water):
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   

   

   

   

   
   
   
7. Now just repeat this procedure for all the stuffing you have (try to make all cabbage rolls of equal size); if leaves become hard to roll bring cabbage back to the boiling water that will make “undressing” procedure easier and leaves more flexible; arrange prepared cabbage rolls in the cast iron cooking pot:

   

8. Now it is time to cook sour cream and onions sauce: warm up skillet with a bit of oil over moderate heat; peel remaining 2 onions, slice in half-circles and fry them over until yellowed in color, stir from time to time:

   

9. Add all sour cream and bring to slow boiling:

   

10. Add chopped dill:

    

11. Salt to taste, stir in a cup of water, bring to boil and cook for 5 mins:

    

12. Then pour sauce over prepared cabbage rolls, cover cooking pot with a lid and put to oven warmed up till 350F for about 1.5h (or until cabbage is soft):

    

13. Serve cabbage rolls hot, pour sour cream sauce over: