today i bring you a dominican recipe. this recipe is called niños envueltos which translates to “wrapped children - male children specifically”. i know it sounds somewhat cannibalistic, that’s dominican humor for you. and speaking of humor, here is a funny story related to niños envueltos:

i remember once sitting in my house with my mom, my aunt and grandma. the grown ups were chatting and my brother and i were playing nearby. i think my brother was 3 years old when this happened but i’m not 100% sure. anyways… the grownups were chatting and suddenly someone said:  ”we should eat niños envueltos!” everyone agreed to this except my brother who started crying. in between sobs we could hear him saying “no! please don’t eat me! please don’t eat me!”. you see, he thought we were going to wrap him and eat him (goes to show you what image he had of us, jeez!). it took a lot of reassuring from the grownups to ensure him that no, we were not going to wrap and eat him. 

and now, after that story (for which i’m sure i will be getting a strongly worded email from him) here is the recipe for niños envueltos (sans little brothers)!!

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbs olive oil
4 roma tomatoes
1 stick of celery
2 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 tbs dry oregano
1 tsp adobo seasoning
sprinkle of sugar 
1/2 red onion
1 green bell pepper
1/2 lb ground beef
few shakes of tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbs tomato paste 
1 medium cabbage
2 cups of cooked white rice 
salt & pepper 

INSTRUCTIONS:
start by making the sauce. chop the tomatoes, celery, garlic and 3 tbs of cilantro. 

cook the garlic in 1 tbs of olive oil. 

add the tomatoes and celery. 

and the cilantro.

season with 1/2 tablespoon of dry oregano and 1/2 tablespoon of adobo. add the sugar and season with salt and pepper. 

add 2 cups of water and let it simmer on medium-low heat. 

next, let’s make the ground beef. 

chop the remaining cilantro, onion and bell pepper. 

cook the onions in the remaining olive oil until they become translucent. 

add the green pepper. 

and the cilantro. 

mix well and add the beef. break it down as much as possible.

season with the remaining oregano and adobo. 

season with salt and pepper. add the worcestershire sauce and tabasco. 

add the tomato paste and a cup of water. 

mix well to dissolve the tomato paste and simmer on medium heat for at least 20 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink. 

work on the cabbage while the sauce and beef are cooking.

remove the first layer and throw it out. peel off the cabbage leaves carefully. you want to have as many full leaves as possible. 

do this until you have most, if not all, of the leaves separated. 

next, cut the stem out of the leaves. the stem can be bitter and also it is quite stiff which will make difficult to wrap. 

heat up 4 cups of water on a large pot. the water should be hot but not boiling. place your leaves in the hot water for a minute to allow them to wilt a bit. 

do this with all of the cabbage.

next, get your station ready to stuff. 

taking a cabbage leaf in your hand add a layer of rice, a layer of beef and cover with rice again. 

wrap them as well as you can, using more than one leaf if necessary. 

secure your wraps with toothpicks and repeat until you run out of cabbage.

pour the tomato sauce over the cabbage rolls and cover with aluminum foil. 

cook at 300ºF for 20 minutes and serve. 

the cabbage will be still have a nice crunchy-ness to it which will add a different texture to the rolls. 

they can be quite messy but delicious. it is ok if they open up in the baking process, just scoop that into your plate :)

this is a wonderful dish and i am glad i got a chance to make it. maybe next time i will invite my brother over and see what he says. 

thank you for stopping by the blog, have a fantastic weekend!

hasta luego!