Roll Cabbages

←　The plain steamed version of the cabbage rolls.

I finally made the roll cabbage recipe I've been meaning to try cooking for 5 years now. Is it edible? Yes. Is it delicious? ..Yes. Am I satisfied? No.

I had a bunch of blunders which made the food less than satisfactory, though thankfully not enough to ruin it. The list of improvements I'm planning to do next time are:

1. Pay more attention to the cabbages while preparing them to be soft enough for rolling. I think I slightly overcooked them.
2. I think I can use slightly less ground meat and it'll still taste great (hooray for a healthier recipe!)
3. Use only a pinch of salt in the mix. I overdid it this time. I didn't mind lots of black pepper powder, though.
4. The leftover cabbage from the hard stalks chopped up and mixed make a good and healthy filling.
5. Cook the butter on low heat! (of course, the dang electric stove is partly to blame for this) I also don't need much butter. The 15 grams called for was more than enough.
6. Immediately turn off the heat when fine bubbles form on the butter-and-flour mix.
7. Use only half the Knorr broth cube. That and the salted butter + too much salt in my meat mix was the downfall of my recipe. Too salty for my taste, though thankfully still edible.
8. Use the biggest cabbage leaves from the biggest cabbage I can find. They're easier to roll and look better.

I seriously think I have some issues with either too much sodium or MSG. Maybe it's the sodium, or both. I get the same slight headache when I eat instant noodles, even though it's my favorite Lucky Me. So, it's best to cut down, I guess.

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I steamed the leftover rolls for dinner tonight. So now I can directly compare them with the buttered versions.

1. The taste is just right, maybe just a little too salty for my taste which means that I definitely overdid it with the salt. Now that I think of it, the bacon was probably already salty too.
2. No significant loss in taste, just less "savory" and strong.

I think I'll stick to steaming next time. Less calories and no MSG. I'm thinking of incorporating some butter into the meat mix, though. And no Knorr.