The intriguing cabbage strudel of Transylvania

New free recipe. Plus, Channel 4 presenter Alice Roberts goes to Timișoara.

The moment I mention cabbage to my British friends, they think I mean the limp, slippery dish of school dinners cooked for hours to a beige consistency. Well, that’s not what I mean. This is about cabbage made with paprika, which gives it a lovely, reddish hue, or with caraway seeds for their uplifting, spicy flavour, or, in the summer, with dill, lots of dill and tomatoes, and lots of ground pepper. Also, when I hear someone mentioning cabbage, I feel I have to ask: fermented or not fermented? It’s because we cook with fermented (sauerkraut) cabbage a lot. If it’s not fermented, we call it ‘dulce’, meaning sweet in Romanian. Further down in this new story about strudels, I bring even more sweetness to this dish, in a totally unexpected and yet-to-be-tried way.

Savoury strudels: to use or not to use filo.

Last week, I started a little journey down the rabbit hole of strudels in Eastern Europe, using the complex and multi-ethnic region of Transylvania as an example. Here is the story.

This week, I added a new category of these rolled pastries: savoury strudels. These can be made with shortcrust or puff pastry rather than filo pastry, as the sturdy fillings require something other than delicate filo sheets.

However, it is at the cook’s whim what to use, and in my family, all strudels were made with filo, including this cabbage strudel that was, in fact, made with sauerkraut.

Other savoury strudels in Transylvania, especially in the Swabian communities, included minced meat (sometimes called goulash strudel because it was made with beef and paprika), or boiled potatoes, or curd cheese and ham.

Cabbage strudel is also prepared in Hungarian and Jewish communities in Transylvania, and sometimes, at least in the past, it had one intriguing addition: sugar. Yes. Sugar and raisins were added to sauerkraut or white cabbage filings. The custom originated in the Jewish preference in this part of Europe (including in Hungary) for sweet flavours in savoury dishes. With the discovery of beet sugar, now a generous sprinkle of sugar in your tomato soup was more affordable without altering the status that came with the gesture. Sugar used to be a measure of wealth. So, more sugar was added to the sauce for boiled beef, or in milk soup, in the noodles with cabbage and, of course, in the carrot stew called tzimmes (traditionally made with honey and dried fruit).

I have never tried it, although it’s not such a weird combination. Think of the dusting of icing sugar on the famous pastilla, the Marrocan filo pastry pigeon pie. So, why not on a cabbage strudel?

Cabbage strudel - recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

600g shredded Sweetheart or white cabbage

2-3 generous pinches of salt

Oil for cooking

1 brown onion, peeled and chopped

25g tomato paste

1tsp paprika

1 ready rolled puff pastry

Egg wash: 1egg yolk mixed with one tablespoon of cold water

Method:

Sprinkle salt over the shredded cabbage and let it sit for 20 minutes. This allows the salt to extract water from the cabbage, making a juice that you’ll use later for boiling. Heat a thin layer of oil in a medium-sized pan and sauté the onions until soft. Add the tomato paste and paprika and cook briefly on medium heat, then add the cabbage and, if needed, a splash of water. Cook until the cabbage starts to soften and there is not much liquid in the pan. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Spread the filling onto the already rolled pastry, and starting from the longer side, roll into a log—not too tightly. Brush with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

How to decorate: usually, all strudels made with shortcrust or puff pastry were decorated, whether with a lattice, braided strands or pastry cutouts. If you don’t have the time or inclination, you can just leave it plain or do what I did and use a small cookie cutter to make indentations straight onto the strudel after brushing it with egg wash.

I usually serve it cold as a snack, but it is also good warm, with steamed potatoes and a dollop of mustard.

‘Carpathia’ in paperback only in the U.S.

A new edition of ‘Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania’ was published this week in the U.S. It is a paperback, making it easier to take it with you everywhere you go, especially to the kitchen. It’s also more affordable than the hardcover, and I’m grateful that my U.S. publisher has decided to print this version. Hardcovers are still available, so everyone is happy. See it here.

My second book, ‘Tava, Eastern European Baking and Desserts’ continues the story in Carpathia, even though it is about desserts. It’s definitely a book to read first, then cook. You will learn so much about Transylvania and the rest of Romania as a multi-ethnic country that you will also want to visit. See it here.

Historian and TV presenter Alice Roberts goes to Timișoara in Banat, southwest Transylvania

There is a fascinating documentary on Channel 4 called ‘The Ottoman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts’ where she explores some of the regions and countries that were once under Ottoman rule. Link here. In episode 5, she arrives in Timisoara, the capital of Banat in southwest Transylvania, a region you are already familiar with if you have been reading my books and my posts. This was the only region in Transylvania to be under the direct rule of a sultan. I won’t tell you more, just watch the episode and enjoy this stunning city.