It is difficult to remove cabbage leaves without tearing. And the one thing I always hated when making cabbage rolls was boiling the cabbage and separating a couple of hot leaves from the head and then putting the cabbage back into the boiling water so a few more leaves can be taken off. My hands are accustomed to handling heat, still this is no fun. Then there is the waste. You repeat the process several times and by then the small leaves that remain will be cooked and useless for anything else. I tend to make a large amount of Hungarian cabbage rolls and depending on the cabbage I may need two heads, but I never seem to use it all up. Now that’s a lot of leftover partially cooked cabbage! Oh I intend to use it up, but then I never do, and why would I? I just made cabbage rolls! So the unused cabbage gets chucked.
Or what happens when you only need a half a dozen cabbage leaves? Throw the rest of it away? I never thought I will say this, but lately cabbage has been expensive!
Have no fear; you don’t have to boil the cabbage to remove the leaves. Takes a bit of patience but the leaves will separate from the cabbage like magic. All you have to do is place the remaining cabbage on a kitchen towel to dry, wrap it and put it back in the fridge as fresh as before.
Removing Cabbage Leaves
• Cut and scoop out the hard center core of the cabbage with a small sharp knife.
• Run slow tap water into the gap between the leaves. The water accumulates in the gaps and the leaves peel off naturally because of the weight of the water in the gaps. It’s physics dear Watson!
