Chinese Cabbage with Minced Meat: An Oven-Baked Recipe

The Latvian newspaper Latvijas Avīze published a recipe on 15 November for a dish made from Chinese cabbage and minced meat. It is presented as an unusual option for home cooks and requires a baking dish and an oven.

Ingredients

The dish calls for 300 g of minced meat, two heads of Chinese cabbage, two apples, one or two carrots, one egg and 100 ml of plain yoghurt. Also needed are a teaspoon of ground ginger, a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper and a little grated lemon zest. The recipe also lists two tablespoons of butter and 100–200 ml of apple juice.

Preparation

Rinse the Chinese cabbage heads, cut them in half and remove the inner leaves, placing 3–4 of the outer leaves in a baking dish. Peel the apples, clean the carrots and grate both. Cut the remaining cabbage leaves into pieces.

Add the grated apples and carrots, chopped cabbage leaves, yoghurt, egg, ginger, salt, pepper and lemon zest to the minced meat, then mix thoroughly. Spread the mixture in the baking dish over the cabbage leaves and dot the top with knobs of butter.

Bake in an oven at 200 °C for 30–35 minutes. After about 15 minutes, pour in the apple juice and keep baking until the dish is done.

Tips

According to the recipe, the bitter-sour taste of Chinese cabbage pairs well with the minced meat filling. The dish can also be made with other cabbage varieties, in which case the yoghurt can be replaced with sour cream.