Little Doves

By Cait Johnson, author of Witch in the Kitchen (Inner Traditions, 2001)
This traditional Russian recipe got its name because the people thought these tender little bundles filled with savory rice, raisins, and hard-cooked egg and simmered in tomato sauce look like doves. My Polish friend Ania makes a variation of these for special occasions. I always thought they must be really complicated, but as I was eating my third or fourth one and saying, “I’d love to make these at home, but they look really hard to do,” she just laughed and said, “Oh, no! It’s really easy. Try it and you’ll see!” She was so right: Little Doves just look fancy, but they’re really a cinch to make (and fun, too!) and they are great crowd-pleasers. Not only are they a beautiful use for leftover rice, they include four ingredients rich in flavonoids: onions, garlic, cabbage, and dill. My son doesn’t like cabbage but he loves these Little Doves. We all do.
Cabbage Leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked rice, white or brown
1/4 cup raisins
2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 teaspoons dried dill weeds
alt and freshly-ground pepper, to taste
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce1 8-ounce can diced tomatoes, not drained
1/2 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350F. In a heavy-bottomed skillet, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until softened and fragrant. Remove pan from heat and add rice, raisins, hard-cooked egga, dill, and salt and pepper to taste. In a large pot of boiling salted water, submerge the cabbage and allow to boil for 5 minutes, or until the outer leaves are softened and may be removed. Peel off 12 outer leaves and blot dry. Chop enough of the remaining cabbage to measure 3/4 cup. Add to rice mixture in pan. Remove tough stem of each cabbage leaf, if necessary. Then place 1/4 cup rice mixture in the center of each leaf, tuck ends in, and roll to form a neat little package. (You will find that cabbage leaves are very forgiving and easy to work with, but you can use a toothpick to hold them together, if needed.) In a baking dish, place the cabbage rolls in a single layer. Combine tomato sauce and tomatoes and pour over the cabbage rolls, cover the pan with foil, and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, until bubbly. Place Little Doves on a serving platter, and remove toothpicks. Add sour cream to the tomato sauce in the pan, stirring to combine, and pour this sauce over cabbage rolls before serving.