Arambasici : Cuisine of Dalmatia
Arambaši?i, kraut rolls, speciality from Sinj, Dalmatia, Croatia
Ingredients
600 g beef
150 g smoked ham
50-60 g suet from ox kidneys
200 g pork
Beefbone
smoked pork
mutton
raw ham or smoked tongue
broth of water
2 large onions
some garlic
cloves
grated lemon rind
salt and pepper
some ground cinnamon
2-3 crushed cloves
1 grund nutmeg
1 head of sauer-kraut (or fresh white of grape leaves)
Preparation
Image:Arambas.jpg
Apart from other ingredients, fresh sauerkraut is the most important for good and tasty Arambasici. Finley chop 600 g of choice, savoury beff (best from the neck), 150 g home-made bacon, 50-60 g of suet from kidneys and 200 g of fresh pork. Chopping the meat is better than running through a grinder, and in this way it retains more of its flavour.
Next add the chopped onions, garlic cloves, grated lemon rind, salt and pepper, a little cinnamon, crushed cloves and ground nutmeg, and knead eith hands mixing all the ingredients well. Separate the leaves from the sauerkraut head, putting aside the better ones for stuffing. Cut away part of the leaf stalk at the base. Add a spoonful of the meat mixture to each kraut leaf.
Roll the Arambašici from the base of each leaf, and fold the ends together well so that they do not fall apart during cooking. Put 1 spoonfull of grease in a deep stoneware casserole and add the rest of the kraut leaves, a beef bone, and perhaps strew a little smoked mutton of smoked pork over the kraut rolls.
Pack and layer the Arambašici rolls tightley next to one another in the casse-role, layering smoked meat, or even better, homemade smoked ham (pršut) or smoked tongue between the layers of kraut rolls. Next pour the broth of water over the Arambašici, over tightly and cook three to four hours over low heat. Shake casse-role form several timess, never using a spoon to stir! It is best to pre-cook the Arambašici in the evening, and on the following day cook until done.
Arambašici is also delicous in the summer. Should you not be able to find any sauer-kraut in the summer, one can also use fresh cabbage or grape leaves. Sort out the leaves and blanch them with boiling water to soften them. Fill with the Arambašici mixture and cook in the same manner as with the sauer-kraut leaves.
Mo