Signature · about 6 hours spread over 3 days (2½–3½ h braise two days ahead), plus 8–12 hours of salting · Serves 4
Veal, celery root and Malbec stuffed cabbage roll
The niño envuelto (stuffed cabbage roll) of Argentine and Central European family cooking: a cabbage leaf enclosing cooked meat with rice, finished in its juice. It is the most Argentine interpretation of the stuffed-rolls menu: chuck slowly braised in Malbec and stock until juicy fibers, mixed with rice and charred onion, and wrapped in Savoy cabbage.
The twist is to balance a recipe that tended toward the dark, sweet and toasty. The pickled red onion adds a point of acidity in every bite and some puffed rice kernels add a minimal crunch. The celery root cream gives earthiness and creaminess, with the smoke incorporated before processing so it is clean and secondary. The Malbec jus, reduced separately and mounted with butter at the end, lacquers the roll.
Special equipment: oven-safe Dutch oven; blender; steamer or steam oven; probe thermometer; handheld smoker optional
Ingredients
Braised veal
- 900 g chuck, roast beef cut or shoulder
- 10 g fine salt
- Black pepper
- 20 ml neutral oil
- 140 g onion, in small cubes
- 100 g carrot, in small cubes
- 70 g celery, in small cubes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 20 g tomato paste
- 360 ml Malbec
- 560 ml dark beef stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 thyme sprigs
Charred onion
- 150 g onion
- 16 g butter
Filling
- 380 g shredded braised veal
- 45 g dry Carnaroli rice (100 g cooked)
- 80 g finished charred onion
- 10 g chopped parsley
- 30 g reduced braising jus
- Black pepper and salt, only if needed
Wrapping
- 10–12 large Savoy cabbage leaves
- Salt for the blanching water: 10 g per liter
Smoked celery root cream
- 380 g celery root
- 100 ml milk
- 90 ml heavy cream
- 45 g butter
- Salt
Malbec jus
- 300–350 ml of the skimmed braising liquid
- 160 ml Malbec
- 15 g cold butter
Pickled red onion
- 1 small red onion, about 80 g
- 50 ml red wine vinegar
- 50 ml water
- 10 g sugar
- 2 g salt
Finishing
- 15 g plain puffed rice
- Small sprouts, optional
Method
Braised veal
- Pre-salting. The night before, salt the meat and refrigerate it covered 8–12 hours. Take it out about 30 minutes before browning and dry it completely with paper towels.
- Browning and mirepoix. Heat a Dutch oven very hot, add the oil and brown the meat thoroughly on all sides; remove it. Lower the heat a bit and cook the onion, carrot and celery 8–10 minutes, scraping the caramelized fond. Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook 2 minutes, until the tomato loses its raw aroma and begins to darken.
- Braising. Add the Malbec and reduce by half. Return the meat to the pot with the stock, thyme and bay leaves: the liquid should come halfway or two thirds up the meat. Bring barely to a boil, cover and transfer to the oven at 140 °C (285 °F) for about 2½–3½ hours, depending on the thickness of the piece. It is ready when a spoon separates the fibers without effort and they still hold moisture. Remove the meat, strain the liquid without pressing the vegetables too hard and skim it. Chill meat and liquid separately.
Charred onion
- Charring. Cut the onion in half, crosswise, and set the cut side in a dry pan over medium-high heat, without moving it, until it takes a very deep brown, without reaching black and bitter. Add the butter, lower to medium-low heat and cook 10–12 minutes. Chop: about 80 g finished are needed.
Filling
- Rice. Cook the Carnaroli to about 100 g cooked, done but barely firm. Cool it spread on a tray.
- Mixing. Shred the meat and mix it with the rice, charred onion, parsley and reduced jus, with a spatula and without crushing, until the jus spreads and the natural gelatin of the stock gives cohesion. Taste a hot spoonful before correcting the salt. Divide into 8 portions of 75 g and form cylinders.
Wrapping
- Blanching. Separate the leaves and carefully shave down the central rib, without piercing it. Blanch them 45–60 seconds in plenty of boiling salted water, move them right away to ice water and dry them between cloths or paper towels: a wet leaf keeps the roll from being compact. Choose the 8 best.
- Forming. Lay out each leaf, put a cylinder of filling near the base, fold in the sides first and roll forward, with enough pressure to shape it but without tearing the leaf. Leave the rolls seam side down and refrigerate until serving.
Smoked celery root cream
- Cooking. Cut the celery root into 2 cm cubes. If using a smoker, smoke the raw cubes about 4 minutes, or the cream 3–4 minutes: the smoke should be perceptible, but in the background. Cook the celery root with the milk, cream and a pinch of salt, covered, over low heat, 20–25 minutes, until completely tender.
- Processing. Drain partly, reserving the liquid, and process right away at high speed, adding the butter little by little. Adjust the consistency with the liquid and pass through a fine sieve. It should be glossy and fluid, but able to hold a teardrop on the plate.
Malbec jus
- Reductions. Reduce the Malbec separately to about 30–40 ml, and the braising liquid to about 110–120 ml: about 140 ml of jus are needed. Combine the two reductions. Do not mount with butter until serving.
Pickled red onion
- Pickling. Separate small petals of onion. Heat the water with the vinegar, sugar and salt until dissolved, and pour hot over the onion. Cool and let rest at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, in the refrigerator.
Finishing
- Reheating. Heat the rolls with steam at 90 °C (194 °F) —in a steam oven or a covered steamer— until they reach 74 °C (165 °F) at the center, checking with the probe from 12 minutes: for 75 g rolls it usually takes 15–20 minutes (estimate to confirm at the first test). Lightly dry the surface, brush with jus and place them under the oven's hot broiler 30–45 seconds.
- Jus. Heat the jus and mount it off the boil with the cold butter.
The dish
Use warmed flat plates. Spread about 60–70 g of celery root cream slightly off center and set the 2 lacquered rolls on top, side by side and slightly on the diagonal. Arrange 30–35 ml of jus around, without covering the leaves, and add 4 to 6 small petals of pickled onion and a few puffed rice kernels; if using, a few sprouts. The dish has fat, sweetness and toastiness, but every bite should find a point of acidity. Final look: two dark green rolls glossy with lacquer, on an ivory cream, the garnet jus around and the fuchsia of the onion as contrast.
Key points
- Char the onion to a very deep brown, without reaching black: over-charred, it makes the whole filling bitter.
- Leave the rice cooked but barely firm, so the filling does not turn to paste.
- Dry the blanched leaves very well: if they stay wet, the roll is not compact.
- Reheat to 74 °C (165 °F) at the center, checking with the probe and not only by time.
- Mount the jus with butter only at serving and without boiling.
Pairing
A high-altitude Malbec, with fresh fruit and moderate oak.
Notes
- Servings: the original was a tasting course of 50 g of filling per person. This version is a main course: it doubles the original batch for 6 and serves 2 rolls of 75 g per person. The reheating time for rolls of this size is an estimate: the probe rules.
- Full menu: together with the osso buco roll, the pork collar one and the lamb dolma it makes up the menu of the collection. The recommended order is lamb, pork collar, veal and osso buco, from the most acidic and fresh to the deepest.
- It is wise to blanch two or three extra leaves in case one tears.