52 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2024
ANNIE’S STUFFED
CABBAGE
(RECIPE MAKES 30 ROLLS)
Ingredients:
2 large cabbages
Meat Mixture
1½ lbs. ground chuck
1 medium potato
1 small onion
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. ketchup
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt (1½ tsp. or to preference)
garlic powder (1½ tsp. or to preference)
Gravy
2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce
¾ can water (use one of the tomato sauce cans)
4½ Tbsp. lemon juice
2 large onions
½ cup black raisins
1½ cups brown sugar
paprika (1½ tsp. or to preference)
Directions:
Make the gravy: Slice two large onions
into half rings. Put all ingredients into
a pot or roasting pan large enough
to contain 30 stuffed cabbage rolls
squeezed next to each other. Mix all
gravy ingredients together.
Make the meat mixture: Place the
ground chuck in a large bowl. Grate
the potato in a food processor using a
grating attachment and add to the meat
in the bowl. Grate the onion in a food
processor or grate on the small holes of
a box grater. Add the onion, including its
juice, and the remaining meat mixture
ingredients to the bowl of meat and
potatoes, and mix until combined.
Put the cabbages in a large pot and
cover them with cold water. Bring the
water to a boil, and after a minute or
two (no longer as the outer leaves
could become mushy), pour out the
boiling water into a colander. Remove
the cabbages (they’ll be hot). Pull off
each leaf carefully so it doesn’t rip. Thin
out the spine of each leaf using a knife,
so the leaf is foldable. Divide the meat
mixture into 30 even handfuls.
Place a cabbage leaf on your work
surface. Place one handful of the meat
mixture at the bottom of the leaf. Fold in
the sides, and then roll the leaf. Place the
roll into the roasting pan or pot, seam-
side down, on top of the gravy. Repeat
for remaining leaves. Spoon some of the
gravy onto each roll.
Cover the pan/pot with a lid or
aluminum foil.
Bake at 350°F for 2 hours.
These days, Randa knows her way around the kitchen.
Randa and her husband, Richard, married for 53 years,
have lived in West Bloomfield for the past 39 and are
active members of Temple Israel, where Randa previously
served as sisterhood treasurer.
“Richard entertains me; he’s the one who plans the trips
and the events that we go to, and I just follow him like a
little puppy,” she jokes. “He’s in charge of all the season
tickets,” which they have to the Detroit Tigers, the Fisher
Theatre and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Their older daughter, Carolyn Blechman, also lives in
West Bloomfield with her husband, Andrew. Carolyn
and Andrew are parents to Gabriella “Gabby,” 7, and
William, 3. Randa and Richard’s younger daughter, Emily
Feldman, lives in New York City.
Passing down family tradition was a big factor in
Randa’s efforts. Her family history books include ones
filled with genealogy, but there’s also the Sukkot book,
which contains pictures and text showcasing year after
year of the Feldmans’ sukkah starting in 1989, when
Richard first built one. Every year since, Richard has
assembled the sukkah, and Randa’s cooked for the Sukkot
meals, and the book now displays memories of Randa,
Richard, Carolyn, Emily, friends and, more recently, the
grandchildren, celebrating in it.
Randa wasn’t alone in her interests. “Carolyn has
played an active role in the books,” she explains. “Emily
immediately made a recipe binder for herself,” containing
many of her mother’s recipes, after Randa organized hers.
Emily already prepares various dishes she grew up
with, including mandelbroit and blintz soufflé, and both
Carolyn and Emily, who mutually love their mother’s
kreplakh, hope to start making those in the future. When
Randa and her daughters prepare them now, “making
them is an all-day event.”
Beyond books and binders, Randa carries on tradition
every Friday evening when the family gathers around
the Feldman dining room table for Shabbat dinner, after
which Randa and Richard attend Shabbat services at
Temple Israel with granddaughter Gabby in tow. Gabby
started joining her grandparents each week during
the pandemic when the services were virtual, and she
continued once they returned to being in person. Her
Bubbie Randa proudly notes “she knows all of the songs.”
The theme of passing down tradition was even visible
in a storyteller doll collection in the Feldman living
room. Each clay figurine of an adult includes children
sitting or otherwise positioned around them, receiving
information. As Randa, ever the teacher, says, “They’re
making sure, just as we do, that all the kinderlakh know
their history.”
Watch Bubbie’s Kitchen at thejewishnews.com.
This episode is sponsored by JSL.
continued from page 51
ROSH HASHANAH
BUBBIE’S KITCHEN