Thai Cabbage Rolls

Like Beef Burgundy, Bragiole, etc, there are several variations of a common recipe found throughout various culinary cultures.
In today's example we are looking at Cabbage Rolls. Here is a recipe for simple Southern Cabbage Rolls - http://southernfood.about.com/od/cabbagemaindishrecipes/r/bl30620u.htm
however, I did not have ground beef or lamb on-hand, and I wanted to use chicken.
thus if you google Thai Cabbage Rolls, Indian Cabbage Rolls, Hebrew Cabbage Rolls, there are many many variations of meats and/spices you can use to make essentially the same dish (although the flavor will be very different). For the Grape Leaf rolls, you have Greek, Moroccan, Mediterranean, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Lebanese. but I digress.
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In this line of thinking I came up with the following recipe (my own) last night for dinner:
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Abbie's Thai Cabbage Rolls
1 large head of organic cabbage
2 small cans (or 1 large can) chopped chicken breast (do not drain)
1 can light coconut milk
2 tbsp key lime juice (or lime juice)
2 tbsp olive oil (or cooking oil)
2 tbsp Massaman Curry paste (or curry powder can be used)
1 tbsp dehydrated onions - or 1 cup of fresh white onion
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp Minced Garlic
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 egg
Fresh Basil Leaves
Ginger
1 cup cooked Basamati Rice (or just rice)

Directions:
1) Prepare rice as normal, while it is finishing cooking...
2 In saucepan, heat olive oil, add 1 tbsp massaman curry paste, onion, garlic, ginger, carrot, and chicken. Then add half of the lime juice, half of the basil leaves. Cook over low heat and mash chicken gently with wooden spoon until fine and curry paste is mixed in and not lumpy. cover and turn off heat.
3) In large pot, bring 6-8 cups salted water to a boil. While waiting for it to boil, rinse off your cabbage, and peel the leaves off the head gently (try not to tear them).
Drop cabbage leaves 1 at a time into boiling salted water, cook for about 1 min, then remove from water gently with tongs, and immerse into ice water (I used a big plastic dish of ice water in the sink). Then place the cabbage leaf to dry on papertowels (I used a regular kitchen towel, folded, then covered that with a layer of paper towels). You want the cabbage to be "wilted" but not cooked fully.
4) When Rice is finished, sprinkle liberally with the cumin powder, mix. Then add rice to the chicken curry saucepan, and mix together. Add 1 beaten egg, mix together. This is your filling for the cabbage rolls.
5) Spoon chicken filling onto cabbage leaves (one at a time), roll the cabbage leaf "burrito-style" around the mixture, and place cabbage roll into glass baking pan. For the extra extra LARGE cabbage leaves, I used kitchen shears to snip them in half longways from the stem to the leaf) Continue rolling cabbage/filling until pan is full of cabbage rolls. One head of cabbage leaves should fill a 9x13 glass baking pan. It is okay if your rolls are of different sizes, as the leaves are different sizes, and people have varying sizes of appetite when you serve them. That's what I do anyway.
6) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7) In same saucepan as the chicken mixture (which by now should be empty), add coconut milk, lime juice, and 1 tbsp massaman curry paste. cook on low heat, mixing the paste into the milk. Add remainder of lime juice and basil leaves (tear them up in to small pieces).
8) Pour coconut "sauce" over the cabbage rolls. Cover your baking pan, and cook at 350 degrees for approximately 30-35 mins. Watch that the coconut milk bubbles, but does not come to a full boil.
Serves 6.

Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup

Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup
2 tbsp melted organic butter or olive oil

1/2 cup chopped organic onions
2 pressed organic garlic cloves (or 1 tbsp minced garlic)
1 tbsp curry powder (or curry paste)
1/3 tsp ground white pepper
1 can organic plain pumpkin
1 can light organic coconut milk (or 1 can evaporated milk)
3 cups organic broth or stock (can use veggie, chicken, or pork broth/stock)

Optional: 1 large sized can of organic diced/cubed/shredded chicken if you want meat in your soup.

In saucepan, melt butter/oil, sautee the onions and garlic.
Add spices, cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Add pumpkin, add milk, add broth, heat and stir for about 20 mins (or simmer for 25-30 mins).
Add more spice to taste if you wish a spicier soup.
Serves 6.

Hint: I like to use the Organic “Better than Bouillon” for the broth, the flavor is so much richer than other canned broths.

Once I tried it adding minced ginger and cabbage, but the flavor is very different, you’d have to see if you like it or not.