Stuffed Cabbage and Thumb Cookies

What would sukot be without stuffed cabbage?

I'm sure the stuffed cabbage haters of the world could come up with some snarky replies to that rhetorical question, but for the rest of us, the dish is an irreplaceable part of the suka experience.  Since nostalgia is the secret ingredient in stuffed cabbage, I took the recipe from my Ema, with no changes other than using purple cabbage for some of them (because how often do you get to cook purple?).

While I had Ema's recipe box open, I asked for the recipe for thumb cookies, too.  These are small, crumbly walnut coated cookies filled with jam that can usually be found at the Levinson estate around the chagim.  The name comes from the indentation you make with your thumb.  Once you eat one, it's impossible not to eat a second, but eating more than five in one sitting is just bad manners.

Fortunately for you readers, although I usually cannot be bothered to write out recipes in full, Ema saved me the work by doing so herself:

Stuffed Cabbage:

For each 1 pund of chopped beef:

1/4 cup uncooked rice

1 egg

 1 onion, grated

1 carrot grated

1/4 cup vinegar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup tomato sauce

water to cover

Directions:

Combine chopped meat, rice and egg. Grate in onion and carrot. Blanch 10-12 cabbage leaves (I just do the whole cabbage in boiling water for about 20 minutes, then I use as many leaves as I can, sometimes even patching together pieces of leaves to cover the meatballs - I make them about 3" Iong, I think). 

Place them close together in a heavy frying pan, add the sauce and enough water to just cover. Cover tightly and cook over moderate heat for 30 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Bake in the oven 20 minutes at 350 to brown on top, turning once to brown under sides (I never bother to turn them). Hot water may be added in small quantities if necessary during the baking period (I never did that).   

Thumb Cookies*:

1/2 cup margarine

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup chopped nuts (any kind you like)

1 cup flour (sifted)

pinch of salt

strawberry preserves

Directions:

1) cream margarine and sugar.

2) add beaten yolk of egg

3) add salt and flour
4) Roll dough into balls 1"

5) dip in slightly beaten egg white

6) roll in nuts

7) make depression in center with finger

8) place on greased cookie sheet, and bake at 350 for 8 min.,

9) remove sheet from oven and angain, press with finger (it has puffed up) , then bake for 10 min or until done

10) Place preserves on center of each cookie while still warm

*I double the recipe.  Also, instead of steps 8-10, I filled the raw cookie with jam, and just baked for about 20 minutes