Cabbage Rolls in Creamy Bacon Sauce

So the title of this one sounds pretty good (if you're not afraid of cabbage.) However, I will warn you that the picture for this one looks really un-appetizing. Well, it looks just plain gross. BUT don't be afraid! It's mostly my own fault that it doesn't look as beautiful as the one in the book. I'll explain later. So don't be scared away because of my bad picture (and not so great camera. The fuzziness of the picture really isn't helping this one any.) For the record, these did taste good. They weren't spectacular or anything, but a nice recipe for using up my cabbage (which I just hate to waste, but have a hard time using.)

Ingredients

1 large head cabbage, core removed* Read note below
1 lb beef (extra-lean) (I only had turkey, but it worked great)
1/3 cup uncooked instant white rice
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup beef broth
½ tsp caraway seed
½ cup milk
½ cup sour cream
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ cup cooked bacon pieces (I just used bacon bits, but fresher, larger chunks of bacon would've been really nice.)

Fill 5-6 quart Dutch oven half full of water. Heat to boiling. Place whole cabbage in water, core side down. Cover; cook 2 to 3 minutes, turning over once, or until leaves can be removed from head. With slotted spoon remove cabbage from water. With tongs, carefully remove 6 leaves from head. Save remaining head of cabbage for later use. Shave or trim part of the thick rib from each lead. Return leaves to water; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until wilted. In medium bowl, mix ground beef, uncooked rice, 1/3 cup milk, the egg, Worcestershire sauce, ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Spoon about 1/3 cup of the ground beef mixture on thick end of each cabbage leaf. Roll up, tucking sides in. Place filled cabbage leaves in 12-inch skillet, seam side down. Add broth and caraway seed. Cover; heat to boiling. Reduce heat; simmer 25-30 minutes or until thermometer inserted in center of ground beef mixture reads 160. With slotted spoon, place cabbage rolls on serving platter; cover to keep warm. In small bowl, mix milk, sour cream, flour, remaining ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper with wire whisk. Pour into skillet. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Serve sauce over cabbage rolls; sprinkle with bacon.

*My biggest issue with this recipe was my cabbage. I didn't have a new head, but an older one that only had the smaller, whiter leaves from the center. So that made the rolls pretty transparent, making them look pretty weird. The leaves were also much smaller, so I had to use multiple leaves to wrap up each one. This meant that I only had enough leaves for 3 instead of 6 like the recipe calls for. So that's mainly the reason for my weird looking rolls. Had I had the larger green leaves from the outer cabbage, the rolls would have looked much friendlier.

The biggest issue with the actual taste was the caraway seeds. It might've been because I still cooked them in enough broth and caraway seeds for 6 but only have 3. So the caraway seeds were quite strong, especially if you bite into one. Kinda minty. Aaron's happened to have a lot of caraway seeds from the broth, so he didn't love the minty flavor.