Go Back
+ servings
napa cabbage rolls with pork and shrimp served in ginger broth.
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Napa Cabbage Rolls (in Ginger Broth)

Asian napa cabbage rolls filled with ground pork, shrimps and mushrooms. in an aromatic chicken ginger broth.
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time3 hours
Total Time3 hours 45 minutes
Course: Soup
Cuisine: Asian
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 198kcal
Author: Adina

Ingredients

Chicken ginger broth:

  • 1 chicken carcass See note 1
  • 1 chicken quarter
  • 2 onions
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 1 large piece ginger about the size of a forefinger
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 liter/ 8 cups water
  • fine sea salt

For the Chinese cabbage rolls:

  • 1 Chinese cabbage See note 2
  • 4 small brown mushrooms See note 3
  • 4 spring onions
  • 1 Thai chili
  • 100 g/ 3.5 oz minced pork
  • 100 g/ 3.5 oz raw shrimps
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 thumb-size piece of ginger

Instructions

Chicken stock:

  • Place the chicken carcass and the whole chicken leg to a pot. Add the quartered onions, crushed garlic cloves, chopped ginger, fish sauce, soy sauce, and peppercorns to the pot. Add the water, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes.
  • Skim off the foam, cover leaving a small crack open, turn the heat down to low and simmer the stock for 2 hours. Remove the lid and simmer for another 30 minutes to reduce the stock. Skim off any froth or fat from the surface of the stock.
  • Strain the stock. Use the chicken meat for other dishes.

Chinese cabbage rolls:

  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add some salt and blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 minutes or until pliable. Remove with a slotted spoon, refresh under cold water and drain well.
  • Chop the mushrooms, the whites of the green onions, and the Thai chili very finely. Place them in a bowl together with the minced pork. If necessary shell and devein the shrimps. Chop them very finely as well and add them to the bowl. Add the fish and the soy sauce. Mix well.
  • The recipe makes about 10 cabbage rolls. To make the rolls, place one cabbage leaf on the working surface. If the leaf is torn use two cabbage leaves to form the roll. Place a tenth of the filling about 1 cm/ ½ inch from the bottom of the leaf. Fold the bottom edge over the filling, fold in the left and right side, and roll the leaf.
  • Pour about 1 liter/ 4 cups of the broth into a deeper pan. Chop the ginger roughly and add it to the pot as well. Bring the stock to a boil, turn the heat down to low, and carefully place the cabbage rolls into the pot. Add the extra mushrooms, if desired.
  • Let simmer for about 20 minutes or until the filling is cooked through. Sprinkle with the chopped spring onion greens, chopped parsley or coriander and serve immediately.

Notes

  1. You can use a whole chicken carcass to make the stock or the bones from several roasted chicken legs + one fresh chicken leg. I save all the bones when roasting a whole chicken or only chicken legs and freeze them for exactly this purpose of making stock. However, if you do not have any roasted chicken bones, make the broth with 3 or 4 whole chicken legs or a small chicken.
  2. I was able to make 10 rolls with this filling, however, I needed almost double as many prepared leaves because many of them tore while I was blanching them.
  3. I only needed 4 small mushrooms for the filling. I added the rest of the mushrooms to the stock together with the cabbage rolls.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 95mg | Sodium: 2920mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 4g