Corned Beef Cabbage Rolls

Prepare The Cabbage

1. Place 1 inch of water in a large pot. Using a sharp paring knife, carefully cut the thick stem out of the bottom of the cabbage head leaving all of the leaves intact. Place the cabbage head into the pot of water. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil. Steam the cabbage for 15 minutes. Once the cabbage has steamed, remove it from the pot and place it on a plate to cool.
2. While the cabbage is steaming, preheat the oven to 400F and make the filling.
3. In a large bowl, mix together cooked corned beef, mashed potatoes, mustard, parsley, and pepper. Taste the mixture and add the salt only if necessary. (Some corned beef is quite salty and you will not need the extra salt. Also, if you are using the corned beef cooking liquid, you probably will not need to add any extra salt to this filling.) Add egg to the corned beef mixture, mix well and set aside.
4. Once the cabbage is cool enough to handle, gently remove 15 of the outer leaves from the head. Set them aside. Chop 1 cup of the remaining head of cabbage and add it to the corned beef filling mixture. Mix well.

Shaping the Rolls

1. Lay one of the leaves you removed from the steamed cabbage head on a cutting board, with the stem facing towards you. Cut out the tough bottom section of the vein in the leaf, creating a V-notch. Place roughly ¼ c of the corned beef filling at the center of the leaf (around the tip of the notch you just made). Roll the bottom (cut side) of the leaf up over the filling. Fold the two sides in. Continue rolling away from you to wrap the filling tightly in the remaining leaf. Place roll in a greased 8x8 baking dish. Continue with remaining filling and leaves, creating two rows of 5 rolls in your baking dish. (You will have removed extra leaves from the cabbage head, just in case some tear or don’t work well for rolling. It is possible you will have a little extra filling left over as well.)
2. Whisk the flour into the ½ cup of beef broth or reserved corned beef cooking liquid, until no clumps remain. Pour the broth over rolls in baking dish.
3. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated (400F) oven for 30 minutes.
4. Remove the dish from the oven and top the rolls with shredded Swiss cheese. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Serve with big slices of rye bread.