Rick Nichols looks to Balkan Express’ sarma, the Romanian stuffed cabbage dish to take the edge off the recent cold weather.

One characteristic sets this version apart from most stuffed cabbage: It is the leaves of the “barrel cabbage” that are used to wrap the dove-sized sarma.

This is where the true flavor resides, not in the filling, but in the wrapping – the leaves juicy and bright, salty and mildly soured from natural fermentation; lovely sauerkraut in full.

His cabbage has the right stuff [Philadelphia Inquirer]