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 Ellie Beth and Dubravka in the kitchen
After looking up the Croatian words for mold, wall and found; we called our landlords, Dubravka and Stjepan, who came over right away. They called the builder who came over the next day. He could not find any leaks so Stjepan cleaned up the mold and repainted. We learned that we must air out the house morning and evening- basically we turn off the heat and open all the windows for five to ten minutes to let the apartment breathe. We have been keeping a much closer eye on our walls lately!
You might be wondering how this relates to making sarma. Well, when Dubravka and Stjepan came over to clean up the mold, Dubravka brought over a recipe for sarma, in Croatian. She started to translate it word by word from her dictionary. Stjepan suggested she just come over and make it for us. So, a few days later she came over with all the ingredients, and showed us how to make sarma (stuffed cabbage) – the Croatian way, and I wrote down the recipe. It was delicious!
 Here is the sarma recipe, translated to the best of my ability into English with English measurements.
1 lb. sauerkraut
¼ lb smoked meat, diced, optional
¼ lb bacon, chopped
Small onion, finely chopped
1/2 lb ground pork
1 lb ground beef
One egg
Parsley, to taste
1 or 2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp black or white pepper
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sweet paprika
1 cup uncooked rice
1 cup tomato juice
Head of sour cabbage: to sour cabbage, core a fresh head of cabbage and place in boiling water for 10-15 minutes, or until leaves soften. Add one to two tablespoons of vinegar to boiling water. In Croatia, you can get these at the market. They place the cabbage heads in big vats of vinegar for a month.
Mashed potatoes
Put 1 lb sauerkraut, little bit of oil and diced smoked meat in the bottom of a large pot.
Sauté ¼ lb bacon and chopped onion.
Mix together ground pork, ground beef, one egg, bit of parsley, minced garlic, pepper, salt, sweet paprika, and uncooked rice. Form into oblong balls, using about ½ cup mixture at a time. Wrap the soaked cabbage leaf around each ball. Place cabbage rolls on top of sauerkraut and smoked ham in pot, seamed side down. Pour tomato juice over rolls, then add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 1 hour, adding more water if necessary. Dubravka then had us refrigerate it overnight. We reheated it the next day and served it over mashed potatoes. I think you can also simmer if for three hours or bake it in the oven, then eat that day.
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