Hotel Transylvania 2: Honey-Sriracha Sarmale with Avocado

So I’ve recently joined a group of bloggers known as Food n’ Flix Club. The concept is pretty fun – each month a member chooses a movie for everyone to create inspired recipes off of and then hosts a round-up of all the members’ creations. The blog Coffee and Casseroles is hosting this month’s round-up featuring the film Hotel Transylvania 2.

In it Count Dracula’s daughter and human son in law have the cutest little red-head baby named Dennis. As a new vamp-pa, Drac struggles with his daughter’s cautious parenting, wanting to bring up his grandson in the old way. Mavis, his daughter, has other ideas — bringing up the child on cheesy human kids’ shows and feeding him avocado because it’s a “good fat”.

The question as the little boy’s fifth birthday quickly approaches, is will his fangs come in as a vampire, or is he bound to be a boring human for the rest of his days? So what better way for our favorite Bela Lugosi impersonator to find out than some good ol’ family meddling?

The film often brings up the dichotomy of tradition and novelty, as well as adapting to the new while still respecting and honoring one’s roots. The old ways are not always the best ways, as we can see with Dracula’s almost deadly attempt to teach Dennis how to fly. Yet there can really be said for the family that uses them to protect each other in a new way when great-vamp-pa Vlad and his murderous cronies enter the picture. It’s the ultimate culture clash as the monsters and humans learn to live and celebrate one another.

This is where I will mention that between the bagels with scream cheese, worm pancakes, and monster ball soup, neither Hotel Transylvania nor its sequel feature any dish or derivation of a dish from Transylvania. Being half-Transylvanian like little Dennis, myself, I wanted to change that.

Half Transylvanian, you say? That’s right folks, both sets of my father’s grandparents came to America from two villages in a mist covered valley near Făgăraș, Romania — smack dab among the Transylvanian Alps. Below is a copy of my grandmother’s recipe for Sarmale — cabbage leaves stuffed with ground pork and beef, then stewed in sauerkraut and ham hocks. She would make this for our family/village reunion every summer and the entire kitchen would smell of bacon and cabbage for hours. There’s a reason why we joke that she ate the last dinosaur…

Holy pork products, Batman!

Now I will admit I didn’t like this recipe much growing up. Stewed cabbage was a bit strong and sour for me at the time. Later on, though, I discovered that cruciferous vegetables such as brussels sprouts and cabbage taste downright amazing when roasted in the oven and allowed to caramelize.

With this in mind, I decided to oven roast the cooked sarmale with a glaze made from honey, red wine vinegar, and sriracha for a crispy, spicy twist on the traditional. Since it would take you about two hours of simmering on the stovetop or in the oven, I added another modern element by using an electric pressure cooker. It reduces stewing time to about 40 minutes. You’ll still want to start making these earlier in the day because softening the cabbage leaves and rolling them takes a bit of time. The flavor even intensifies if you roll them and then cook them the following day.

Normally this recipe uses a plethora of onions and garlic, like most Romanian/Transylvanian cooking is wont to do. I’m pretty sure the vampire garlic sensitivity in folklore stems from that garlic is everywhere in Eastern European cuisine. Not liking it would be the American cultural equivalent of not liking pizza or ice cream. Don’t like garlic? You can’t possibly be human! That said, though, I was mindful of the family allergies and opted to use celery, ginger, and caraway seeds instead for my aromatics.

Top this off with some diced avocado and serve up with with a healthy portion of mamaliga, and you’ve got a meal that marries the old world with the new. Come back to this page on August 30th and I’ll post the link to the Hotel Transylvania 2 recipe link up!