An Irish lad wondered if I was “fucking Protestant” when I served him Colcannon with cabbage.
I’m an atheist, as it turns out and his meaning was lost on me.
A Jamaican dude once thought I was insane eating rice and peas on a weekday. I just can’t win.
That’s what I was told was authentic, or shallots.
People are touchy about the way they think their foods should be cooked.
Shallots? Are you thinking of champ, which uses scallions? I thought colcannon always had a leafy green with it. But I’d be curious if anyone knows more.
Hardcore Irish dude told me kale and shallots. Maybe his mammy was slow.
Here’s what I eventually did:
I sauteed a bunch of chopped mushrooms and onions in olive oil until they were caramelized, and added them to the ground meat and rice. I used 1/2 pork and 1/2 beef. I seasoned it with plenty of paprika, turmeric, red pepper and fresh black pepper. I rolled them up using big cabbage leaves.
The soupy sauce in which they simmered was strong chicken broth, canned Strianese brand plum tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, chopped parsley, more turmeric, and red pepper.
They were very good, but they still could have used more seasoning to punch them up. Either my taste buds are getting dulled with age or I’m too timid with the spices.
There are leftovers in the fridge, and we’ll have them again tomorrow night.
This sounds like something that is going to be even better the next day.
I doubt you’re being too timid, except perhaps with the salt. I find you don’t need a lot of exotic spicing for this dish, just plenty of salt and pepper. Turmeric is not what I would have chosen, but I suppose why not. Everything else seems fine. You sure you salted it enough?
I’m with @pulykamell when it comes to missing salt = insufficient flavor as a default guess after seeing the rest. One other thing I like to add to an involved braised dish is a touch of wine or other alcohol. I find that a complementary wine or even relatively neutrally spirit like vodka can perk up the flavor.
I’ve found that turmeric goes extremely well with cabbagey dishes, and potato-y dishes as well. So I added some here, and it did taste well. But next time I’m going to double up on spices.
I don’t disagree with you there – turmeric + cabbage or potatoes is really nice. I guess in the context of this dish, it is very odd for me, but that’s the joy of home cooking: do what tastes good to you!
Sounds like you needed an acid in the sauce. Vinegar, lemon juice, wine. All would’ve worked well.
“Add some acid to it!” is nearly universal advice for any savory dish with a liquid medium, but I think of stuffed cabbage as a dish that needs a sour flavor. If not from sauerkraut, then from something else.
Maybe try a Tex-Mex version with cumin and chili powder?
That’s how my mom used to make it, thus that is the correct way 
She also added bacon, green peppers and onion to the stuffing. That’s how I make it, but for some reason the bacon squigs people out.
What do you do with the rest of the cabbage after you stuff the tips?
I’ve enjoyed it sautéed with bacon and a little brown sugar but now prefer this version:
Sautéed cabbage with paprika dressing
1 head of cabbage
3 potatoes
4 cloves of garlic
1 small, dried cayenne pepper or equivalent
1 tablespoon of paprika
Remove outer leaves of cabbage, cut in half, remove stem and chop into pieces. Peel potatoes and cut into large cubes. Boil the cabbage and potatoes in just enough salted water with a lid for 30 minutes. Strain and set aside. In a small frying pan or similar, heat eight tablespoons of olive oil and sauté thickly sliced garlic cloves and the cayenne pepper until the garlic starts to brown. Turn off heat, discard cayenne pepper, remove garlic from oil and set aside. Add paprika to oil (without heat!) and mix. Pour over cabbage and potatoes and adorn with garlic if desired.
Make sauerkraut.
MSG.
I also like @needscoffee’s idea of vinegar and sugar in the sauce. If nothing else, adjust it with a tad bit of vinegar (good advice for any sauce or soup in fact) so that it tastes right. Many foods lose their brightness through long cooking.
To keep it simple but effective, add diced sauteed onion to the filling, also some chopped fresh parsley and perhaps some chopped fennel fronds. None of those will result in the need to adjust the cooking time in any way.