Stuffed Grape Leaves

To satisfy a couple of my friends, I've decided to do a learning post about stuffing grape leaves.  One friend reminded me I hadn't posted since January, when I wrote about the horrendous time I'd had with a prescription overdose.  She said, "What about people who haven't seen you since they read that post?  They might think you're still sick.  You have to write something new!"  The other friend has grape vines and a recipe for stuffed grape leaves, but she thinks my recipe sounds better.  Well, I don't know if it is, but I'll put it in the blog so I can show her pictures and give her good directions.  This way I will satisfy two friends--if I'm making stuffed grape leaves, which isn't all that easy, then I must be feeling pretty healthy, right?

Okay, here goes:  First of all you have to have a source of grape leaves.  As you can see above, I have plenty--and this is only one of my three vines.  You can get some from me, if you think you want to try this.  Secondly, pick the right size and texture of leaf.  Here is a picture comparing two leaves:

The one on the left is big, maybe 5 inches across or more and is leathery.  The one of the right is the one you want to use.  It's small, but tender.  Here is a picture to give you perspective:

It's bigger than it looked, isn't it?  Pick about 6 of these bigger leaves to put in the bottom of the pot, under your rolls and to put on the top of your rolls, before covering.

Pick lots of leaves.  I started with 30, then went out and picked a bunch more.  I think I ended up making 50 rolls and still didn't use all the filling I had made.  Wash them in cold water, then place in a large bowl or pan and add boiling water.  That will cook the leaves a little and soften them a lot.

Here is the recipe for the filling.  This is from The Complete Greek Cookbook by Theresa Karas Yianilos, a great cookbook for learning how to cook Greek food.  I also have a Greek mother-in-law, and that's even better!

Byzantine Dolmathes

Filling:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 to 1 lb. ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, pressed

2 cups water

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1 cup rice, uncooked

1 teaspoon each mint and parsley, chopped (use more if you want more green like me)

1/2 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (I ran out of cinnamon this time and used allspice instead)

1/2 cup dried currants

1/4 cup port wine (optional)

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts

    To cook in:     2 cups water

                           Juice of 1 lemon

Fry meat, onions and garlic in large frying pan on medium until meat is cooked.  Add water and remaining ingredients.  Bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce heat to simmer and cook until water is absorbed 10-15 minutes.  Set aside until cool enough to handle.

To Fill:

Lay grape leaf on a plate or board with the stem part near you and the point of the leaf away from you--these should be turned upside down with the veiny side being the part you are filling.  Use about a tablespoon of filling in each grape leaf.

Fold the bottom leaf section over the filling (2 lower leaf sections), fold over the next two sections, and then roll tightly.

Two side-leaf sections rolled to the middle.

The finished product.

Put 2 or 3 big leaves in the bottom of a dutch oven and stack the filled rolls in circles in the pan.  I had rolls about three deep by the time I was done.  Place them seam side down so they will be less likely to come apart while cooking.  When you have all the rolls in the pan, put more big leaves on top of them and then a plate to keep them pressed down.

Arrange carefully

Big leaves and plate--then pour lemon water in and cover with a lid.

After preparing the pan for cooking, combine the juice of one lemon with 2 cups of water and pour into the pan, covering with a lid.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer.  Cook for 45 minutes.

Carefully take rolls out of pan and place in a serving dish.  Drain the liquid into a measuring cup to use in the sauce.


Avgo-Lemono Sauce:

2  cups broth (if you don't have enough from the grape leaves pan, add hot water)
2 eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (juice of 2 lemons)
2 Tablespoons cornstarch

 Beat together broth and cornstarch.  Cook over medium-high heat until thick.  Beat eggs and juice together. Add small amount of hot broth to egg/juice mixture, then pour the rest back into hot broth.  (Putting a small amount of hot broth into the eggs, heats it up enough so that it doesn't curdle when it's poured into the broth.)  Stir and pour sauce over grape leaves or serve separately to spoon over individual servings.

I made the wrong sauce so this picture doesn't show the nice thick sauce the above recipe makes.

Here's a little history of the stuffed grape leaf.  Early Greeks used fig leaves and leaves from the mulberry and hazelnut trees, but this recipe was born when Alexander the Great demolished Thebes and food was so scarce the Thebans had to cut the little bit of meat they had into mincemeat and roll it in grape leaves.  The ornate Byzantine world refined this recipe further to include nutmeats, currants, and spices common to Persia and India.

So there you are!  It takes a bit of time, about 1 1/2 hours to put together and 45 minutes to cook, but the finished product is impressive.  Make them and have people over to dinner!  Or serve them as an appetizer at a party.  Impressive!