Stuffed Grape Leaves

I <3 olive oil. I can't live without it. Take away butter, cake, even my carbs if you have to, but for the love of food, please leave me my olive oil.

If there were ever a diet I could do, which there isn't, but if there were, it would be the Mediterranean diet, since it's the only one that seems to have the reverence-bordering-on-cultism for olive oil that I have.

This month's Daring Cooks challenge, stuffed grape leaves, fit right into my pro-olive oil agenda. Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. I'd never really been a huge fan of stuffed grape leaves, but I'd only tried them twice. I really liked these ones, though (I chose the Wara Einab - cold stuffed grape leaves), so I think I'll keep trying them some more.

Source

Daring Kitchen October 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge

The New Book of Middle Eastern Food - A Borzoi Book by Claudia Roden

Yield

About 30 

Equipment

• Heat-proof plate, lid or pie plate, something to weigh down the stuffed grape leaves in the sauce pan
• Sauce pan
• Pot to blanch tomatoes
• Knife to chop tomatoes, onion and parsley
• Cutting board to chop tomatoes, onion and parsley
• Tea kettle 
• Bowl

Ingredients

• 24-30 Grape leaves, preserved or fresh. I found them preserved in the international aisle of my local supermarket.
• 1/4 cups Long grain rice (300 ml, 9 oz, 250 gm)
• 1-3 Tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 large Onion, finely chopped 
• 2 tbsp. flat leaf Parsley, finely chopped (30 ml, 25 gm)
• 2 tbsp. Mint, crushed, dried (30 ml, 15 gm)
• 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon, ground (1 1/4 ml, 1 1/2 gm)
• 1/4 tsp. Allspice, ground (1 1/4 ml, 1 1/2 gm)
• 1 tsp. Dill (5 ml, 6 1/2 gm)
• To taste, Salt and Pepper
• 2 Tomatoes, sliced (optional)
• 3-4 cloves Garlic
• 2/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (160 ml)
• 1 tsp. Sugar (5 ml, 5 gm)
• Juice from 1 Lemon

Directions

Prep

• Blanch and peel tomatoes
• Chop tomatoes, onion and parsley
• Put grape leaves in a bowl and pour boiling water over them, making sure that the water penetrates the layers

• Leave them soaking for 20 minutes

• Change the water with cold water twice
• Set leaves aside

Make Filling

• Pour boiling water over the rice and stir well

• Mix the rice with the chopped tomatoes, onion, parsley, mint, cinnamon, allspice, dill salt and pepper to taste

** Filling can be made a day ahead, it may even develop more flavor that way. 


Roll Leaves

• Place a grape leaf on a flat surface, vein side up
• Place 2 teaspoons of the filling in the center of the leaf, near the stem edge

• Roll the leaf end to end, starting from the stem edge
• As you roll, fold the sides of the leaf in toward the center
• The leaf should resemble a small cigar, about 2 to 2 1/2 inches long
• Repeat with the remaining leaves and filling

**Stuffed Grape Leaves can now be frozen by lining a baking sheet with wax paper, freezing, then transferring to an air-tight plastic bag in the freezer.

Cook Stuffed Grape Leaves

• Mix together olive oil, 2/3 cup water, sugar and lemon juice
• Pack the stuffed grape leaves tightly in a large pan lined with tomato slices or imperfect grape leaves. I recommend the tomato slices next time. We used the grape leaves, but apparently not enough of them, as one or two ended up sticking to the pan a bit. 

• Place a whole garlic clove in between each for extra flavor

• Pour olive oil mixture over the stuffed leaves

• Put a small heat-proof plate on top of the leaves to prevent them from unwinding

• Cover the pan and simmer gently for 1 hour until the rolls are thoroughly cooked, adding water occasionally 1 cup at a time
• Cool the pan before turning out

Serve

• Serve cold

We served it with humus, carrot sticks, celery, and a flatbread pancake that John sort of invented. 

They were even better the next day, although somewhat soggier. I think I liked these better because they were less sour than the grape leaves I'd had before. Maybe less lemon juice than other recipes? Either way, they were quite good, and different from our usual dinner!