Stuffed Grape Leaves

Yesterday was a Greek cooking day. I made several things but today I am just posting one recipe because it is rather long. I will post the others tomorrow. If you have never tried stuffed grape leaves you are really missing out on a very good treat. Don't get all weirded out because they are grape leaves. People eat stuffed cabbage so why not grape leaves? You can use fresh grape leaves when they first leaf out in late spring but you can also buy them brined in jars like the one above.


Lay them out in a bowl and pour boiling water over them and let them sit for about 15 minutes.


Use 1 # of ground lamb.


Dice a large onion and a couple shallots.


Add them to the ground lamb.


Add a cup of long grain raw rice and some salt and pepper. The add some toasted cumin, oregano and thyme.




I also add fresh diced dill.


Mix this all together.


Take one grape leaf and lay it shiny side down.


Cut the thick stem part off of the leaf.


Place a heaping teaspoon of the meat mixture in the middle of the leaf.


Oops....Blog Tech made a mistake. This is sideways. You should wrap the lower right part of the leaf across the meat.


The fold the left side over the top.


Then starting at the bottom you roll it until it looks like this. These should be packed very tightly together on a heavy pot. Cover the grape leaves by about an inch with chicken stock. Put a dish on top and weight it down. The put the lid on the pot and bring it to a simmer and simmer for about 30-40 minutes.


While they are cooking, juice about 3 lemons and mix it with a half cup of olive oil. When the grape leaves are done cooking, pour the oil and lemon mixture over them and sprinkle with freshly diced dill.


These can be eaten either hot or cold. I like them cold. These make good appetizers too.


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