Dolma

Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions such as Russia, Middle East and the Caucasus and Central and South Asia. Perhaps the best-known is the grape-leaf dolma. Common vegetables to stuff include onion, zucchini, eggplant, tomato and pepper. The stuffing may or may not include meat. Meat dolma are generally served warm, often with sauce; meatless ones are generally served cold, though meatless dolma are eaten both ways in Iran. Both are often eaten with yogurt.

This i just one version that i learned in Turkey.

• Ingredients
• 30 vine leaves, preferably fresh. Use preserved vine leaves if you must
• 450g cups white rice
• 1 onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tbsp
• olive oil
• ½ tsp sea-salt
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped parsley
• juice of ½ a lemon

Procedure

• Heat the olive oil in a pan, add garlic and onion, cook for 2/3 minute and remove from heat. Rinse the rice in a colander, put it in a bowl and mix with onion, garlic and the other ingredients.
• Place the vine leaves in a wide dish. Pour boiling water over them. Let them sit in the water for 2-3 minutes and then strain in a colander. Take a large pot and line it up with a few leaves
• When stuffing the vine leaves, place a leaf on a plate with shiny side down. Place 1 tsp filling on the leaf.
• Fold 2 sides of leaf on top of the filling and roll the leaf from the base to its edge.
• Do not roll too tightly since rice will swell while cooking.
• Do the same thing with the other vine leaves, and put them gently in the vine leaf lined pot, with the folded part facing upward.
• Sprinkle some olive oil on the stuffed leaves cover them with a flat plate so they don’t float. Add 3 cups boiling water and bring the pot to a boil again.
• Cover the pot with a lid the cover it all with a towel and simmer on a very low heat for 50 minutes
• Servings: 4-6 people as a starter