Grape Leaves Revisited

Grape Leaves Revisited


We rolled grape leaves last night and it was a lot of fun. They were stuffed with rice and ground lamb seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt & pepper, lemon juice and chopped dill and mint from the garden. The stuffing was fantastic. The wrappers turned out to be too chewy when they 1st came out of the pot. After leaving them in the refrigerator awhile they were good. We followed the instructions from the three recipes in yesterday’s article plus the ones my wife found in a cook book. Our method was hybridized between all of them.


All three recipes agreed on how the leaves were processed and stuffed. The leaves were rinsed and blanched in boiling water for 3 minutes. After being laid flat on the counter on paper towels and having the stems removed a tablespoon of stuffing was placed on the leaf and the leaf was rolled like a small burrito. The leaves were layered (2 layers deep) in a pot and held down with a lid from a smaller pot. This was covered with chicken broth, lemon juice, mint leaves and salt water. They were cooked for 1 hour.


I have been munching them as I write and I have noticed that some of the leaves are dark and some are light. Not sure what causes this.


David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com/ , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.