Beef dolma in grape leaves

Greeks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks and many other peoples believe that the idea of wrapping minced meat in grape leaves and cooking from them tasty dish belongs to them. In fact, today it is impossible to say for sure who invented dolma. The main thing is that this dish has become the property of many national cuisines and popular all over the world. Dolma is in many ways similar to cabbage rolls, but the basis for it is grape leaves, fresh or pickled. They are much more tender than cabbage ones, and wrapping the filling in them is much easier. At the same time, the dish turns out tasty and satisfying, with a unique taste and aroma. However, in order for dolma to grape leaves turned out exactly like this, you need to know and take into account several important points.

Cooking features

Dolma in grape leaves will turn out tender and tasty if you follow the recommendations of experienced chefs when preparing it.

For dolma, you can use both fresh and pickled grape leaves. Both of them must be washed thoroughly before wrapping the minced meat in them. boiled water.
Dolma can be prepared from any type of meat, but it tastes best from mixed minced meat.
Dolma will turn out tastier if you prepare the minced meat for it yourself, since a purchased product can be made from low-quality meat and contain meat products low category.
Dolma usually includes rice. Typically used round grain and in moderation. In this case, the rice must first be boiled until half cooked. Otherwise, it will not have time to boil to the required degree and will remain hard, which will negatively affect the taste of the finished dish.
Spices and aromatic herbs will add a pleasant aroma to dolma. Typically, fresh cilantro and parsley, fresh or dried mint are used for this purpose. ground pepper.
If the minced meat for dolma is not dense enough, you can beat a raw egg into it.
Dolma is rolled into square or cylindrical envelopes, stewed in a cauldron or other thick-bottomed container in sauce or small quantity water.

Dolma is usually served in grape leaves with katyk mixed with garlic. This fermented milk product can be replaced with low-fat sour cream.

Classic recipe for dolma in grape leaves

lamb – 0.5 kg;
grape leaves - 0.35 kg;
rice cereal – 80 g;
onion– 100 g;
green onions– 100 g;
flour – 40 g;
tomato paste – 70 g;
sour cream – 150 ml;
water – 0.2 l;

Cooking method:

Wash the lamb, remove the membrane and veins, excess fat. Dry with paper towels and cut into small pieces. Scroll them through a meat grinder.
Peel the onion and chop it very small pieces, add to the minced meat.
Add salt and pepper to the minced meat and mix well.
Boil the sorted and washed rice in salted water until half cooked. Put it in the minced meat, stir.
Finely chop the green onion with a knife. Add to it tomato paste and sour cream, a little salt and pepper, mix.
Dilute the sauce with water.
Place large grape leaves on the bottom of a cauldron or thick-bottomed pan, after washing and drying them.
Wash and dry the remaining leaves.
Place a grape leaf on a cutting board. Trim away rough elements. On top part leaf, place a spoonful of minced meat. Fold the top of the sheet to the bottom, tuck its left and right edges to the center. Roll the sheet from top to bottom to make a roll filled with minced meat and rice.
Place the rolls in a cauldron, pour in the sauce.
Place the cauldron on slow fire. Simmer dolma in grape leaves under the lid for one and a half hours.
Divide the dolma among plates.
Fry the flour in a dry frying pan. When it acquires a caramel hue, pour the sauce remaining after stewing the dolma over it and stir so that no lumps form. Cook the sauce briefly, stirring until it thickens.

All that remains is to pour the prepared sauce over the dolma and serve. Instead of this sauce, you can top the dolma with sour cream or any fermented milk product, having previously mixed it with garlic passed through a press.

Lamb dolma in grape leaves with vegetables

lamb – 0.5 kg;
tail fat – 100 g;
fresh grape castings – 0.4 kg;
onions – 0.2 kg;
tomatoes – 0.3 kg;
eggplants – 0.4 kg;
sweet pepper – 0.4 kg;
spicy Bell pepper- 1 PC.;
butter – 60 g;
water - how much will it take;
salt, ground black pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

Wash the lamb. Cut it into pieces and scroll through a meat grinder, alternating with pieces fat tail fat. Salt and pepper the minced meat.
Finely chop the peeled onion and mix it with the minced meat.
Melt the butter in a frying pan, put the minced meat in it. Fry it over low heat, stirring constantly, for 20 minutes.
Wash and peel the eggplants, cut them in half lengthwise and place them in salted water for half an hour. This must be done to rid the eggplants of harmful corned beef, which gives them a bitter taste.
Wash the peppers (sweet and hot), cut off the stems and remove the seeds. Cut into small square pieces.
Wash the tomatoes. Make cross cuts on them. Place tomatoes in boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and place them in a container with cold water so that they cool down faster. Remove and clean, cut off the seal around the stalk. Cut the tomato pulp into cubes and mix with pepper pieces.
Remove the eggplants from the salt water, rinse them and pat dry with paper towels. Cut the eggplants into small cubes and mix with the rest of the vegetables.
Place the vegetables in a clean frying pan or saucepan over low heat. Simmer the vegetables over low heat in their own juices for 20 minutes.
Combine the minced meat with vegetables, mix well.
Wash the grape leaves. Dry them, cut off rough areas.
Stuff the grape leaves with minced meat and vegetables, folding them into envelopes.
Place the remaining grape leaves on the bottom of the cauldron.
Place dolma in a cauldron.
Fill with water until it barely reaches the middle of the top layer.
Cover the cauldron with a lid and place on the stove. Simmer dolma in grape leaves for an hour.

You can serve lamb dolma with vegetables with sour cream or other thick fermented milk product. This dish is not only tasty, but also very healthy.

beef – 0.5 kg;
rice cereal – 80 g;
fresh grape leaves – 0.35–0.4 kg;
carrots – 150 g;
onions – 100 g;
petiole celery – 100 g;
butter – 80 g;
water – 0.25 l;
vegetable oil- how much will it take?
salt, pepper - to taste;
fresh parsley - to taste.

Cooking method:

Wash the beef. Cut off the veins and remove the film. Cut the meat into pieces and grind them through a meat grinder.
Peel and grate the carrots on a fine grater.
Remove the skins from the onion. Cut it into small pieces. Mix with minced meat.
Wash the celery and cut it into small cubes.
Mix celery with carrots. Place them in a frying pan with heated vegetable oil and fry for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly. Combine with minced meat.
Boil the rice until half cooked, drain the water, mix the rice with the minced meat.
Add coarsely chopped parsley to the minced meat. Salt it and pepper it.
Wash the grape leaves and remove rough elements. Pour boiling water over the leaves to soften them.
Stuff the leaves with minced meat, folding them into envelopes.
Place envelopes of grape leaves in a cauldron and fill with water. It’s a good idea to lay grape leaves on the bottom of the cauldron.
Simmer the beef dolma over low heat, covered, for an hour and a half.

Serve beef dolma with sour cream or white yogurt (unsweetened).

Vegetarian dolma with pine nuts

fresh or canned grape leaves – 0.5 kg;
rice cereal – 0.32 kg;
onions – 1 kg;
fresh parsley – 50 g;
pine nuts (shelled) – 50 g;
dried black currants – 50 g;
dried mint – 10 g;
lemon juice– 20 ml;
cinnamon - a pinch;
sugar - a pinch;
olive oil – 100 ml;
salt - to taste.

Cooking method:

Peel and cut the onion small cubes. Fry it until soft in vegetable oil.
Add pine nuts and currants, fry the onion with them for 5 minutes.
Add rice. Fry it along with the onion for 5 minutes.
Add water little by little and wait until it is completely absorbed into the rice or evaporates, until the rice is almost completely cooked.
Add seasonings and sugar, finely chopped parsley to the resulting mixture, stir.
Cool the minced rice and onions, stuff them with grape leaves.
Mix the remaining olive oil with lemon juice and pour into the bottom of the saucepan.
Place the dolma in a saucepan and pour in a little water.
Simmer the vegetarian dolma for 30–40 minutes.

Vegetarian dolma can be served with sweet and sour sauce from tomatoes.

Dolma in grape leaves - delicious and hearty dish. It is usually prepared with minced meat, but you can also choose a vegetarian recipe.

Everyone in Armenia loves it, young and old, and, probably, there is not an Armenian housewife who does not know how to cook dolma. Moreover, all household members believe that no one in the world knows how to cook this dish so deliciously better than their mother or grandmother. Remember the episode from the film “Mimino”, in which Khachikyan (Frunzik) says to Mimino (Kikabidze): “Valik jan, let’s go to my place in Dilijan, my mother will cook tolma. Real jam!"? from grape leaves according to a recipe that has been passed down by word of mouth in Armenia for a thousand years? In principle, there is nothing complicated here. The most important thing is that the meat is fresh and fatty, and the grape leaves are thin and silky. Only in this case the dish will turn out truly tender and tasty.

Preparing grape leaves for dolma

In Armenia, “dolma” is also the name for a dish that we call “stuffed cabbage rolls”, and vegetables are placed in the pan along with them: eggplants, peppers and tomatoes. It's all pouring in tomato sauce and simmer over low heat. However, the most iconic dolma is the one prepared with grape leaves. Of course, the most convenient time for such a dish is the beginning of June. This is when the grape leaves bloom. You need to choose the lightest ones (dark green ones will be a little hard) the size of a woman’s palm. Before preparing dolma, the leaves are immersed in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, carefully removed and kept under cold water. In Armenia it is customary to eat this dish all year round. You will probably be surprised and think: “How to prepare dolma from grape leaves in winter, if they fall in the fall, like everyone else?” Armenian housewives found a way out of this situation. They're stocking up big amount grape leaves and preserve them for the winter as follows:

1. You need to take a half-liter jar, wash it thoroughly and dry it.

2. Wash the grape leaves and place them on a paper towel to absorb the moisture.

3. Fold them in stacks of 10-15 pieces and wrap them in a tube, each of which can be tied with threads so that it does not unravel.

4. Place them in a vertical position in a jar and fill them with salted boiled water (1 tablespoon of salt per 1 liter of water).

5. Sterilize for 8-10 minutes.

Cooking dolma in Armenian style

Required Products:

Fatty Ground beef(you can also use pork) - 1 kg.
Round rice - 100 g.
Onion - 3 pcs.
Dried or fresh basil and rosemary.
Black and red pepper, salt.
Butter - 50 g.
leaves - 1 half-liter jar.

For the sauce:

Matsoni (yogurt) - 200 g.
Garlic - 1 clove.

Cooking method

After watching the film “Mimino,” many viewers were probably interested in the question of how to prepare dolma from grape leaves, which “Rubik Jan” talks about. However, many people think that this is very complex dish, and this requires special skills. There is nothing difficult in creating this dish, but if you still decide to cook it, you need to be patient.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Add rice and a little water or meat broth, ground onion, fresh or dried herbs, spices, salt to the minced meat, stir well and let sit in a cool place for 30 minutes.

2. Prepare grape leaves. If you use canned ones, then you need to let the water drain, remove the threads from the tubes and disassemble them.

3. Take one leaf and place it on a plate with the wide part up. Dolma should be wrapped like pancakes. Place 1 spoon of minced meat in the center of the sheet, cover on both sides, and then roll into a tight tube. Place the dolma on the bottom of the pan in a circle, very close to each other. Place an inverted plate on top as a press. Pour boiling water so that the water level is 1 finger higher than the dolma.

4. Set the pan to simmer over low heat for 40-50 minutes. After the water boils, add a piece of butter and also taste the broth, and add salt to taste if necessary.

Innings

Hot dolma is served with a sauce made from matsoni and garlic. This dish is a must on New Year's table in Armenia. Now you know how to prepare dolma from grape leaves, and you can surprise your guests and loved ones on New Year's Eve.

There are dishes with a centuries-old history, and this is one of them. This dish is widespread in the east and is nothing more than cabbage rolls stuffed with meat and rice, wrapped not in cabbage leaves, but in grape leaves. Since dolma has a wide distribution area - from Transcaucasia to the Balkan Peninsula and North Africa, this contributed not only to the emergence large quantity recipes, but also different names. Different peoples call it differently - tolma, dalma, sarma, durma, dulma, dolmekh. For example, sarma is considered national dish Turkish cuisine. Unlike Armenian dolma, it is prepared completely without meat. The rice filling is generously seasoned with spices, onions, garlic, tomato sauce and mint. Many people still argue about what cuisine dolma belongs to.

The authentic name of the dish “dolma” comes from the Turkic language and is translated as “fill” or stuff. From Armenian the word “tolma” is translated as grape leaves. Let's look at how to prepare dolma in grape leaves step by step.

Ingredients:

Grape leaves - 30-40 pcs.,
Minced meat (pork or beef) - 400 gr.,
Short grain rice - one and a half cups,
Carrots - 1 pc.,
Spices: cumin, black pepper, paprika, ground coriander, dried basil,
Onions - 1 pc.

Dolma in grape leaves – step by step recipe:

Preparing dolma in Armenian it begins with the preparation of grape leaves. To make dolma tasty, you need to use young grape leaves no larger than the palm of your hand. Old leaves are coarser in texture and less juicy, so they are used much less often for this dish. Traditionally, leaves of white grape varieties are used, although leaves of other varieties are also suitable. Wash the grape leaves. Cut off the stems with a knife.
Place them in a bowl and pour hot water. Leave the leaves to steam for 5 minutes. As soon as the leaves change color from green to brown, they can be considered ready for dolma.
Rinse the rice in two or three waters. Place it in boiling water and cook until half cooked. After this, drain in a colander. Rinse with water. Place on a plate.
Prepare the vegetables. Peel the carrots and onions. Grind the carrots on a medium or fine grater.
Cut the onion into cubes.
Place minced pork or beef in a bowl with rice. Add chopped carrots and onions. Sprinkle spices and salt over the filling.
Mix all filling ingredients.
Filling and grape leaves for dolma in Armenian are ready and you can begin the actual preparation. Place the grape leaf face down. Roll the minced meat into cutlets and place it in the center of the leaf, closer to the base of its stem.
Wrap the leaf in a tube.
Using your fingers, fold the edges of the resulting roll inward.
Grape leaves are very flexible, and therefore preparing dolma should not cause difficulties. You can wrap dolma like cabbage rolls in another way, namely, with an envelope. Also arrange the filling as in the first method. Fold the top of the sheet over the filling. Fold the sides of the leaf towards the center.
Roll the resulting workpiece into a tube. Using any of the described methods, form a dolma. Wash the remaining grape leaves. Line the bottom of the pan with them. Place dolma in it in layers and be sure to seam down.
Fill the dolma with cold water or meat broth so that it covers it. If you are used to extinguish it plain water, then it should be slightly salted; the broth does not need to be salted additionally.
Cover the top of the pan with a flat plate. Be sure to place a weight on it. This is necessary so that during cooking the dolma does not fall apart and lose its appearance. Cook the dolma over low heat for 40 minutes, avoiding a strong boil. While it is extinguishing, you can add a little water if you see that it is not enough.
Remove the pan with the finished dolma from the stove. Take the weight and plate. Cover it with a lid and leave for another ten minutes. This will allow her to further steam in own juice and become even tastier.

Dolma

Dolma This is a dish that includes: some kind of shell, the more usual - grape leaves, filling - minced meat with rice or rice with onions and herbs (lenten dolma) and sauce, usually with garlic or sweet and sour. Dolma is widespread in many countries. In Greece, for example, this dish is called , in Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan - , in Armenia, Georgia - tolma, in Russia - there is also a dish similar to dolma, these are cabbage rolls. The recipes for preparing this dish are very diverse, of course, there are national characteristics preparations. Therefore, you can choose the recipe you like best. Today I want to offer you a recipe for making dolma with walnuts, which an Armenian friend taught me. So, tolma or dolma is an Armenian recipe.

What products do we need:

canned grape leaves - 1 jar
minced lamb - 300 g + lamb bones for broth
minced beef - 500 g
large onions - 2 pcs.
handful of walnuts
garlic - 4 cloves per mince + 5-6 cloves
boiled rice - 1/2 the volume of minced meat
cilantro, parsley or dill
Bay leaf
ground black and red hot pepper, black peas
curry seasoning 1/2 teaspoon
olive oil

For the sauce:

Matsoni or full-fat kefir or sour cream
garlic

Dolma step by step recipe:

First we prepare the minced meat. Grind the meat in a meat grinder, preferably using a fine mesh. I recommend buying lamb on the bones. Cut the meat and make minced meat, and cook the broth on the bones, which we will pour into the dolma for cooking.
Onions and greens can also be minced or finely chopped.
Boil and rinse rice, preferably round.
Chop the walnuts well. Add finely chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon olive oil and a few drops of lemon juice. Mix.
Add rice, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, curry and walnuts with garlic. Mix until smooth.

Dolma from pickled grape leaves

Place the canned grape leaves in a saucepan with water (you can cold water). Let them lie down for a while.
And right in the water you can start unrolling the rolls. When the leaves are separated from each other, drain the first water and rinse again in clean water to remove excess citric acid, in which the leaves are preserved. Let the water drain.
The leaves must be tasted before stuffing. If they are hard or over-salted or over-acidified, then you need to cook them for 5-10 minutes. or even in two waters (for those who cannot tolerate sour foods).
Now we stock up on patience and sit down to stuff the grape leaves. The technology is not complicated, the main thing is to adapt to the amount of minced meat that needs to be placed on the sheet. And the rest is a matter of technique. We lay out the sheet with the bottom side (more matte) facing up.
For stuffing, we use whole leaves, and put the substandard ones aside, they will be useful to us.
From this amount of minced meat, approximately 60-70 pieces of dolma are obtained.

Now let's start laying out:

You need to take a saucepan with a wide bottom or a wide deep frying pan so that we get 2-3 layers no more. Place a layer of leaves on the bottom (substandard and leftovers).
There is a layer of dolma on it. The dolma in the pan should lie tightly to each other so that the leaves do not unfold during prolonged boiling.
On top there is again a layer of leaves, and again dolma.
On the top layer of leaves add bay leaf, garlic, black peppercorns. Pour the broth level with the top layer, no more.
Be sure to cover with an inverted plate to press down the dolma.
Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. How long to cook dolma? As soon as it boils, reduce the heat and cook the dolma over SLOW heat for 1.5 hours. This time is necessary for the dolma to become soft and juicy. Almost all of the broth will be absorbed.

Sauce for dolma:

Place matsoni or full-fat kefir or sour cream in a bowl, add a little salt and squeeze out the garlic. Mix everything and the sauce is ready.
In an hour and a half our dolma is ready! Place on plates, pour over the sauce, and sprinkle with cilantro or parsley.

BON APPETIT!

Dolma recipe

Dolma is prepared almost everywhere, but of course it is common in the east. Dolma is prepared from grape leaves. Many people believe that dolma differs from the usual cabbage rolls only in leaves (in cabbage rolls there are cabbage leaves, but here there are grape leaves), but this is not so. The composition of the filling, spices, and even the cooking technology differ. Therefore, these are two completely different dishes.

If you decide to cook dolma, follow our recipe. This is a classic dolma - very tasty, aromatic and appetizing. There is nothing complicated in preparation, and the process will not take much time.

Ingredients:

grape leaves
500 g lamb
2 onions
parsley, dill, cilantro - to taste
100 g rice
salt, pepper to taste
hot peppers, bell pepper, garlic - to taste

Preparation of dolma:

Pour the washed rice with hot water and leave to infuse.
Peel the onions, chop the lamb and grind everything in a meat grinder.
If possible, it is better to chop the onion and meat very finely with a knife - that’s when the dolma will acquire a special taste. But you can also use a meat grinder.
Now you need to add spices and chopped herbs to the minced meat - everything to your taste. But traditional dolma should have a lot of greenery.
By this time, the rice should have already brewed, drain the water from it and add it to the minced meat.
Now is the most important and interesting part of the whole cooking process. Take a grape leaf, place a tablespoon of minced meat on it and begin to wrap it. You should get an envelope.
Now we need a cauldron, or a saucepan with a thick bottom. We put grape leaves on the bottom - you shouldn’t spare the leaves. We lay dolma on top and again cover everything with grape leaves.
Now attention! We need some pressure, we can use a plate. Place it on top of the leaves.
Now fill everything with water, salt and cover with a lid. Let it simmer on low heat for an hour.
While the dolma is preparing, let's make the sauce. To do this, take matsoni (or kefir) and mix with finely chopped garlic. There should not be a lot of garlic, as it can drown out the true aroma of the dolma itself.
Take the finished dolma out of the cauldron and serve with sauce. Served only hot. Despite the fact that the dish is meat, it is quite light, so you need to cook more. Bon appetit!

Dolma

Sometimes dolma is made in a vegetarian manner, i.e. No meat is used in the filling.
Dolma is widespread in the cuisines of the peoples of the former Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Balkan Peninsula, Central and South Asia: Azerbaijan, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Greece, Georgia, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Northern Sudan, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

The word dolma can be literally translated as “fill”, “minced meat stuffed into grape leaves”, “stuffed cabbage”. Because minced meat can include all sorts of additives: lemon juice, nuts, olive oil.

Serve dolma or with sour cream sauce, or with a sauce based on the broth in which the dolma was cooked. The sauce should be either sour or sweet and sour. In Azerbaijan, grape leaves are sometimes replaced with quince or fig leaves. Also, dolma is made from fish, not meat. There are more than 10 types of dolma in Azerbaijan.

To prepare this dish, take the youngest and tender leaves. But in Turkey there are two main types of dolma. The first is with meat filling, which is served only hot. And the second - with rice, can be served cold, as an appetizer.

DOLMA

Ingredients and cooking process delicious second dishes - Armenian dolma made from grape leaves:

350 g grape leaves for dolma
600 g beef (or lamb)
100 g pork (or tail fat if the main meat is lamb)
80 g onions
80 g of greens (mint, cilantro, dill)
150 g short grain rice
salt, pepper, garlic to taste
300 g matsoni (or thick yogurt, or light sour cream)

Rinse the rice and pour boiling water for 40 minutes.
Grind the meat, onions, herbs (dill, cilantro, mint) in a meat grinder.
Add cooled rice, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
On the wrong side of a young fresh grape leaf without a stalk (you can also use salted grape leaves purchased at the market, which must first be thoroughly washed and removed excess salt soak for 1-2 hours in cold water) add prepared minced meat in an amount of approximately 20-25 grams.
Fold the sheet with the filling into an envelope.
To stew dolma, choose a pan with a thick bottom. Place a layer of grape leaves on the bottom of this pan. Place dolma on them tightly in rows, then cover the dolma on top with an appropriately sized flat plate so that the dolma does not unfold and float during cooking.
Pour in water, or better yet, prepared broth.
Simmer for an hour with the lid closed on low heat.
Serve with the juice obtained from stewing.
Separately serve matsoni (or sour cream) with garlic grated.

Although dolma is a meat dish, it is very light dish! Sour milk sauce helps proper digestion, resulting in food being quite easily digestible.

Dolma is cabbage rolls, but not with cabbage, but with grape leaves. The filling, as in cabbage rolls, is rice and minced meat, and different ones. But dolma can also be vegetarian.

Tasty and aromatic dolma is traditionally prepared in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. However, cabbage rolls made from young grape leaves have become popular in the cuisine of other nations. Recently, a Norwegian friend of mine taught my Moscow Armenian friend how to cook “real dolma” :) “I’ll show you the recipe for dolma as it is,” a real Scandinavian guest shared his secrets.

Cabbage rolls in grape leaves are much more tender than their counterparts in cabbage leaves. They have pleasant sourness and amazing aroma. Believe me, if you haven’t tried it yet: the tenderness and aroma of dolma do not become overcooked! As for cooking, turning “dolmushki” is a pleasant and exciting thing.

Ingredients

minced meat (pork + beef) – 350-400g
rice - 60-80g
onions – 1-2 pcs.
vegetable oil – 50-70 ml
butter – 30-40g
carrots – 1 pc.
black pepper, salt
balsamic vinegar - less than 1 teaspoon
cumin (ground)
dill and parsley - medium bunch
dry herbs (cilantro, mint, basil)
grape leaves – 40-55 pcs.
cauldron or stewpan for 2-2.5 l

Cooking method

Leaves for dolma. Only fresh grape leaves (small and young) are suitable for dolma. They are very tender and fragrant.

Select leaves for dolma in advance, excluding all coarse and large leaves (especially older ones). Rinse thoroughly under running water. Then dip into boiling water for a few seconds (5-10), remove to a colander, let drain and cool.

You can also use canned leaves for dolma. They are very easy to prepare. Rinse young, not very large and hard grape leaves with cold water. Then, in batches of 5-10 pieces, dip into boiling water for 5-10 seconds. Let cool slightly and, stacking them in stacks of 5-10 pieces, roll into rolls. Place the resulting blanks (rolls) in a sterile jar (preferably 700-800g). This volume is enough for one-time preparation of dolma for a family. Prepare separately hot pickle at the rate of 1 tablespoon per 600 ml of water. Pour hot brine over the grape leaves and cover with a lid. Before using, it is advisable to soak the canned leaves in cold water for 5-10 minutes.

Filling for dolma

Peel the onion, rinse and cut into cubes. Melt butter in a frying pan. Add vegetable oil and chopped onion. Bring it to transparency.

The authentic recipe for dolma does not include such an ingredient as carrots, and You can skip this step. But this is a matter of taste. If you use carrots, peel and rinse them. Rub on coarse grater and combine with the lowered onion. Cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes.

Rinse the rice thoroughly and boil in salted water for 3-5 minutes. Place in a sieve and rinse with cold water.

Combine rice and sautéed vegetables in a bowl.

Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Traditional dolma must contain minced lamb, sometimes with the addition of beef. However, more familiar to us minced pork and beef It won't ruin its taste either. Add the prepared minced meat to the rice mixture.

Add cumin and dry herbs, pour in vinegar. Chop the washed dill and parsley and also combine with the rest of the ingredients. Mix the dolma filling thoroughly.

Preparing dolma rolls. Place the grape leaf back side up. Place some filling at the base.

Cover the filling with the overhanging edges of the grape leaf.

Fold the sides to the center.

Roll the dolma into a tight roll. Do the same with the rest of the leaves.

Placing dolma in a container and cooking. Place the pieces in a cauldron or saucepan (lightly grease them with olive oil) in dense rows. Having filled one row, you can lay out one or two more layers. Cover the last layer of dolma with grape leaves without filling (if there are enough leaves).

Add another 2-3 tbsp to the container. l. olive oil and cover the food with a plate turned upside down along the diameter of the saucepan, creating a kind of press. This is done so that the dolma rolls do not open during cooking.

Now fill the dolma with water or broth, vegetable or meat, so that the dolma is covered by 1-2 cm. Place on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook dolma (covered) until cooked, about 50-60 minutes. During cooking, add more water if necessary.

After this, carefully, so as not to burn yourself, remove the plate and tilt the saucepan on its side. Very carefully scoop some out of the pan aromatic juice- you will need it to prepare the sauce.

Serve with sour cream, yogurt or hot sauce. One of the most delicious sauces is given below. Dolma is served with it in Greece.

Egg-lemon sauce and dolma cream

Ingredients:

5 lemons
5 eggs
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch (for cream)
½ teaspoon salt (for cream)
a little less than half a teaspoon of pepper (for cream)

How to cook:

1 In a large bowl, beat the meringue into a thick consistency egg whites. Continuing to beat, add the yolks, lemon juice and juice from the pan. Your egg-lemon sauce is ready.

2 If you are not going to prepare the cream, then pour the prepared sauce into the dolma in the pan and carefully tilt the pan in different directions by the handles so that the sauce spreads better over the food.

3 If you want to prepare cream, do the following: Pour into a small saucepan corn starch and dissolve it in 200 g of water. Then add ½ teaspoon of salt and a little less pepper to the starch.

4 Heat the dissolved starch over medium heat.

5 Once the starch liquid is warm, add the previously prepared egg sauce to it. Continuously stir vigorously for 2-3 minutes until you have a cream. (Be aware that the mixture may curdle very quickly).

6 Fill ready-made cream dolma and again tilt the pan in different directions so that the cream is distributed evenly.

Dolma cooks in minutes.
The dolma is cooked in a double boiler for hours, in a slow cooker on the “Stew” mode.

How to cook dolma

How to cook dolma in a saucepan
1. Place grape leaves tightly in a thick-bottomed pan, add dolma, add water (the water should cover the dolma with a margin of 1 centimeter).
2. Cover the top with grape leaves.
3. To prevent the rolls from unrolling, cover with an inverted plate, according to the diameter less pan. Cover the pan with a lid.
4. Place on the lowest heat and cook for 45 minutes.

How to cook dolma in a slow cooker
1. Pour water into the multicooker bowl, and place dolma into the container intended for cooking.
2. Set the “Stew” mode and cook for one hour.
3. If the leaves remain hard.

How to cook dolma in a double boiler
1. Pour water into the steamer, place the dolma in the bowl of the steamer.
2. Cook dolma for 1.5 hours.

How to cook dolma in the microwave
1. Place the dolma in a thick layer in a deep microwave-safe bowl.
2. Add a little salt and pour melted water on top butter(50 grams) and a glass of water or broth.
3. Cover the top with a microwave lid or other plate.
4. Turn on the microwave at 800 W for 15 minutes.
How to cook semi-finished dolma
In a saucepan
1. Place dolma in a pan in one layer, pour in water or broth so as to cover the frozen semi-finished product.
2. Place on low heat and cook for 20 minutes.

In the microwave
1. Place dolma on a plate, pour in 1 glass of broth, cook for 10 minutes at 600 W.

How to cook dolma at home
Products
Salted grape leaves - 7-8 sheets
Lamb - 300 grams
Onion - 1 large head or 2 small ones
Rice - 70 grams
Sour cream - 150 grams
Garlic - 4 cloves
Parsley, dill, cilantro, celery, black pepper, red pepper, salt - to taste

Preparing dolma
1. Pour salted grape leaves in boiling water and soak for 12 hours to remove excess salt.
2. You need to cut off a stalk from each leaf.
3. Rinse the rice, add hot water, pass the lamb and onion through a meat grinder a couple of times, cut and add herbs and spices to taste.
4. Add rice soaked for 10 minutes to the minced meat, mix well.
5. Place a grape leaf on the table, place half a tablespoon of minced meat on top of it and carefully twist it to form small sausages.
6. Place dolma in a thick-walled pan, cover with grape leaves, place a plate on top so that the dolma does not open during cooking.
7. Carefully pour in cold water so that the top grape leaves are slightly covered.
8. Cook dolma over low heat for 45 minutes.
Serve boiled dolma hot with sauce and herbs.

Sauce options for dolma

Classic sauce for dolma
Peel and grate the garlic, mix with sour cream/yogurt, mix well.

Sauce for dolma with dried apricots
Onions, dried apricots, tomato paste, a tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, half a teaspoon of pepper and the same amount of cinnamon, mix. In a frying pan, fry the onion in oil, add water, chopped dried apricots, simmer covered for 10 minutes, then add tomato paste, salt, sugar and spices.

Mint sauce for dolma
Mix 100 grams of sour cream and 100 grams of kefir, add pine nuts and 5 sprigs of dried mint. Mix and leave in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Kefir sauce for dolma
Add garlic and your favorite herbs to a glass of 100 ml of kefir.

Fkusnofacts
- If the dolma does not float up when you fill it with water, you don’t have to cover it with a plate.

Armenia is considered the birthplace of dolma, and the name “dolma” comes from the word “toli”, which means “grape leaves”.

To prepare dolma, you can use fresh or salted grape leaves. It is better to choose fresh leaves of light colors from white grape varieties: the lighter the leaf, the younger it is, which means the dolma will be more tender. Large, fleshy grape leaves are not suitable for dolma: they will make the dish too tough.
Large and dark leaves are not recommended. Buy fresh leaves only available in markets, unlike salted ones, which are sold both in markets and in supermarkets. The price of salted leaves in Moscow is from 200 rubles/half liter (on average in Moscow as of June 2017).

The traditional minced meat for preparing Yerevan dolma is minced meat made from young lamb, onions, herbs and pepper. You can prepare dolma from mixed minced meat (lamb + beef + pork) or only from beef. Also, dolma made from minced turkey is no less tasty. To give exquisite taste You can add a little pumpkin and carrots to the minced meat. Instead of minced meat You can use rice with vegetables (tomatoes, onions, herbs).

Cabbage or eggplant leaves can be used instead of grape leaves. The closest "relative" of dolma is cabbage rolls, where the minced meat is wrapped in cabbage leaves. There are also recipes using tomatoes, onions, peppers, sorrel leaves, apples, eggplants and even beet leaves. Depending on the shell, the shape and taste of dolma changes.

To make the leaves softer and more elastic, it is better to scald them with boiling water before wrapping the minced meat. If the leaves are large and old, boil for five minutes.

To ensure that the dolma is steamed and not fried during cooking, it is better to place several layers of grape leaves on the bottom of the pan. So, the rolls will turn out juicier.

When cooking dolma, instead of water, you can use broth cooked with bones or meat (lamb, beef or chicken). You can also use a bouillon cube called Bone Broth, which must be diluted in water before cooking.

Depending on the proportions and meat used, the calorie content of dolma varies from 140 to 190 kcal/100 grams. The calorie content of dolma made from minced lamb is 180 kcal/100 grams.

The cost of products for preparing dolma at home is 450 rubles per kilogram (Moscow average as of June 2017).

Dolma can be served as a separate hot dish with sauce, or cold, as an appetizer. In any case, it is recommended to serve lemon and herbs with dolma.