Dolma made from grape leaves. Dolma - the exquisite “queen” of Caucasian cuisine

Calories: Not specified
Cooking time: Not indicated

Any piece of pork belly will work for this recipe, choose the meat you like. A thin piece can be rolled into a roll (for this you will need twine or culinary thread), and the tall undercut can be baked entirely without cutting into pieces. In any case, we have to soak the meat for almost a day in an onion marinade so that it becomes soft, tender, saturated with marinade and salt with spices. Podcherevok baked in the oven is very, very easy to prepare. So if you are looking for recipes for meat dishes for the Christmas and New Year's table, take note of this method of cooking. In addition to the fact that the meat turns out to be the most tender and delicious, it will also look very beautiful when sliced, either cold or hot. Well, it will also come in handy as a strategic reserve in case of unexpected guests - you can store it in the refrigerator for a week, filling it with the fat that melted during baking.
To prepare the marinade, stock up on juicy onions. It will need to be thinly sliced and mashed well with your hands, as you do with cabbage when you salt it. When the onion gives enough juice, it is coated with this marinade and put in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours, but it is better to keep it longer, a day or so. Actually, that's all. All that remains is to bake the meat in a mold or in a sleeve and resist the desire to taste the undercut as soon as you take it out of the oven. It turns out very fragrant and appetizing!

Ingredients:

- Pork chops of any thickness and fat content – 1 kg;
- onions – 4-5 pcs (300 grams);
- fine salt - to taste (about 1 heaped teaspoon);
- sugar – 0.5 tsp (in the original recipe – 1 tsp);
- grated garlic – 1 tbsp. spoon;
- black peppercorns – 1 teaspoon;
- allspice – 8-10 peas;
- bay leaf – 2-3 pcs;
- coriander peas – 1 teaspoon;
- grain or regular mustard – 1 teaspoon.

How to cook with photos step by step

Let's first prepare everything for the marinade. Peel several medium-sized onions (the size of a chicken egg) and chop them into half rings.

Add sugar and salt to the onion. Half a teaspoon of salt is enough for the marinade; rub the rest with a piece of undercut. Sugar is needed to make the marinade taste more intense.

Mix the onion with salt and sugar with your hands, rubbing the onion so that it releases more juice. Let's leave it for ten minutes.

Let's prepare all the spices: leave allspice and coriander in whole peas. Leave one part of the black pepper as peas, and grind the second in a mortar. Grate the garlic on a fine grater; we will need about a tablespoon of grated garlic. Break the bay leaf into small pieces.

Add aromatic spices to the onion marinade, and add half of the grated garlic. Let's mix.

We will definitely wash the piece of undercut, but first we will scrape the skin with a knife to remove any remaining soot and bristles from it. Dry the meat almost dry. Rub with salt, maybe pepper lightly. Spread with the remaining garlic gruel and mustard. Place the marinade in a bowl and spread the onion marinade evenly over the entire piece of meat. Cover the dish with a lid or cover it with film and put it in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.

Before baking, remove the meat and leave it at room temperature for an hour. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Let's take out a piece of the undercut from the marinade, peel off all the onions and bay leaves - they have already done their job and are no longer needed. Leave the pepper, mustard and garlic. If you have a long thin piece of undercut, roll it up as tightly as possible and tie it with twine - then after baking, when cutting, the meat will not separate. Transfer the undercut into a baking pan or into a baking sleeve (don’t forget to secure the edges of the sleeve with clamps and then transfer it to a baking sheet or into a baking pan).

Bake the meat at 200 degrees for 60 minutes. Then open the mold or cut the sleeve at the top (make sure that the juice does not leak out), place it on the upper level of the oven and brown for 15-20 minutes. As soon as a pinkish crust appears on top, the undercut is ready. We take it out, cool it to room temperature and put it in the refrigerator for several hours. Or cut it warm (hot) and serve as hot. Happy cooking and bon appetit!

Author Elena Litvinenko (Sangina)

Description

Dolma made from fresh grape leaves not necessarily prepared during the grape growing season. In fact, such dolma can be prepared all year round, the main thing is to know how to properly preserve fresh grape leaves. You can find the simplest recipe for such a preparation on our website and close a couple of jars of fresh grape leaves yourself for the winter. In fact, there is nothing difficult in preparing such dolma, but to make it even easier for you, we have prepared a detailed step-by-step recipe with photos.

It is best to prepare such delicious dolma with fresh grape leaves exclusively at home: this way you can prepare the filling yourself and make it up from your favorite ingredients. You can take absolutely any meat for this oriental delicacy: pork, lamb or even chicken. Add onions in the quantity you see fit. As for spices, it is best to use oriental ones: this way the dolma will turn out very tender and with a traditional taste. Let's start preparing the Armenian hearty dolma.

Ingredients

(500 g)
(100 g)
(2 pcs.)
(2 cloves)
(200 ml)
(2-3 pcs.)
(10 g)
(10 g)
(10 g)
(taste)
(to taste)
(taste)

Cooking steps

Let's prepare all the necessary ingredients for making dolma from fresh grape leaves.

First of all, thoroughly wash the specified amount of rice, then cook it until half cooked in slightly salted water. 15 minutes should be enough for the rice to reach the desired consistency.

We wash the grape leaves and then put them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes: this is done to make it more convenient to wrap the dolma. The darkened leaves are ready for further cooking.

Peel the onion and chop it very finely with a knife as shown in the photo.

We wash all the greens in our stock, dry them and chop them very finely.

Wipe the green onion feathers with a damp cloth and cut into small rings.

To prepare this dolma, choose a fresh piece of beef or pork; lamb is also suitable. Grind the washed meat, mix it in a deep bowl with semi-cooked rice, chopped onions and herbs, add salt and a wide variety of oriental spices to taste. We bring the filling to a state of homogeneous dense minced meat.

Place a teaspoon of cooked minced meat in the center of the prepared grape leaf.

First of all, we wrap the side parts of the sheet.

We complete the envelope by folding the top part towards the center of the dolma.

Cover the bottom of the pan chosen for cooking with the remaining grape leaves, then spread the dolma in a thick layer.

You should end up with a pan of tightly packed envelopes with filling.

Fill the dolma with water and place the peeled garlic cloves on top.

Place a flat plate on top and cook the dish over medium heat for 30-40 minutes.

Place the finished dish on a plate and serve. Now you know how to prepare dolma from fresh grape leaves.

Bon appetit!

Stuffing is a favorite culinary technique in many national cuisines. The filling is placed in vegetables, in fish, in dough, in poultry. One of the widely used stuffing options is to wrap the filling in leaves. In Russia, an example of this method of preparation is the well-known cabbage rolls, for which cabbage leaves are used. In the Caucasus, they prefer to wrap the filling with grape leaves, but sometimes they also use fig or quince leaves. The Greeks also use grapes for this purpose. In our country, second place after cabbage rolls is occupied by their Caucasian counterpart. Let's look at different options for how to prepare dolma from grape leaves.

Rolling technology

To get exactly the intended Caucasian dish, and not something like traditional cabbage rolls, only in a different shell, you need to wrap the filling correctly. Regardless of how you decide to prepare dolma from grape leaves, its shape must be respected. And this culinary delight should look like a square envelope. To do this, put minced meat (or any other filling) on a grape leaf and cover it with its side. Then the other side is folded over. Due to the peculiar shape of the grape leaf, protruding edges are obtained. They need to be tucked towards the center. All that remains is to fold the top of the leaf and place the dolma in the pan with the curved edges down.

When and from what grape variety to collect leaves

To begin with, keep in mind that the leaves need to be young and lightly colored. The old ones become very tough and will not chew well. If there is a choice, any recipe for dolma from grape leaves will be suitable for varieties of the eastern group, and only cultivated grapes. No wild ones! Avoid rootstocks - in extreme cases, their leaves will do, but the dolma will turn out tough and with a noticeable unpleasant aftertaste. If you have white and red grapes at your disposal, give preference to white varieties, their foliage is softer. Labrusca, which is most often found in our area, is generally considered by Armenians to be unsuitable for a national dish due to the thick fluff on the bottom of the leaves, but is still used by the people.

Young foliage should be collected before the grapes bloom. It is advisable that the vines are not sprayed with herbicides beforehand. For those who are weak in gardening, we suggest: pluck no lower than the seventh leaf from the top of the vine. Those closer to the ground are already considered old.

How to prepare leaves for dolma

If you intend to enjoy it not only in the summer, then you will have to think about your supplies of leaves. It’s easiest for those who like the recipe for dolma from grape leaves, which involves using them fresh. Then they can simply be frozen: cleanly washed leaves are dried and put into plastic bags, from which the air is squeezed out. Then the bags are twisted tightly (you can fasten them with an elastic band) and put into the freezer. This preparation of grape leaves for dolma does not require much labor or a lot of storage space. At the right time, you just need to take out the bag and defrost it in cold water.

Salting grape leaves for dolma will require more effort if the recipe calls for them pickled or pickled. For the last option, you need to fold the washed leaves into piles of ten in each, roll them up and tie them so they don’t unravel. Each tube is immersed in boiling water for a few seconds and then immediately in cold water. Then the rolls are laid out in jars and filled with cooled brine (a tablespoon of salt per liter of water). For three days the containers have been left uncovered - the leaves are fermenting. Then a teaspoon of vinegar is poured into each jar, the container and contents are pasteurized for a quarter of an hour, then sealed.

If the recipe calls for salted leaves, proceed differently: they are placed in a stack in a container, pressed down with a weight and filled with strong brine - 4 tablespoons of salt, not one. Before preparing dolma from grape leaves, such a preparation will need to be soaked in cold water for at least three hours. If you have a cellar, the leaves can be stored for quite a long time.

Some craftsmen advise replacing the brine with tomato juice. Naturally, you will have to squeeze it out yourself and boil it. You will have to tinker a little longer, but the leaves will be tender and tasty.

The most democratic recipe

It does not require any special ingredients: just take two onions, 100 g of rice, two cloves of garlic, herbs (onion, cilantro, basil, dill) for half a kilo of minced meat (if you don’t have them, hops-suneli will do) , salt and as many grape leaves as needed. The rice is cooked like cabbage rolls - until half cooked. The leaves are doused with boiling water. The onions are finely chopped and the herbs are chopped. All ingredients are mixed: minced meat, herbs, rice, onions. The bottom of the pan is lined with the same leaves. The envelopes are folded in the manner described above and placed tightly in the container. Everything is filled with water, in which garlic cloves are placed, and a weight is placed on top - you can just have a plate on which a jar of water is placed. The dish will simmer for about half an hour. The result will be an appetizing and aromatic dolma (photo). It is usually topped with fermented milk products. Matsoni is best, but regular kefir is also good.

More complex option

If you want to cook something more complex and multi-ingredient, pay attention to the recipe for dolma from grape leaves with apples. For 800 g of minced meat, take one hundred grams of rice, a couple of apples, a tomato, two onions, 5 cloves of garlic, greens as in the previous recipe and the required number of leaves. They need to be fresh or defrosted. Before preparing dolma from grape leaves, they are washed and poured with boiling water for about five minutes. Rice is cooked traditionally, minced meat is ground together with onions, rice, finely chopped tomato, crushed garlic and chopped herbs are added to it. The mass is carefully kneaded, peppered and salted, after which it is distributed into “envelopes”.

The bottom of a cauldron or pan is lined with grape leaves, and dolma is placed there. Thin slices of apples are inserted between the envelopes. In a bowl, mix unsweetened yogurt (a full glass), broth (2 glasses) and 100 g of tomato paste. The pan is filled with this filling, pressed down with a weight to prevent the dolma from floating, and the dish is stewed for an hour and a half. During this time, a sauce is prepared from half a packet of sour cream, garlic, various herbs, pepper and salt. It is served separately to pour over the dolma at the table.

Azerbaijani recipe

It requires pickled or salted leaves. Azerbaijani dolma also differs from previous recipes in that it only requires dill and - attention! - mint. The ratio of other products is the same. The preparation of the filling is similar, the only difference is that it needs to be slightly under-salted, since the leaves are pickled and already contain some salt. You need to strain the marinade from the leaves, keep them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then dry them. A little vegetable oil is poured into the cauldron, several leaves are laid out as a bedding, and dolma is placed on top of them. The pan is placed on the fire for 2-3 minutes to warm up, then it is filled with water - and the dish is cooked from an hour to an hour and a half (this depends on the number of layers). Dolma is served in Azerbaijani style with yogurt or kefir sauce, to which either crushed garlic or chopped

Armenian dolma, vegetarian

Azerbaijan is not the only republic where they love and know how to cook this dish. Armenia is a worthy competitor to it. For those who like to eat delicious food, but take care of their figure, Armenian dolma made from grape leaves without meat is quite suitable. The filling will only include white lettuce onions (2 pieces) and a glass of long-grain rice. You will need to fry the onion until translucent, add rice, a spoonful of tomato paste, salt and pepper and a little water. The frying pan is covered with a lid, and its contents simmer for about twenty minutes. At the end, chopped parsley (about a quarter cup) and dill are added to the filling - just a teaspoon. When the mixture has cooled, it is wrapped in grape leaves and placed in a pan on top of them. Dolma is filled with water with the addition of the juice of one medium-sized lemon and three large spoons of grape seed oil. It can be replaced with olive oil, but it won’t be the same. In a covered vessel, dolma is either stewed or baked in the oven (350 degrees). Both last 20 minutes. This dish is best eaten cold, as an appetizer.

Armenian dolma with lamb

If you are not on a diet, buy half a kilo of meat at the store. Lamb would be a better choice, but other options can be substituted. Add two onions to the meat, chop it all finely. If you are not confident in yourself, use a meat grinder. Spices and chopped herbs are poured into the minced meat - cilantro, dill, parsley, basil. The rice is soaked in hot water for 8-10 minutes, then drained and combined with minced meat. The dolma is wrapped, laid out on the bottom of the cauldron covered with leaves, and covered with leaves on top again. Everything is filled with water, pressed down and simmered for an hour on a small fire. Armenian dolma made from grape leaves is served only hot.

Filling options

In addition to the options considered, there are many other fillings for dolma. Most of them contain some kind of meat and rice. However, you can combine the same rice with traditional frying for cabbage rolls made from onions and carrots; you can add other vegetables to it; you can combine it with mushrooms; Or you can completely replace it with buckwheat. Grape leaves are surprisingly tolerant and go well with most foods. There are recipes that use dried fruits - raisins, prunes and dried apricots. So don't be afraid to experiment!

Dolma made from grape leaves, this dish will become an unusual decoration for any table; it is tasty and satisfying.

Grape leaves are a little-known and very unusual ingredient. Many people have no idea that they can be used to prepare a very tasty dish, dolma or in grape leaves.

Young grape leaves with meat, rice and vegetables form an unforgettable flavor bouquet. This is both a hot dish and an excellent snack.

Minced meat for dolma can be made from beef, pork, lamb, or a mixture of various types of meat. We don't bother with this. All the delicious taste comes from grape leaves.

The weight of the finished dish will be approximately 2,400 kg.

The dish is designed for 10 people

Total cooking time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

To prepare dolma we will need:

grape leaves (fresh in summer, salted in winter) 90-100 pcs.,
meat pulp (lamb or pork + beef) 700-800 gr.,
large onion 1-2 pcs.,
rice 1.5 cups,
medium carrots 1 pc.,
egg 2 pcs.,
vegetable oil 80-100 gr.,
salt 1 teaspoon,
ground black pepper 0.5 teaspoon.

How to prepare minced meat for dolma

Place fresh leaves in boiling water and leave for 3-5 minutes.

We carefully wash the salted canned grape leaves in running water.

Pour the salted leaves in a bowl with cold water, leave while we prepare the minced meat.

Peel the onion and cut into small cubes.

Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.

Sort the rice, wash it and fill it with cold water.

We remove the films from the meat and divide the tendons into fatty and lean.

Finely chop the lean meat into cubes.

We pass fatty meat through a meat grinder with a medium grid.

In a frying pan with vegetable oil over medium heat, fry the onion until transparent.

Add grated carrots.

Fry the onion and carrots until the carrots are soft.

In a wide bowl or basin place finely chopped lean meat, fatty meat minced in a meat grinder, fried carrots and onions, washed rice, two eggs, salt and ground black pepper.

Mix the resulting minced meat well and add salt and pepper to taste.

How to make cabbage rolls from grape leaves correctly

The cabbage rolls should be small, identical in shape, and beautiful.

Drain the water from the container with grape leaves and shake off excess water from the leaves.

Rolling square cabbage rolls.

Using a teaspoon or fork, place the minced meat on the matte side of the sheet.

Cover the minced meat with the right side of the grape leaf. (see photo)

Cover the top with the left side of the grape leaf.

Again, cover the top with the right side of the grape leaf.

The result is a “bag”

We wrap the remaining free ends of the grape leaf inside. (see photo)

The cabbage rolls will be square.

Dolma mat

Place the minced meat on the matte side of the grape leaf.

Fold the bottom edge of the sheet towards the center (see photo)

From above we cover the left and right edges of the sheet towards the center

Roll up the cabbage roll with a mat.

Dolma made from grape leaves like a “mat” is ready.

These are the beauties they turn out to be.

How to cook dolma - cabbage rolls made from grape leaves

Place cabbage rolls in tight rows on the bottom of a cauldron or stewpan.

Pour cold water into the cauldron with dolma; the level should be slightly below the top layer of dolma.

Bring water to a boil over medium heat.

If the grape leaves are canned, we do not add salt to the water; the salt in the grape leaves is enough. If the water is fresh, add salt to taste.

Cover the cauldron with a heavy lid and wait for steam to come out from under it.

The steam has started to rise, reduce the heat under the cauldron with cabbage rolls to low. So that the steam comes out slowly.

Simmer for about 25-30 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave the cabbage rolls to steep for another 10-15 minutes.

The water steamed the rice and was absorbed into it. The result was small, aromatic green sausages. Beauty!!!

Place the finished dolma on plates. Be sure to top with sour cream, the taste is amazing!!!

It will be very tasty if you add a little 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic to the sour cream; no need to add salt.

Dolma from grape leaves, as you can see, is not difficult to prepare at home.

An amazingly delicious dish for any occasion.

If you come across fresh or canned grape leaves on sale, don’t hesitate to buy 100-200 pieces, you won’t regret it.

They are usually sold in markets where salted and pickled vegetables are sold, or in stores in canned goods departments (salted or pickled in glass jars).

Grape leaves are an excellent dish for the whole family.

Bon appetit!!!