Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.
Stuffed grape leaves are a part of many cultures including the Syrians, the Turks, the Greeks, the Lebanese, the Albanians, the Israeli’s, the Iranians, the Iraqis and the Armenians (just to name a few). Generally speaking the stuffed part could be in zucchinis/courgette, eggplant, tomato or peppers. Really it also extends to stuffing certain types of fish as well. It is suggested that the origin of stuffed grape leaves goes back to the time when Alexander the Great besieged Thebes. It has also been suggested the Byzantines refined and spiced up the recipe and used the leaves of other vines such as hazelnuts and figs.
So yeah if you get a feeling of “déjà vue” your are correct. I am fessing up at least lol. I did this recipe about a month ago for the first time in my life prior to knowing this was going to be the October challenge. I even picked the leaves fresh out of my friend’s backyard. And with time constraints well I am going to use those pics and call it a done challenge. Forgive me? **batting eyes**
Preparation time: The recipe will take up to 2 hours, depending on how fast you roll. You can freeze them before boiling if you want to try to do half of the recipe ahead of time.
If you want to see the recipe given for the challenge go here. But this is what I did a month ago, to see how to prepare fresh vine leaves go here or get a jar of store bought ones. Then do your filling.
Cousous and meat filling
- ground beef
- couscous
- 1 egg
- onions
- garlic
- tomatoes
- ginger
- coriander
- cumin
- salt, pepper
Cook couscous as per package. Mix everything in a bowl with your hands.
Trim stem off. With with shiny of leaf down, place a small spoonful of prepared stuffing at the stem end of the leaf, roll about one turn. Fold in the two sides. Continue rolling to the tip of the leaf. The package should be firm, but not tight, as the stuffing will expand while cooking.
I steamed mine. I did no have enough leaves for all the meat so I lined my steamer with parchment paper and flattened my leftover meat on the bottom…like a thin meatloaf. Then I placed the rolled leaves with the seam side down. I placed the basket in a large enough pot with 2-3 cups of broth. Once the broth was boiling I lowered to simmer and steamed about 45 minutes covered.
Finally I prepared a quit sauce to serve with….
Egg and lemon sauce, Greek style:
- 2-3 eggs, separated
- 1 tablespoon of water
- juice of 2-3 lemons
- broth from the dish being cooked (or hot beef or chicken broth or stock)
Beat the egg whites until foamy. Beat in egg yolks, water, lemon juice, and 2-3 ladle full of broth, beating continuously. Transfer mixture to a small saucepan and heat gently. Whisk while heating, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not boil.
WOW you did a wonderful job on this challenge. Great job nice photograph. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
this looks so good! love to try some of this!!! looks like I gota make some myself to try!! hehe thanks for sharing! your an awesome cook!
have a lovely weekend!
jen @ http://www.passion4food.ca
Coincidentally, piggies are similar to the above. Most people call them cabbage rolls or pigs in the blanket. Maybe that’s what threw you. It’s piggies where i grew up. Cabbage stuffed with ground pork and beef and rice in a tomato based broth/sauce. It’s the tomato sauce of the Russians, Polish, and Hungarians. Everybody makes theirs a little different. Haluski is noodles or dumplings with sauteed cabbage and onions, lots o’ butter, and salt and pepper. Sounds simple, but it rules. I’ll stick with the water. I got out of hand with the condensed milk. 🙂
Cheater! 😛
Nah, I probably would’ve done the same thing in your shoes… Couscous instead of rice sounds good!
OK Mary let’s see my forcast is….. a stew
Yummy, they must have tasted great with the couscous! I will definitely try your version next time, great job!
These look great! I need to try the version with the meat next time!
What a fortuitous conincidence for you!! I am impressed by your ability to read the future! Your roold look great. I love that you got to use fresh grape leaves. That seems like an awesome way to do it!
These look great! Isn’t it funny how some people’s grape leaves were a completely different shape. Mine were tiny and hard to roll, but yours look perfect. Couscous sounds like a great addition. So, what are we cooking next month? Have you made it already??
🙂
Thank for all the great comments. Claudia then are grape leaves, not figs. Am I missing something here lol or a blond moment perhaps. Mayne used cabbage.
Great pictures, step by step. And some great filling. Love the cous cous idea. It doesnt matter that you did them ahead of time- you did them! They turned out perfect.
Looks wonderful. 🙂 I love the sound of the lemon sauce and making it with couscous is a great idea!
I love love stuffed grape leaves, they are such a yummy snack. Loved that you used couscous.
I like the idea of using couscous in these! Great job!
These look so good! I love the filling with couscous!
You’re clearly at the cutting edge of food blogging, you trendsetter.
Well that was pretty fortuitous that you had just done these! I love that you used couscous – I am a big couscous fan, and it probably tasted fantastic with your filling and, especially, your sauce. I say challenge completed. 🙂
Well, Evelyne…I’m glad for you to have caught a small break on this one…especially since you’ve been knee deep in the kitchen and all those dishes . LOL
BTW…I’m very surprised about the possible use of fig leaves because generally they bring on a terrible itch when coming in contact with them. Oh well…there are probably some tree leaves that itch much less ;o)
Ciao for now,
Claudia
oooh, look at you being all pre-emptive with your grape leaves! 🙂 Great job! I am glad to see you had a sauce with yours. The challenge recipe definitely needed a good dipping sauce!