Dolmadakia
AKA Stuffed Vine Leaves
It’s been a while since I last posted both a Greek and a green recipe. During Christmas festivities we all end up eating all different shades of yellow and red. Time to change and move along the colour spectrum with some healthy green!
Everyone knows these little jewels. I am not going to get too much into detail about their origin as I couldn’t find enough information on the topic. All I know is that they arrived to Greece through Turkey which is the case for a lot of our tasty dishes.
My mum is particularly obsessive when it comes to picking the right vine leaves. She only chooses the youngest and most tender leaves she can find as she likes to make tiny bite sized dolmadakia. The truth is that the youngest the leaves are the better as the veins won’t be to tough to chew.
These take some time to make but, you can make them in big batches and can keep them in the fridge for a very long time.
Ingredients:
250g Vine leaves
1 Onion
Olive oil (instructions on the amount below)
Water (instructions on the amount below)
400g rice (you can use a risotto variety)
1 handful of pine nuts
2 handfuls of dill
1 handful of mint
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp tomato paste
Step by Step
Boil some water and soak your vine leaves completely for a few minutes. Take them out, dry them on a kitchen towel and set them aside
Finely chop your herbs
Add some oil in a pan and grate the onion. Sautée for a few minutes until the onion becomes translucent. Add in the rice and toast it for a few minutes (like you would do for risotto)
Add in the herbs, tomato paste and season. Pour 1 glass of water in the pan. This will help your rice cook halfway
When most of the water has evaporated add in your pine nuts and the juice of half a lemon. Stir well and take it off the heat
Get a deep pan and cover the bottom and sides with some vine leaves (picture below). This will prevent your dolmades from sticking
Time to shape them: place a vine leaf ion a cutting board with the veins facing up. Add some filling in the centre (1 tsp or 1 tbsp depending on how big your leaves are). Now fold inwards the sides of the vine leaf and roll to complete. It’s like making a small burrito!
Place the stuffed vine leaves next to each other in the pot and keep going. Once you’ve completed a layer keep going with the second one. They have to be close to each other quite tightly or they might unravel when you cook them
When you have finished, squeeze in the pot the remaining half lemon, add a very generous drizzle of olive oil and cover the dolmadakia with a plate (see image below). The weight of the plate will prevent them from unravelling when cooking
Time to add some more water in the pot. You will need to cover the dolmadakia completely. The level of the water should reach the edge of the plate (this is why I couldn’t give you an exact measure!)
cover them with a lid and simmer for about 40-50 minutes until the water has evaporated and the rice is cooked through. Make sure you check the pot frequently
Let them cool down in the pot before you eat them
Serve the stuffed vine leaves with seasoned yoghurt and dill
Enjoy!
Tips & cheats
Be patient, the leaves sometimes can become sticky and annoying but you got this! Work slowly and if you come across a broken leaf just scrap it and get another one.
If you like the lemony taste feel free to add more lemon or even grated zest in the rice mix.
If you don’t like pine nuts just get rid of them. Same applies to the tomato paste.
Make sure you stack them in the pot really close to each other and make sure you only simmer them without bringing the water to boil. Boiling water with its big bubbles might misplace the plate and cause the dolmadakia to unravel.
