Dolmades

Dolmades

Ingredients

200 g. grape leaves 2 cups rice 3 onions 1 cup olive oil 3 tbl pine nuts at least: 2 tbl chopped parsley, dill and mint salt and pepper to taste the juice of 2 lemons

Directions

Wash brine off grape leaves and set aside. Wash rice until the water is clear. Grate or purée onions and sauté them until golden brown in half the oil. Add rice and pine nuts continue to sauté a few minutes then add 2 cups boiling water, salt, pepper, parsley, dill and mint. Let simmer for 10 minutes then remove from heat. With the ribs facing upward, fill the grape leaves with 1 generous tsp rice. Do not wrap too tightly as rice will swell as it cooks. Lay the bottom of a pot with grape leaves and layer the dolmades on them. Salt and pepper each layer. Weight the last layer with a plate so that they can't come undone as they cook. Pour in the remaining oil as well as the lemon juice then fill up with warm water until slightly covered. Bring to boil then simmer 1 hour. Let cool in pot.

Note: I also fill them with ground meat. You can use ground beaf, lamb or I use beaf and pork in equel parts. You will need 500 g meat as well as 1 egg and breadcrumbs to replace the rice and no pine nuts. The cooking time for meat is shorter. Half an hour should do.