Greek dolmades recipe – Stuffed vine (grape) leaves

Instructions

• Wash fresh vine (grape) leaves thoroughly.
• Blanch vine (grape) leaves in hot boiling water (approx. 10 seconds) ensuring you add 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil into boiling water. Vine leaves will turn a dark green colour.
• Set aside blanched vine leaves.
• In a large bowl, add onions, mint, fennel, spring onions, parsley and salt.
• Mix ingredients thoroughly before adding pepper and rice.
• Continue mixing through ingredients, adding olive oil and 1 ½ cups of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
• Add grated tomato and mix through all the ingredients (thoroughly).
• Prepare cooking pot by placing blanched vine (grape) leaves on the base (or left-over herbs) and adding 1 or 2 tablespoons olive oil to the base.
• Stuff vine (grape) leaves with the herb mixture using the technique demonstrated in our video, repeating this process until all of the mixtures have been utilised.
• Add rolled dolmades into the pot, adding remaining lemon juice over the dolmades.
• Cover dolmades using unblanched vine (grape) leaves and placing a shallow bowl over the dolmades as a weight.
• Add 2 cups of water and cook covered on high heat for 25 minutes, checking to see if pot juices are at boiling point before turning the heat down to a low.
• Remove shallow bowl and cook covered for a further for 15 minutes.
• Turn heat off and place the pot in a shallow water bath for about 10 minutes, doing so will ensure rice remains firm.
• Serve as a shared platter with additional lemon and or your preferred dipping sauce.
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  HOW TO ROLL ( TECHNIQUE ) DOLMADES WITH PICTURES
• The technique of rolling the dolmades is also demonstrated on our video.
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