Persian Style Dolme or Dolma ( stuffed grape leaves)

Yesterday Linda had her first attempt of making Dolma all by herself. (hoohooo)

 Well I have had the pleasure of seeing  my dear mom , "the Iron chef of our family" making Dolma several times and also once Aida my sister made stuffed leaves and I watched her do her best and they came out pretty well, but this time it was my turn, putting myself to the test!

and......

Sometimes I amaze myself , lol

My stuffed vine leaves came out really good !  Here is the recipe for my Dolma :)
I have learned it from the best cook ever , Hasmik , my lovely mom.

Here is what you will need for making Persian style Dolme....  This will serve about 5 to 6 people.

1. Greens
- Parsley about 2 bunches
- Cilantro about 2 bunches
- Fresh Dill about 2 bunches
- Chives about 1 bunch
- Green Onions 1 bunch or less - you can also skip this as I did since I forgot to add , but still my Dolma tasted great.

Wash these greens and then rinse them well, mix the greens all together and then it is time to chop them finely into little pieces,  I suggest that you don't use a food processor as it will make the greens too small, I tried using it but I figured it is better to use a knife instead. So go ahead use a good old Chef's knife to chop them.

2. Meat 

- about 1.5 lbs of ground beef , preferably lean ,  cook the beef with about one cup of water  in a separate pot , add salt, about 3 table spoons of olive oil and some black pepper to taste. Once the beef cooks and the water is all evaporated, turn the heat off.

3.Rice
About half a cup of long grain rice should be enough, rinse the rice well until the water turns almost clear of all the starch.

4. Tomato Paste
- 3 tables spoons of tomato paste

5. Spices
-   black pepper , salt and turmeric , it really depends on your taste the amount of spices you use, but I do recommend using about 1 tea spoon of turmeric in the mixture as it will make it super healthy as well , turmeric is my favorite spice of all time .

5. Garlic 
- 6 to 8 cloves

Now that we have everything ready , it is time to mix all of our ingredients together. YEAY :)

Our stuffing is ready, now it times to roll them up with delicious vine leaves. Usually you can get the vine leaves in jars, they are in brine this makes the vines more chew-able and of course most delicious. If you have access to fresh leaves you can pickle or preserve the leaves yourselves just put them in a jar and pour in some salt water over , the leaves should be ready in a week or so. But the most convenient way is to buy them ready at an international super market near you. 

I recommend rinsing the vine leaves with water as they are really salty, if you skip, it will make your food salty as well. 

-Warp and roll away ....

I found the best link for teaching how to roll and wrap the grape leaves and I think it is the most easiest way as well, once you click on this link you will see how healthy  it is to make your very own Dolmas, hmmm yummy ...

http://greekfood.about.com/od/illustratedrecipes/ss/How-To-Stuff-And-Roll-Grape-Leaves.htm

once you start rolling your dolmas, align them next to another in a medium size pot, with a jar of leaves you will have around 3 layers of dolma,  add about 3 or 4 cloves of garlic to each layer, this will make it just heavenly. 

Viola', here are my stuffed grape leaves, looking all scrumptious. 

Now it is time to cook them, you should place a china salad plate on top of the Dolmas this will not allow the dolmas unroll  when cooking. Add about a cup of water to the pot, water should almost cover the top layer of    our stuffed leaves, however this does not mean that you should drown them in so much water . JUST ENOUGH WATER ! 

you can also drizzle the dolmas with a bit of olive oil before cooking.

 Put the pot on medium heat for 45 minutes , then lower the heat and let it cook for another hour. Take one dolma and taste and see if it is cooked thoroughly, if it has then turn off the heat and enjoy it with family and friends.

 Remember good food tastes even better with presence of the loved ones :)