Dolma ( Stuffed leaves )

Dolma is a Turkish word that means "stuffed" there are so many different kinds of Dolma's in the Turkish Cuisine. The major difference in dolma's is wheather you want to cook them for a main course with meat or you like to make a nice starter served cold.  If you like to serve it cold than you make the dolmas with either rice or broken rice and alot of herbs etc. I will be giving the recipe of the cold option later in this blog. This one now is the main course.

There are also many different kinds of Dolma you can make even if you like to make a main course. The basic stuffing is almost the same depanding on the geographical region of the country you either add rice on the west or you add bulgur on the east both taste great and the amounts are same.

Ingredients for the stuffing ;
1 kg ground beef (50%) & lamb (%50)
3 large tomatoes grated
2 onions grated
2 garlic cloves crushed
2 spoon fulls of tomato paste
1 spoon full of red pepper paste
1 bunch of parsley (italian) chopped

1 bunch of fresh mint chopped
1 bunch of fresh dill chopped
1/2 cup of rice or broken rice washed
1 spoon salt, 1/2 Spoon black pepper, 1/2 Spoon coriender (not fresh)

To wrap ;
3 bunches of Swiss Chard or Kale or Cabbage.

To place on the bottom of the cooking pan
2 unions sliced thickly like 4 peaces from one onion, and 2 lamb chops.



Wash the chard cut the stems and pour boiling water over the leaves and close the lid to stay for about 15 minutes. Mix all the ingredients with the meat like making meat balls throughly.

Make a small ball like the picture above and roll it in the leave. If your leaves are not perfect you can always pake patchwork with them :)
When you roll them all place the sliced onions and two lambchops on the bottom of the pan. Than place the dolmas, make sure the end of the roll comes to the bottom so that it doesn't open when it is cooking

If you have more meat mixture left than the leaves than you can always stuff this with other vegetables like zucchinis, red peppers or dried eggplants.  Before you put the pan on top of the stove place a heavy plate on top of the dolmas to make sure they do not open up. Than add 2 cups of drinking water and cook them at high heat for about 5 -6 minutes until it starts boiling than reduce the heat and cook for about 45 minutes.

There are different ways to serve this the most favorite way is to serve it with garlic yoghurt.
Or you can mix lemon juice and one egg yolk and just before you turn the stove off pour this mixture over the dolma and let it cook with it for 5 more minutes. This type is call "terbiyeli" if you exact translate it like google than it means well behaved dolma. Both of these ways taste yummy.
Afiyet Olsun ! ( Bon Apetite )