I make almost the exact same recipe (from Lebanon), except I use cabbage leaves. I also bake it all in a casserole dish making sure to cover the rolls completely with water, lemon juice, sliced garlic, and some drops of margarine. It is so much easier than doing it on the stove. Salt all over. It is a tangy garlicky lemon flavor that I love!
I absolutely love this recipe. For those of you who find them a little bland please read on. I am a Syrian and my grandmother taught me this recipe. Over the years I have tweeked it a little bit to my liking. Everybody raves how these are the best grape leaves they have ever had. After many many trials and errors I find this to be the best! It is even my boyfriends favorite meal. It is a rather difficult recipe that takes alot of time and effort. Good Luck!! yelah!
Robert- thank you so MUCH! These are absolutely fantastic. They are tangy and PERFECT! I found that I didn't need all of the grape leaves though. I only needed about a jar and a half. If you can't find ground lamb meat ask your butcher to grind up a lamb roast for you or plan in advance and call some stores to see if they can order you the ground lamb. The lamb taste is essential! Look for the grape leaves in the olive aisle...they actually had them at the Safeway even though I was prepared to go to an ethnic food store for them. I will be sharing this recipe and making the dish again and again!
This recipe is good however not tasteful enough for my liking. Dont get me wrong its not bad but not one of my favorties. I make grape leaves slightly differently. I add onions tomatoes and garlic to the stuffing and omit the lemon jouce. Also instead of covering with water I cover them with a simple tomato sauce I make (chopped tomatoes drop of olive oil tsp tomato paste little bit of water and salt are heated till tomatoes soft. when its cooled I just blits it in a blender/food processor. The tomatoes and onions give it a richer taste.
This recipe is just like one of the several ways my mother made stuffed grape leaves. She was also born in Aleppo Syria and passed away last April at the age of 93. They are yummy! And a must to make out of lamb they won't taste right with anything else.
Very close to Grandma's recipe! (She was from the southern part of Syria while I found that Aleppo is exactly north.) I was pleased with these and though I followed the recipe exactly I plan to make a couple minor adjustments next time. I'm going to halve the pepper and increase the allspice by a half-teaspoon. Instead of soaking the rice Grandma always mixed about 1/2 cup of water into the meat mixture with the dry rice. It gave some moisture for the rice to absorb without extra prep or an overly tough middle. (She preferred her lamb ground coarsely for most flavor. Short-grain rice is also the traditional rice for stuffing grape leaves.) One more TIP is to use a smaller amount of filling so that the raw amount is about the size of a short stubby pencil. The finished leaves will be the size of a child's marker. In this way they will be a lovely shape and you will use most of your jarred leaves. Finally she never added garlic but I LOVED it in these! And next time I will remember to add the olives! I served with extra lemon plain yogurt and pita bread and thought I was back in time:)
Beast recipe I ever had for grape leaves. I added a little cinnamon and parsley to the mixture. Cooked in chcken broth along with the water and yes you must put a small plate on top to hold them down. Serve with with a sauce of yogurt pured garlic and chopped cucumber.
I've never made grape leaves before but this was easy and turned out very tasty! I added about a teaspoon each of dried dill weed and dried mint and it added a great flavor. Had to substitute ground beef for lamb I think it would have been even better with lamb. I served it with Tzatziki Sauce (Yogurt and Cucumber Dip) from this website and it was a perfect compliment.
Almost a duplicate of Sitoo's recipe straight from Beirut. Thank you for the memory lane! We use 1:1 rice/lamb (to stretch) and the lamb is deboned/minced by hand. Bones used for stock. Also go heavier on the fresh garlic scattering unpeeled whole cloves between layers. Sub h/m lamb stock for the water as well. Use a HEAVY bottom pot or put down a steamer basket to avoid scorching. Tradition says use "unusable" leaves to line pot but they still scorch and can ruin the flavor of the whole pot.
