Stuffed Grape Leaves: Utah's Greek-Americans

Stuffed Grape Leaves

The following delicious recipe is courtesy of Ellen Vidalakis Furgis and D. Eugene Valentine, and is excerpted from their book Greek Cooking at Its American Best.

Stuffed Grape Leaves, or Dolmathes

Ask Americans to name dishes representative of Greek cooking and they'll almost certainly include stuffed grape leaves in the first four choices (the other three being moussaka, souvlakia, and baklava). It's such a tasty, memorable way to eat rice and ground beef. Fig and mulberry leaves were originally used for making these little rolls, a procedure that didn't change until Hellenistic times when grape leaves began to take precedence. Serve them hot for dinner or cold for appetizers. (Makes approximately 60)

Ingredients:	1 pound ground beef
	1/2 cup rice
	1 medium onion, chopped fine
	1 15-ounce can whole tomatoes (or 8-ounce can tomato sauce)
	1 teaspoon salt
	1/2 teaspoon each of pepper and garlic powder
	1 teaspoon each of fresh chopped parsley, mint, and fennel (or dill)
	1 small (1 pound) jar of grape leaves (available in Greek, Middle Eastern, and most Italian specialty stores)
	2 lemons
	1 1/2 cups beef broth (or 1 can commercial beef broth)

Preparation:

Step 1	Mix together all ingredients except the last three.
Step 2	Rinse the grape leaves in cold water and drain. Cut the heavy stems from the leaves. Then, following illustrations 1-6, take each leaf (with the smooth shiny surface on the underside) and place 1 teaspoon of the mixture near the stem end. Using both hands, fold the lower parts of the leaf up and over the filling. Fold the right side over the filling, then the left side. Then roll tightly from the mixture end to the tip of the leaf. You should have a neat little parcel about 2 inches long. (If the leaves are too large, cut them in half along the central vein and proceed as above, placing the mixture along the cut edge.)
Step 3	Arrange the dolmathes seam side down in a saucepan, side by side (making sure they are tightly packed) to form the first layer; squeeze lemon juice over the entire layer. Start a second layer, squeezing lemon juice over each. Continue until all the filling has been used.
Step 4	Pour beef broth over the dolmathes and then add water until the level is 1/2 inch above the dolmathes. Invert an oven-proof plate on the dolmathes to hold them in place while cooking. Cover the pot and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Step 5	When the rice is tender, remove the dolmathes from the pot and serve them on a platter, garnished with lemon wedges. Serve hot as a dinner entree or cold as appetizers. Note: Dolmathes may be frozen before they are cooked if you want to prepare them ahead of time, or if only a small quantity is to be used at a time.

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