Who else loves baklava and dolmades? Anybody else MAKE them? For the first time in a decade on the homestead I'm making a big effort to use EVERYTHING. So after we gobbled up all the grapes this summer I harvested the softest of the vine leaves. And did another one of, what FarmerBuckaroo, calls my science experiments. Canning is not one of my projects of choice. They are easy enough but extremely time consuming. Pickling grape vine leaves is no exception. But the proof will be in the tasting when we make our very own Karoo style Dolmades stuffed with savoury rice, herbs and roast nuts. Oh, and a good squeeze of fresh lemon! Yum
To get started I picked 100 grape leaves. You have to make sure there are no little critters hiding in the leaves and rinse well.
Stack the leaves in piles of about 10. Half fill a big pot with water - about 4 litres - and bring to the boil, adding a tablespoon of salt.
Once boiling keep the water on simmer and carefully pop in one pile of grape leaves at a time. You need to poach them for about a minute, on either side. Flip after the first minute for even poaching.
Then pop them into a bucket of iced water to preserve the colour and stop the cooking process. The leaves will lose their deep green colour and become khaki in colour. Once all your piles are poached and chilled mix the brine.
PICKLED GRAPE LEAF BRINE:
100 Grape Vine leaves
2 - 3 cups of filtered water
1/3 cup Bottled Lemon (not fresh)
1/3 cup Salt
Sterilized canning jar and string.
Once your leaves are poached, fold the edges of each pile over to make a neat and uniform "cigar" roll. Then tightly roll each pile and carefully tie them with pieces of string. Pop into your brine. When you are ready for a Greek meze party make your Dolmades!
Cultural dishes are special because of their history as well as their signature flavour. I love sampling different foods that sets each country and culture apart. Baklava and Dolmades are probably two of my favourite Greek foods. Every year on the homestead we enjoy a bumper crop of grapes but this year has been all about foraging and not wasting a thing that can be eaten or used as natural medicine. Dolmades are our new favourite foraged food!