well I just looked at Youtube and none of the recipes are like the one I do
they all cook the filling first and I never do that! you can google how to roll them but basically just pour boiling salted water over your vine leaves in a big bowl ..leave it for a min or two then drain and put cold water on them to cool then drain ..spread out and stack them up on a plate ..cutting the stems off (you can freeze them at this point but I have never tried ..you can also can these in brine )
put them vein side up on a dish spoon a bit of the filling in and roll them up like a tiny burrito
my filling varies and I never cook anything first I just make it like meatballs and then stuff the leaves and let the filling cook in the leaves..
this time it was
2 lbs of half and half ground lamb and beef (or just beef or just lamb or cooked bulger wheat and cooked lentils if you do not eat meat)
3 spring onions minced with spring garlic
handful of flat leaf parsley minced
handful of mint minced
2 handfuls of fresh spinach minced
1/2 tsp each ...ground coriander, ground cinnamon, allspice and ground cumin
1 tsp cracked pepper
pinch of saffron
salt to taste
2 eggs
1/2 cup of raw soaked and drained basmatti rice
and 3 canned tomatoes (saved the rest of the can...use a big can.. for the sauce)
I lined a Dutch oven with fig leaves (but grape leaves are what you should use I was experimenting and it was great!) put a couple of cups of diced rhubarb on the bottom and half the left over tomatoes with juice...layer the stuffed vine leaves on top of that...then top with more rhubarb and the other half of the tomatoes ..put vine leaves or fig leaves on top ..cover the Dutch oven and cook at 300 for an hour then reduce the heat to 200 and let slow cook for a couple more hours until everything is fork tender!
the rhubarb and tomatoes makes a very wonderful sauce with the flavor of the grape leaves
enjoy
