Group member, Sam asked if he could take some of our grapevine leaves home to make some food. Little did we know we would be in for such a treat!

Here, I will hand over the blog to Sam!

This is an Ottoman Cuisine, it is a special dish, common in the countries previously were under The Ottoman rule.

Vine leaves: Rich in vitamins and minerals !! Iron, Copper, Magnesium, Manganese, Folate, Fibre, Vitamins C E A K B6. Antioxidants that protect the cells from the harmful effects, decreasing the possibility of severe diseases, such as various forms of cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

So this recipe is not only very difficult but it's also very easy:

TIP: you can add to, or subtract from, anything mentioned here in terms of ingredients.

What you need is a mixture, of course, to stuff the leaves with.

Mixture: basically this could be anything : rice diced tomatoes fine chopped onions fine chopped garlic chopped or diced tomatoes olive oil (one or two spoons) herbs like black pepper paprika salt etc

TIP: vary the amounts of ingredients to get different results and flavours (ie..you can experiment !)

Other ingredients maybe some tomato paste (this helps binding the mixture as you wrap the leaves with the mixture, but you can leave tomato paste out!)

If available use chopped parsley chopped dill chopped fresh mint or dried mint.

Preparing freshly harvested leaves:

To cook, the idea is you wrap the grape leaves, then arrange these at the bottom of a pot in a tight formation and in layers upon layers if are making for a few people; add enough cold liquid water (cold water or cold water with lemon juice or water with dissolved tomato paste and salt) to cover or to almost cover the stuffed leaves. Cook for an hour or more or less..depending if you want the rice to be very soft or al dente.

So to start cooking, boil with high heat, after the sauce or water is bubbling reduce heat to low or medium, cover the pot.

Notes:

After you have put all the stuffed leaved arranged in tight formation and in layers if you made enough, you need to put an empty plate on top of them. This will prevent the wraps opening up when boiling.

Too much liquid or and/or longer cooking time will give you softer rice.

You may also add pomegranate molasses (to the sauce) if you have this at hand.

You can apply the same method to stuff other vegetable, like onions, aubergines.

(My favorites are Aubergine and Vine leaves, but you can do cabbage or zucchini and more!)

Thanks and hope you love it.

BE DARING.