Dolma is one of the most popular dishes of the peoples of Central Asia and the Caucasus. However, thanks to its delicious original taste and at the same time quite simple preparation, it also occupies a worthy place in our kitchen. The principle of this dish is similar to our cabbage rolls, but grape leaves are taken as the basis instead of cabbage, and there are also some differences in the selection of spices, the preparation and serving.
The ideal option for dolma, of course, are fresh young grape leaves, the size of a palm. But the period of their youth is limited and therefore the leaves are plucked and harvested for future use at the beginning of summer in order to use them all year round to prepare your favorite dish.
There are many ways to do this. We will talk about them in detail below in our article.
Harvesting grape leaves for the winter for dolma
Leaves for dolma can be either pickled or kept fresh. To do this, thoroughly wash the freshly torn sheets, lay them out on a clean towel and let them dry thoroughly. Not a drop of moisture should remain on them, this is very important for perfect preservation. Then we stack the leaves on top of each other in a pile of up to ten pieces and turn them into a tight roll. Next, wrap the roll with cling film and put it in the freezer for storage.
If the volumes of your freezer do not allow you to make large-scale preparations, then the rolled leaves can be placed in glass jars very tightly, rolled up with lids and sterilized in the oven for twenty minutes.
Some experienced housewives use another simple and very effective way to store grape leaves. Prepared dense rolls are placed in plastic half-liter bottles. Each will include approximately five bundles of ten sheets. Then squeeze the container to remove air as much as possible and screw it on with a cork. Thus, the leaves remain fresh for a long time. This is possible, of course, provided that their surface is sufficiently well dried from moisture residues, otherwise they may become moldy.
How to pickle grape leaves for dolma?
Grape leaves for dolma can also be pickled. To do this, we thoroughly wash the fresh young leaves, put them in a deep bowl, pour hot water over it and immediately drain it. Slightly softened by blanching, we assemble the leaves in several pieces and fold them into rolls or envelopes. Then we put the bundles tightly in a prepared clean sterile jar and pour hot marinade. To prepare it, heat water to a boil, add three or four peas of allspice, half a teaspoon of mustard powder and a teaspoon of salt. This is a calculation for one liter jar of grape leaves. Be sure to make sure that the brine fills all the voids between the leaves in the jar. Then we twist the containers with boiled sterile lids and determine for storage in the pantry to other blanks.
How to salt and store grape leaves for dolma?
Grape leaves are perfectly stored in a simple saline solution. For such a preparation, we cut off young grape leaves together with the cuttings, wash them well, put ten things together and tie them with a clean thread. We put the bundles in a clean jar and fill them with a simple saline solution. To prepare it, we dissolve in cold water such an amount of non-iodized salt that a raw egg floats on the surface. The leaves must be completely covered with salty liquid, so during storage it is necessary to add it as it is absorbed by the leaves and the level of brine decreases. Jars with such a blank are covered with nylon lids and determined for storage in a cool place.
Preserving grape leaves for dolma for the winter is not difficult, but not every skilled housewife knows about this possibility. But many people would like to please their family with a delicious dish of oriental cuisine on one of the long winter evenings. Dolma - a mixture of rice, minced meat and spicy greens, wrapped in a delicate grape leaf, will please even the most sophisticated gourmet. And if there are no problems with the filling in winter, then the leaves should be prepared in advance.
Dolma is a mixture of meat, rice and herbs wrapped in a grape leaf.
Proper preparation is the key to success
Collection, sorting and proper preparation of grape leaves is half the battle.
Chefs of successful restaurants of Azerbaijani, Georgian and Armenian cuisines recommend using young leaves of white table grapes, which are picked during the flowering period of the vine (in May-June). When harvesting, preference should be given to thin, smooth and soft leaves with delicate small veins. The surface of the sheet should be smooth on both sides (no edging on the underside).
Do not use for food:
Do not eat leaves affected by pests or diseases.
- leaves of wild grapes (maiden or decorative);
- old leaves;
- leaves with signs of damage by pests, fungus, mold;
- leaves with sunburn.
You should also avoid collecting leaves that have changed their traditional green color to lemon, yellow, whitish or cream.
It is easy not to make a mistake with the age of the leaf, using the advice of experienced gardeners and winemakers: pluck the fifth, sixth and seventh leaves from the top of the vine. It is advisable to harvest grape leaves before spraying against pests and diseases.
The plucked leaves must be sorted out, washed under running water, cut off the stalk from each. Now the leaves can be harvested for the winter using one of the following methods:
- freezing;
- pickling;
- dry canning;
- salting;
- dry ambassador.
Some housewives additionally pour boiling water over raw materials. If you plan to harvest using salting or pickling, then this action is not necessary.
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Freezing and fresh storage
Leaves should be washed thoroughly before freezing.
Freeze. Freezing in the refrigerator is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to store grape leaves, allowing you to save all the nutrients and vitamins in the raw material without compromising the natural taste. All that is required for this is a product and cling film.
Freezing rules:
- Fold the washed and dried leaves in piles of 15-30 pieces. One frozen batch should be enough for one dolma.
- Cut the cling film into small pieces.
- Put a stack of leaves in the middle of the film cut.
- Roll the leaves together with the film into a tight roll.
- Tighten the remaining film, forming a sealed bag.
- Place portions in the freezer.
Leaves frozen in this way can be stored at -18 0 C for 6 to 9 months. The main disadvantage of freezing is the fragility of the frozen product, so you need to make sure that there is enough space in the freezer so that other products do not crush the leaves. It is best to defrost the main part of the dolma in the main compartment of the refrigerator, without unrolling the rolls until completely defrosted. Another simple way to preserve grape leaves for the winter is dry canning.
Method number 1:
- prepare glass jars and lids for canning;
- put the washed and dried leaves tightly in jars, sprinkling every 15 pieces with a small amount of salt;
- put open jars in the oven and sterilize for 5-10 minutes;
- roll up jars with lids;
- store in a dark place.
To freeze grape leaves, you will need plastic food wrap.
Method number 2:
- prepare clean, dry plastic bottles with caps;
- fold the leaves in a small pile (4-6 pieces), twist into tight rolls;
- push each roll into the neck of a plastic bottle;
- fill the bottles as tightly as possible;
- release excess air from the container by pressing on the bottle, tighten the cap tightly;
- store in a dark place at room temperature.
Helpful Hints:
- before preserving the leaves, it is necessary to let them lie down a little (wither), after which they will be easier to curl up and compact more densely;
- if necessary, the plastic bottle is carefully cut with kitchen scissors.
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Pickling in a glass container
The main ingredient of dolma can be pickled, just like ordinary vegetables. In this case, recipes can be very diverse.
Vinegar recipe. Required products:
- grape leaves;
- 1 head of garlic;
- 1 liter of water;
- 0.5 cups of sugar;
- 2 tablespoons salt;
- 0.5 cup 9% vinegar;
- black peppercorns.
For the preparation of pickled leaves, vinegar is required.
Cooking method:
- scald leaves with boiling water and dry;
- fold in piles, roll up the envelopes and put them tightly in sterilized glass jars;
- prepare the marinade by bringing water to a boil and adding vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper to it;
- pour jars with boiling marinade;
- roll up the lids.
Leaves marinated in this way have a spicy salty taste. For those who are against preserving food using vinegar, another method is suitable.
Recipe with dry mustard. Required Ingredients:
- 50-60 grape leaves;
- 1 tsp dry mustard;
- 1 tsp salt;
- a pinch of ground black pepper;
- water.
Cooking method:
- pour over the leaves with boiling water and drain the water;
- stack in piles of 10 pieces, form tight rolls;
- put in sterilized jars;
- sprinkle the rolls with mustard, salt and black pepper;
- completely pour boiling water and roll up the lid;
- turn the jars over onto the lids and wrap tightly until completely cooled;
- store in a dark cool place.
Canned grape leaves are best used during the next cold season and should not be stored for more than 1 year.
The main use of grape leaves is cooking. As a rule, young leaves of white grapes are eaten. The most favorable time for collecting such leaves is the flowering period of the vine. The tender juicy leaf collected during this period has a pleasant sour taste.
The leaves of red grapes are used much less often, because they are more rigid and have a too jagged edge.
An extremely useful culinary property of grape leaves is their ability to reveal their taste during heat treatment (boiling, baking, frying or stewing). In the process of cooking, they perfectly absorb the aroma of other products, and also willingly give up some of their own fresh taste.
Combinations with smoked meats or fatty meats, such as lamb, allow you to most fully reveal the taste of the grape leaf. In addition, grape leaves harmonize well with beans, lentils or chickpeas. Young tender leaves, along with honey and dried fruits, are included in the recipe for sweet pilaf.
Grape leaves are great for making stuffed dishes. The most famous of them - dolma (tolma) , which is known not only to the peoples of the Middle East and Transcaucasia, but also to Europeans Meat is wrapped in leaves withrice , the dish is steamed, baked in a saucepan or fried in a pan and served hot. They also make vegetarian dolma (with rice), which is usually served chilled.
Grape leaves can also be stuffed with fish. The classic dish of the cuisine of Sephardic Jews - "blue" - is a baked fish (for example, trout, mullet or crucian carp) in grape leaves, under "tkhina" (sesame sauce) and pomegranate seeds.
Grape leaves can be prepared for the winter, and this is usually done in the spring, when they are most tender. One of the ways is to tightly wrap them in cloth, paper, and best of all, in polyethylene, trying to keep as little air as possible inside this “package”, and put them in the freezer. When defrosting, the leaves must first be kept in cold water, then dipped in hot water for five minutes.
Grape leaves can be salted and pickled. Here are some ways:
1 Vine leaves (3-4 vine leaves) washed in cold water. Roll 20 leaves into tubes and tie. We lower the prepared tubes in turn in boiling water for a few seconds. and then into cold water. Immediately put the tubes in half-liter jars and pour cold brine into 1 liter of water 40 g of salt. jars do not roll up. and leave for three days to ferment. After three days, add 1 tsp of vinegar and brine to each jar. if the banks are not full. We sterilize the jars for 15-20 minutes and roll them up.
2 Young leaves of grapes to collect, wash. Roll up rolls of 5-7 leaves and put in half-liter jars. Pour boiling water over twice, and for the third time pour marinade, prepared in the required amount. in the specified proportion. to prepare the marinade: for 1 liter of water 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar and 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar. before cooking, the leaves are washed from the marinade.
3 Another way.We collect young light green leaves, rinse them thoroughly with running water.Pour boiling water for 3 minutes, immediately cool in cold water.We roll into tubes of 10 pieces. put in a jar tightly.Pour boiling water twice for 5 minutes, the third time with boiling brine - 1 tbsp for 1 liter of water. salt.Roll up and wrap in a blanket until completely cool.In winter, be sure to soak the excess salt!
And here is another interesting and unusual way of salting leaves. Unfortunately not written. who is author. You need to take the youngest, tender, small grape leaves that grow at the very tips of the vine (no further than the fourth leaf). Like these ones
Leaves should be picked up a couple of packages at least. In general, the more the better) Important! Leaves should be whole, dry and clean.
Now we fold the leaves into several pieces, roll them into a tube and put them into a bottle.
We need a rolling pin to periodically compact the leaves with it. It is necessary to press gently, but strongly, trying to keep as little free space as possible in the bottle.
When the bottle is full, salt should be poured into the neck. As much as you like, to the brim) If you filled the bottle tightly enough, then the salt should not seep down. It will remain in the neck, on or slightly go down. Next, the bottle should be tightly twisted and put away in a cold place. It can be in the refrigerator, it can be in the basement.
In the next photo on the right - last year's preparation (the one that we did not have time to eat in the winter), on the left - today's. It can be seen that the leaves have changed color, that they have "sat down", but the taste of the leaves has not changed.
Everything is quite simple, isn't it?) You may have only one question - how to get this precious product out of the bottle? And very simple) When you start cooking tolma, take a sharp knife and cut off the bottom of the bottle without regret. The leaves will happily fall out to meet you) All you have to do is rinse them from salt, throw them into boiling water, boil for about five minutes and start cooking one of the most delicious dishes in the world - tolma from vine leaves!
Dolma came to our cuisine from the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia and conquered everyone with its indescribable taste and ease of preparation. By principle, it resembles our cabbage rolls, only it is much smaller and wrapped not in a cabbage, but in a grape leaf. To prepare dolma, you can use both freshly picked and processed grape leaves - salted or pickled. In combination with lamb or ground beef, they give a sour-spicy-meat taste unusual for the Russian people and go well with kefir or cream sauce. Many may think that dolma can only be cooked in early summer, while grape leaves are still soft and fresh. In fact, a grape leaf is very easy to harvest for the winter in any quantity.
How to save fresh grape leaves for the winter
Fresh leaves for dolma can either be frozen or kept as is. For any of the options, they need to be washed, scalded with boiling water and dried well so that not a drop of water remains on them. Just keep in mind that the frozen leaf is fragile. In order not to damage it, it is better to store it in a separate chamber. To keep it fresh, roll ten leaves into tight rolls and stuff them into a jar. It is more convenient to take seven hundred grams. Close the metal lid and sterilize in the oven for 20 minutes. Then screw the lids on and put the leaves in a dark place. In winter, you can cook dolma from grape leaves, as if they had just been plucked from a bush.Pickled grape leaves for dolma for the winter
Prepare the following ingredients for one liter jar:- grape leaves;
- A few peas of allspice;
- A teaspoon of salt.
A traditional oriental dish is fragrant dolma, which conquers with its excellent taste. It is based on fresh grape leaves, mixed minced meat, rice. Following the recipes of a classic dish, even a novice hostess can create a culinary masterpiece. The main thing is to collect in time, then save the green gifts of the vineyard - tender, shining in the sun, reeking of slight sourness. Proper preparation will allow you to enjoy the original dish all winter.
Appetizing dolma: how to save leaves
The national cuisine of the peoples of the Middle East, the countries of the Caucasus, impressive with the richness of culinary masterpieces, attracts many. Its bright representative is the delicious dolma. The main component of the dish is succulent leaves collected from the vine at the end of May. They are rich in trace elements, vitamins, flavonoids, fiber, antioxidants. Tender meat, thin shell, with a slight sourness, spicy aroma - a colorful oriental dish will decorate a festive table, a family feast, a meeting of friends.
Grape leaves are used fresh, harvested in spring, or harvested for the winter. The latter retain all the useful properties, allowing you to cook a delicious dish at any time. There are many ways to store the ingredients for dolma:
- freezing;
- pickling;
- canning (cold/hot method);
- dry salting.
An important step in the harvesting process is the selection of raw materials. It must be collected on time, without visible damage, without pests. The best component of dolma is the preparation of leaves harvested from white grape varieties (for example, the ag shany variety in Azerbaijan). They are characterized by a smooth surface, delicate texture. Heat treatment reveals their unique aroma, giving the dish a piquant taste.
All kinds of recipes for preparing leaves will allow you to choose a convenient way to preserve the useful component of dolma.
Freezing: the nuances of the method
The freezing process is a popular storage method for many fruits, vegetables, and berries. Grape leaves are no exception. In the freezer, they will retain their beneficial properties as much as possible. Freezing includes several stages:
- cuttings are cut from the leaf plate;
- wipe them with a clean cloth;
- put in a pile of 10-12 pieces;
- neatly rolled into a tight roll;
- wrapped in cling film.
A great idea is to use quick freezing: this will preserve the maximum amount of vitamins.
Advice. The leaves are not recommended to be washed before the harvesting process. When frozen, excess moisture in them will turn into ice: as a result, they will become brittle, brittle, it will be difficult to wrap minced meat in them.
Before use, the leaves are thawed, scalded with boiling water, and dolma is obtained from them, which impresses with its appearance, bright flavors, and delicate aroma.
Salting: the subtleties of canning
A practical way to harvest leaves is to use steep brine. Prepare a 10% salt solution in advance. Washed grape leaves are placed in jars, then poured with brine: it should completely cover the contents. Close with lids (nylon or metal), store in a cool place. It is advisable to rinse them before use: this will get rid of excess salt.
The second salting method involves long-term storage of aromatic ingredients for dolma. In glass jars, previously sterilized, lay the leaves twisted into tubes. Scald them with boiling water. The procedure is repeated twice. Then pour brine (15 g of salt per 1 liter of water). The container is screwed on with lids. Leaf blanks are used throughout the year, while the contents do not need to be soaked beforehand.
Fans of an exquisite oriental dish prepare the green components of dolma in large quantities. To do this, use salting in barrels. Leaves, folded in stacks of 25 pieces, are wrapped in tubes. They are placed in a circle in a barrel, rammed, then poured with cooled brine. The contents of the barrel are covered with a cloth, gauze, and a load is installed.
Advice. To give a spicy flavor to the salting, peppercorns, dry mustard, caraway seeds are poured into the container.
Dry salting - a practical way to store
First, the leaves of the vineyard are washed, dried thoroughly. Then they are put in glass jars, carefully sprinkled with salt. The contents are tightly packed. The next stage is sterilization, lasting about 15 minutes. The jars are then hermetically sealed. When dry canned, the leaves look freshly plucked from the vine, retaining their unique aroma and excellent taste.
The second option is the dry salting method. It is increasingly preferred by experienced housewives. Plastic bottles, salt, fresh leaves - everything you need for a rational storage method. Each sheet plate, cleaned of dust, is salted, wrapped in a knot, placed in a container. Tightly packed in a plastic bottle, they are stored all winter, preferably in the dark, in a cool place. Before preparing fragrant dolma, the blanks are soaked in water, washed, blanched.
Having chosen the right recipe, any housewife will be able to keep the grape leaves filled with freshness, spring, the life-giving force of nature. They will become the basis of dolma melting in your mouth, reflecting the flavor of the East.
Harvesting grape leaves: video
