Dolmas, that tasty delight from the Middle East. I wasn’t impressed you may say. That’s most likely because you have only had ones you have gotten in cans or at a deli counter, which most likely came out of a can as well. Those pathetic offerings are usually at best underwhelming. They are usually overcooked so the rice is mushy, and they seldom contain the traditional ingredients; currants and pine nuts.
So, to make your own, which can be excellent, you will first need preserved grape leaves and they can be both expensive and difficult to fine. Commercially they are sometimes available in jars in specialty shops and they cost a fortune for not very many leaves. If you however are fortunate enough to live in the wine country, or if you have a grape vine, you can easily gather and preserve your own.The best time to gather grape leaves is between the end of July and the end of August. The leaves have reached their full size but haven’t yet become tough. You want to gather grape leaves that are between four and six inches in diameter and from a variety where the space between the lobes is not too deeply incised.
After gathering your grape leaves, soak them and rinse them in cold running water and let them drain. Then, with a pair of kitchen scissors, clip off the stem as close to the base of the leaf as possible. Now, sort them by size and put them in stacks of about a dozen, or what ever is manageable. Place the stacks of leaves in a plastic refrigerator container with a tight fitting lid. Mix a brine that is two teaspoons of table salt to each quart of cold water fill the container so that all the leaves are submerged. Any parts of the leaves that are not submerged will turn icky and need to be discarded. Place the container in the refrigerator. The grape leaves will be ready to use in about a week.
Grape leaves preserved in this manner will keep for up to a year, however, you should pour off the old brine and add new about every other month. I make a lot of dolmas and find that the leaves preserved in this manner will last from mid August when I usually gather them, until the following spring. I have usually run out of them by them.
Now that you have your grape leaves you are ready to make delectable dolmas. Take as many as you are going to need out of the container and rinse them well in cold water, drain and follow this recipe. A platter of these delectable dolmas, scattered with locally cured olives and Marinated Roasted Peppers is a sure crowd pleaser at any event.
In visiting several wineries in Sonoma County yesterday to find a wine that would both stand up to and complement the robust flavors in this particular recipes for dolmas, I found one at Sunce Winery in Santa Rosa. The winemaker and founder of Sunce is Croatian and has brought his families wine making tradition to California. Malvasia is a white wine grape from the Mediterranean and so it is not surprising that it would make a wine that would pair nicely with dolmas, which after all, also come from the Mediterranean. Sunce’s 2010 Malvasia Bianca from the Capp Family Vineyard in Suisun Valley was indeed the perfect match for this dolmas recipe.
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