Daring Cooks: Stuffed Leaves (October 2010)
Seeing as how it's past midnight on the 14th and all...
Stuffed Leaves Served Two Ways
This month's challenge, hosted by Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, was to stuff/roll grape leaves. The mandatory bits were to make your own filling, and to stuff (grape, though variations were allowed) leaves.
Alas, I was unable to find grape leaves. My initial plan was to use napa cabbage instead, as I'd been told that grape leaves were rather similar texture-wise with napa cabbage leaves, and that grape leaves were essentially rather tasteless (I've always found napa cabbage rather tasteless too). Unfortunately, the napa cabbage I found was much too small to do decent wrap parcels... but! there was a discount on savoy cabbage, and I was quite taken by how huge and textured the leaves were, so I ended up settling on the savoy cabbage instead.
Prior to using the savoy cabbage leaves, I cut out the thickest part of the vein, at the base, sort of like a triangular thing at the bottom of the leaf, if that makes sense. I then blanched the leaves individually for a handful of seconds in boiling water to soften them.
Left: Two fillings for use. (bottom: meat; top: vegetarian)
Centre: Rolling the filling into the leave. You can see a completed one in the background.
Right: Completed rolls ready for cooking.
We were given two filling choices, one meat, and one vegetarian. Neither of them particularly appealed, though - I don't like beef, and I didn't have all the ingredients, particularly the spices, required for them - so I decided to do my own, using the basic idea the ingredient lists presented (rice + middle eastern-ish spices).
I did two types of fillings, one meat, and one vegetarian. (You can see a clearer picture of them here.) Both used the same basic filling: long-grain jasmine rice that had been soaked for a bit in hot water, minced mushrooms, diced red bell pepper, diced onion, raisins, pine nuts, crumbled feta (my brief nod to the link the challenge had with Greek cuisine), ground cinnamon, ground paprika, pepper, and a dash or three of light soy sauce. The meat one had extra raisins added (the better to cut the meatiness), some shredded fresh mint, and minced pork seasoned with cumin, paprika, and pepper.
To cook, I sweated the rolls in oil for a bit, then added a few good squeezes of lemon juice and just enough water to cover the rolls by the top segment of my index finger (much as I would do if cooking rice, which this essentially was, really) before letting the rolls simmer for about an hour. It was suggested that we add dried apricots, and possibly tamarind, to the simmering liquid for extra flavour, but I chose to forego them.
I served the meatless rolls with a Moroccan-inspired meatball dish with bonus egg.
(Here's another version of the picture on the left that's been lit differently and, arguably, more regularly. I've recently grown rather taken with sort-of back-lit subjects in photographs, but I suspect it's probably not the best kind of lighting for food photographs. Which version does everyone prefer?)
While the ones with meat were served with a healthy dollop of Greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of toasted ground paprika.
(It's not the most inspiring of things to take pictures of. Sorry.)
Here's a cross-section of the meatless version:
I don't know if the savoy cabbage actually worked, because I couldn't bring myself to eat the leaves. (I hate cabbage, and they were very cabbage-ish. ._.) The fillings, on the other hand, were incredibly delicious, so hurrah for that. I probably will give this a try again should I ever get my hands on some grape leaves.
In the meanwhile, I still have half a head of savoy cabbage to dispose of. Oh dear. *g*
Blog-checking lines: Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.
Stuffed Leaves Served Two Ways
This month's challenge, hosted by Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, was to stuff/roll grape leaves. The mandatory bits were to make your own filling, and to stuff (grape, though variations were allowed) leaves.
Alas, I was unable to find grape leaves. My initial plan was to use napa cabbage instead, as I'd been told that grape leaves were rather similar texture-wise with napa cabbage leaves, and that grape leaves were essentially rather tasteless (I've always found napa cabbage rather tasteless too). Unfortunately, the napa cabbage I found was much too small to do decent wrap parcels... but! there was a discount on savoy cabbage, and I was quite taken by how huge and textured the leaves were, so I ended up settling on the savoy cabbage instead.
Prior to using the savoy cabbage leaves, I cut out the thickest part of the vein, at the base, sort of like a triangular thing at the bottom of the leaf, if that makes sense. I then blanched the leaves individually for a handful of seconds in boiling water to soften them.
Left: Two fillings for use. (bottom: meat; top: vegetarian)
Centre: Rolling the filling into the leave. You can see a completed one in the background.
Right: Completed rolls ready for cooking.
We were given two filling choices, one meat, and one vegetarian. Neither of them particularly appealed, though - I don't like beef, and I didn't have all the ingredients, particularly the spices, required for them - so I decided to do my own, using the basic idea the ingredient lists presented (rice + middle eastern-ish spices).
I did two types of fillings, one meat, and one vegetarian. (You can see a clearer picture of them here.) Both used the same basic filling: long-grain jasmine rice that had been soaked for a bit in hot water, minced mushrooms, diced red bell pepper, diced onion, raisins, pine nuts, crumbled feta (my brief nod to the link the challenge had with Greek cuisine), ground cinnamon, ground paprika, pepper, and a dash or three of light soy sauce. The meat one had extra raisins added (the better to cut the meatiness), some shredded fresh mint, and minced pork seasoned with cumin, paprika, and pepper.
To cook, I sweated the rolls in oil for a bit, then added a few good squeezes of lemon juice and just enough water to cover the rolls by the top segment of my index finger (much as I would do if cooking rice, which this essentially was, really) before letting the rolls simmer for about an hour. It was suggested that we add dried apricots, and possibly tamarind, to the simmering liquid for extra flavour, but I chose to forego them.
I served the meatless rolls with a Moroccan-inspired meatball dish with bonus egg.
(Here's another version of the picture on the left that's been lit differently and, arguably, more regularly. I've recently grown rather taken with sort-of back-lit subjects in photographs, but I suspect it's probably not the best kind of lighting for food photographs. Which version does everyone prefer?)
While the ones with meat were served with a healthy dollop of Greek yoghurt and a sprinkling of toasted ground paprika.
(It's not the most inspiring of things to take pictures of. Sorry.)
Here's a cross-section of the meatless version:
I don't know if the savoy cabbage actually worked, because I couldn't bring myself to eat the leaves. (I hate cabbage, and they were very cabbage-ish. ._.) The fillings, on the other hand, were incredibly delicious, so hurrah for that. I probably will give this a try again should I ever get my hands on some grape leaves.
In the meanwhile, I still have half a head of savoy cabbage to dispose of. Oh dear. *g*
Blog-checking lines: Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.