Stuffed vine leaves with garlic sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 pack of pickled vine leaves
• ½ kg minced beef
• ½ kg long grain rice
• 2 onions
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp bell pepper(s), red
• 1 bunch of parsley
• olive oil
• 1 cup of yogurt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 5 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

Turkish recipe

This recipe is an original Turkish way of preparing stuffed vine leaves. One thing to note right away: rolling these little things isn’t exactly easy, but with a little practice, it shouldn’t be a problem. The whole process is divided into preparing the filling, rolling the vine leaves, and preparing the sauce. Let’s get started! For the filling, put the ground beef in a bowl. Finely chop the onions and add them. Wash the rice, discard the water, and add the raw rice to the ground beef. Add tomato paste, paprika, and chopped parsley. Then add a little olive oil, season generously with salt, and pepper. Now it gets fun: Knead the mixture vigorously with your hands until everything is well blended. Open a single vine leaf and place it on a cutting board with the rough side (a vine leaf has a rough and a smooth side) facing up, so that the end with the (cut) stem is facing you. Use a tablespoon to scoop some of the mixture into the center of the vine leaf. Spread the mixture horizontally. Now fold the bottom end (where the stem was) upwards. Fold the left end of the leaf to the right, and the right end to the left. Starting at the bottom, roll the vine leaf upwards until you have something that looks like a small, green cigar. Be careful not to roll the vine leaf too tightly. It needs to be a little loose, as the rice will expand a little during cooking, and otherwise the vine leaf could burst. Repeat this process until you have used up all the mixture. Arrange the vine leaves in a circle in a pot, layer by layer, from the outside in. Caution: During this potentially lengthy task, make sure you are sitting reasonably comfortably and upright! After sitting at this for a long time, you may easily feel a cramp in your back afterwards! Then pour hot water into the pot – exactly up to the height of the last row of vine leaves. The vine leaves must not be floating in the water! Now turn on the stove and place the pot on top. When the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to low and place a small plate upside down on top of the vine leaves to prevent them from disintegrating during cooking. The water should never boil; at most, it should bubble gently. If the vine leaves cook too quickly, the rice won’t cook through, and the leaves will remain a bit tough. Time is of the essence. Let the whole thing simmer for about an hour over medium heat. Once the water has evaporated, taste a vine leaf and check the consistency of the rice and the leaf. If necessary, add a little more water and wait until it has evaporated. To make the garlic sauce, simply put the yogurt and sour cream in a container. Peel the garlic cloves and press them into the mixture. Sprinkle with salt and stir well. Dip the finished vine leaves into the garlic sauce while eating. The great thing about this dish: The vine leaves taste just as good cold as they do hot (I actually find they taste even better cold). So there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying them the next day.