What’s cooking today: Dolmades, two ways

The first recipe here is for dolmades the traditional Greek way, as learnt from reading many texts and recipes, watching videos, much browsing, and inspired by my colleague, Marita van der Vyver, who wrote about making dolmades using the vine leaves in her Provence garden, before she went on her somewhat belated gap year. I am indebted to her for her inspiration in this column she wrote for TGIFood, and for being encouraging and generous in her sharing of how to do it as well.

The second recipe was borne of having not used all the skilpadjie filling I made when I finally found the courage to make this local delicacy a few months ago, caul and all. I had frozen the remaining mixture after the pieces of caul I had had all been used up. When we had guests last week and I realised that the grapevine out back still had many young leaves on it, the idea struck me to use that filling for dolmades instead of a traditional mixture.

And I am here to tell you that a skilpadjie filling of minced liver and whatnot makes for a fabulous dolmades filling.

But the traditional recipe first…

For beef mince dolmades:

500 g lean beef mince

¾ cup uncooked rice

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small tomato, seeded and finely chopped

6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp tomato paste

2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Salt and black pepper

40 grape leaves

6 or more large vine leaves

2 Tbsp lemon juice

4 to 6 lemons, sliced thinly

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Method

Wash the leaves and snip off the stems. Bring water to a boil and blanch the leaves. Drain and refresh in iced water. Pat dry and keep aside.

Line the base of a deep steamer with 6 or so large vine leaves, overlapping. (These need not be blanched.)

In a large bowl, mix together the uncooked rice, mince, onion, garlic, tomato, tomato paste, oregano, cumin, cinnamon, 3 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper. The rice will cook inside the dolmades.

Fill and roll each vine leaf by laying it smooth side down and spooning in about 1 heaped tsp of the filling at the stem end, roll it away from you, then fold the sides in and continue rolling. Place them carefully on top of the vine leaves in the steamer.

When you have a full layer, cover it with lemon slices and repeat. Top with another layer of large unblanched vine leaves. Weight it down with a heavy plate. Put the lid on and steam for about 45 minutes, until the rice is cooked and tender.

For skilpadjie dolmades:

500 g lamb’s liver

1 scant Tbsp coriander seeds, crushed with a mortar and pestle, toasted, then crushed again

1 heaped tsp rosemary needles, finely chopped

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp Griebenschmalz or lard

Salt and black pepper

1 slice of bread

4 Tbsp milk

Method

Chop the liver into tiny pieces.

Mix the other ingredients together in a bowl or bakkie. Add the liver and stir, then stir in the griebenschmalz or (melted and cooled) lard. Leave to one side while you prepare the caul.

Soften the caul by covering it with water for half an hour, then drain and pat it dry.

Soak the bread in the milk, squeeze out the milk and crumble it into the mixture, and stir it in.

Now follow the rest of the recipe for dolmades as above, the only difference being that you use this filling instead of the first one. Lekker, nê? DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Champion 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is available in the DM Shop. Buy it here. 

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks. Share your versions of his recipes with him on Instagram and he’ll see them and respond.

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