1. Separate the grape leaves and place in a large bowl. (This will take a long time guessing 20 minutes.). 2. Cover the leaves in boiling water and soak for 20 minutes. 3. Drain the water and rinse leaves few times. 4. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add onion, rice, and water. 5. Cover and simmer until rice is HALF cooked, about 8 minutes. 6. Drain off and discard any liquid. 7. Add garlic to rice mixture. 8. Mix the onion/rice mixture, ground meat, tomato puree, feta, lemon zest, green onions, dill, mint salt and pepper in a large bowl. 9. PREHEAT OVEN to 375 degrees. 10. Take one leaf, shiny side down, cut off the stem, and place 1 teaspoon of the mixture at the bottom (stem) end of the leaf. (If you want a bigger amount, put 1 tablespoon of filling in.). 11. Fold both sides of the leaf towards the center, roll up from the broad bottom to the top, and place into a 4 QUART POT. 12. Repeat with all leaves, rolling tightly- leaving no gaps as leaves are placed in pot (to prevent from opening while cooking). Put onto tray. 13. Repeat until all of the filling is used up. 14. Put leftover leaves in bottom of baking dish. 15. Place stuffed grape leaves into a baking dish in layers, squeeze them gently, pack tightly into container, and just cover with chicken stock-might be too much stock. WEIGH DOWN BY placing a heavy oven proof plate inside casserole directly on top of dolmades-weigh that down with another oven proof weight. 16. Bake in a 375 degrees F oven for about 1 hour, check to see if rice is done. You do NOT want it to be a rolling boil or they will burst open. 17. Whisk the eggs in bowl over a small pan of simmering water until frothy, about 3 minutes. 18. Slowly pour in the lemon juice while whisking. 19. Gradually add some of the hot but not boiling liquid from the baking dish-guessing about 5 tablespoons- and continue whisking until it thickens. 20. Mix most of the avgolemeno sauce into the dish with the dolmades reserving some for garnish. 21. Serve the dolmades garnished with the reserved avgolemeno sauce and some chopped dill and or mint. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nutrition
Ingredients
