Stuffed Grape Leaves – Dolma or Dolmades Recipe – Sapolopolous

Stuffed Grape Leaves – Dolma or Dolmades Recipe – Sapolopolous

Origin:
Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes common in the Middle East and surrounding regions including Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia, Central Asia, as well as Cyprus . Common vegetables to stuff include tomato, pepper, onion, zucchini, eggplant, and garlic. Grape or cabbage leaves wrapped around a filling are called ‘sarma’, but are also often called ‘dolma’ or ‘yaprak dolma’ (Долма:Russian Translation) The stuffing may or may not include meat. Meat dolmas are generally served warm, often with egg-lemon or garlic yogurt sauce; meatless ones are generally served cold. Stuffed vegetables are also common in the Italian cuisine, where they are named ripieni

Armenian:
In Armenian cuisine, minced lamb meat or beef is mixed with rice and wrapped into grape leaves (tpov tolma – թփով տոլմա) or occasionally in cabbage leaves (kaghambi tolma – կաղամբի տոլմա). This dish is condimented with coriander, dill, mint, pepper, cinnamon and melted butter. Sometimes chestnuts and peas are part of the mix. Yogurt with garlic is often used as a sauce. Eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, onions, quince and apples are also stuffed with lamb meat or beef and also called dolma. Echmiadzin tolma utilizes eggplants, green peppers, tomatoes, apples, and quinces. There are varying styles of how dolma is made.

In Armenia, vine leaves are usually served with yogurt mixed with crushed garlic. To prepare the dish, the meat used in dolma is: pork, beef and a little lamb. Herbs such as basil, oregano, tarragon are used. When cooking dolma it is necessary to take the most delicate and young leaves. There is also a pasuts dolma – lean dolma, a stuffing that includes lentils, red kidney beans, peas, wheat grits, fried onions, tomato paste.

Usually the three vegetables are cooked at the same time in the same pan. Also, eggplant shells are prepared in various ways before they are stuffed. Some blanch them in boiling water, some fry, some make a slit alongside the vegetable, some simply cut off the hat, scoop out the flesh and fill up the cavity with the stuffing.

Greek
Different types of Greek dolma.
In Greek cuisine, dolma usually refers to the vine-leaf version, and there are many variations. Some prepare it with an avgolemono (egg and lemon) sauce, others prefer a tomato sauce. They can be cooked in a pan in the oven, while others prefer to cook them on the stovetop.[8] Stuffed peppers, tomatoes, and other vegetables are called gemista (Greek: γεμιστά ‘stuffed thing’); the stuffing is typically rice-based and meatless, though meat versions exist as well.

Lebanese:
In Lebanon, stuffed vegetables are called “mehshi” and the grape leaf (“warak”), cabbage (“malfouf”) and eggplant (“sheik”) forms are the most common. Lamb and rice are traditional fillings; olive oil is often used to moisten or secure the wraps. They are often eaten with yogurt.

Turkey:
In Turkey, there are two main categories of dolma; those filled with a meat mixture: minced meat (“kıyma”), onion, pinenut, rice, oil and some spices; and those filled with a rice mixture (without meat): rice, olive oil, pinenuts, currants (or dried figs/cherries), herbs (fresh parsley, dill and mint) and spices (usually allspice, cinnamon and black pepper). Meat dolma is always eaten hot; meatless ones, “zeytinyağlı dolma” (dolma with olive oil) – “yalancı dolma” (false dolma), usually at room temperature, as a meze with lemon sauce.

Turkish dolma with meat is a main course and is always served with yogurt, normally garlic-yogurt. An egg-milk based sauce is sometimes used for yaprak sarma with meat in some regions. In others (for example Tokat, Black Sea region), a natural tomato sauce is served on the plate. Common types include peppers (biber dolma), eggplant/aubergine (patlıcan dolma), artichoke (“enginar dolması”), zucchini/courgette (kabak dolma), plum (erikli dolma), collard greens (karalahana dolma), vine, chard and cabbage leaves (lahana sarma), zucchini flowers (çiçek dolma) or sun-dried eggplant dolma (Gaziantep). Tomatoes, pumpkin and some fruits such as quince, apple or melon are also used to make dolma in Turkish cuisine.

Sources (Wikipedia)
Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.
Gosetti Della Salda, Anna (1967). Le ricette regionali italiane (in Italian). Milano: Solares.