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.
I’ve only had stuffed grape leaves once before at our annual Greek Festival and I didn’t love them. So I was a bit unsure of this challenge, but I wanted to give it a try since I’ve been a fan of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness for a long time now. There were two recipes to choose from and I thought my family would like the Grape Leaves Stuffed with Ground Meat and Rice (Hashu) with Apricot Tamarind Sauce (Yebra) best.
The recipe is really easy, just a bit time consuming to stuff and roll them. We ended up eating about 8:00 at night because I underestimated how much time it would take to make them. My family liked them, but didn’t love them. I enjoyed the sauce, which was sweet but not too sweet, but definitely salty even though I thoroughly rinsed the grape leaves as instructed. My husband liked the saltiness, but was unsure about the seasonings in the filling. I think we all would have enjoyed the filling as much without the grape leaves just served over rice.
I served the stuffed grape leaves with one of my family’s favorite, Greek Souvlaki.
If you’re a fan of stuffed grape leaves, give this one a try. The sauce really is a great addition to stuffed grape leaves. Visit the Daring Kitchen Recipe Achieve for the challenge recipes. Thanks Lori for a fun challenge.
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
mmm, apricot and tamarind. What wonderful flavors in these stuffed grape leaves!
Wow, does that ever look good. I love most dolmathes, so I’m guessing I’d like this.
I felt the same way… wasn’t a big fan to begin with, but gave the challenge a fair shake. We also liked the filling itself better than the completed rolls. You did an awesome job, and your completed rolls really are beautiful. Really well done.
They look absolutely delicious! I need to try the version with the apricot tamarind sauce too!
Hats off to you Barbara.. these dolma are so perfectly rolled!!! I don’t like stuffed grape leaves much either.. find them too much effort for not much earthshattering flavor
Pretty presentation, And you are daring. I must admit, I will eat just about anything, really anything, but….I hate grape leaves. They are not for me. You are a good sport. How was the trip?
They look really good and makes a beautiful presentation. I’m glad you found your leaves and got to try it.
I cant believe you won the I Pad. I’m so glad it was you!
They looks gorgeous, but I’m not much a a grape leaf fan either. Now the apricot sauce sound interesting.
Mimi
Pretty! I was not the biggest fan of mine but it was a great challenge anyway – Daring Kitchen always keeps us on our toes.
You did a fantastic job. The filling would be terrific over rice or stuffed in a zucchini. I wanted to stuff a zucchini with mine as well but never ended up doing it. Thank you for giving it a try despite your disinterest.
I really enjoy grape leaves and have always wanted to try making them at home. I’ve always ate them plain, without sauce. This sauce recipe sounds like a fun way to eat them!
That sauce really does make a difference. Greta job on the challenge.
Your stuffed grape leaves look perfect. And serving them with souvlaki must have made a very tasty dinner. Great job on this challenge
ooo that sauce sounds amazing. I’m not sure I’ll ever try these again, but I imagine that sauce would make it even better.
Great work on this challenge and your photos are wonderful. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
I’m a Greek geek. I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten Greek food, but the photo does make the dish look appetizing. I commend all you Daring Cooks for trying new things.
Apricot and tamarind… never had this combination before. the dish looks so awesome.. very well made.
These look really delicious. Great job!
What an interesting combination! It does look like it works perfectly! That is definitely fabulous!
Your grape leaves look beautiful, Barb. I don’t care for stuffed grape leaves myself, so I took the cabbage route. Also, to kill two entries with one comment, your pink chocolate macarons are gorgeous! I’m hoping to squeeze a pink macaron in before the deadline – especially since it’s for such a great cause
The sauce does sounds good! Not a huge fan of grape leaves either, so I used cabbage for this challenge.
Great work on the rolling, they look so neat and the first photo is oh-so-appetising. I’ve eaten bought versions of stuffed vine leaves (dolmades), and have to admit the leaves themselves don’t do much for me too, but I like the fillings.
Looks like your Stuffed Grape Leaves came out perfect! I would love to make these at home!
Yummy Barbs! Your recipe should go into a recipe book! Its so mouth watering! Will get that going in my kitchen too.
PS:Great to meet you here on your blog! Looking forward to a wonderful connection! Enomfon
This combination looks amazing! I must try this!
this dish looks like a work of art.. so pretty. thank you for sharing this. have a lovely weekend.
Yum!
I’m not crazy about grape leaves either and I think it’s great that your family tried them. It’s good for us to try new things and they do look good.
I think the apricot tamarind sauce would be a great addition to these dolmades, nice little touch.
So sad you don’t really like grape leaves. I could eat them by the bottle full. Do you like pickles? What a good sport you were to make these anyway. Dedication to the group. We love Greek Souvlaki as well!
I loved eating stuffed grape leaves while traveling in Greece. I never came across one with Apricot Tamarind Sauce though. That’s a dish I’d love to try. I like how the orange accents the green in your photos too.
Those have original flavors! Your rolls look perfect and must taste wonderful.
Cheers,
Rosa
While I don’t care for Greek style grape leaves (really any rice based stuffing), I truly love Vietnamese beef stuffed grape leaves (bo nuong la nho) the sausage filling and spicy sweet dipping sauce is a very different beast, worth a try before you write off grape leaves all together