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.
nicky k
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
Rosa
Those have original flavors! Your rolls look perfect and must taste wonderful.
Cheers,
Rosa
Gennaro
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.
Cristie
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!
Anna Johnston
I think the apricot tamarind sauce would be a great addition to these dolmades, nice little touch.
Cathy at Wives with Knives
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.
Blond Duck
Yum!
blackbookkitchendiaries
this dish looks like a work of art.. so pretty. thank you for sharing this. have a lovely weekend.
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc
This combination looks amazing! I must try this!
Enomfon
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
Faith (An Edible Mosaic)
Looks like your Stuffed Grape Leaves came out perfect! I would love to make these at home!
shaz
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.
pigpigscorner
The sauce does sounds good! Not a huge fan of grape leaves either, so I used cabbage for this challenge.