Oct 14, 2010

{october daring bakers: stuffed grape leaves}

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.

For this months challenge we had to make a filling and then stuff and roll it into grape leaves. A Mediterranean restaurant is the only place I've ever eaten stuffed grape leaves before and I've always thought they were pretty delicious. Never once did I think to actually try making them so, I was very interested to see how this would turn out.

Work has gotten pretty busy lately (thus my lack of posting) so when it came to be the week before our post date, I began to wonder if I'd even be able to participate in this challenge. When a friend of mine suggested we tackle this one together and have a full blown Mediterranean meal, I jumped on it. We each brought our ingredients together in order to make the Wara Einab or Dolma (cold stuffed grape leaves). The men grilled the lamb while we separated, filled and rolled the dolmas. It definitely was a process and one I'm glad to not have done on my own. The grape leaves were a bit fragile as the slightest poke of a fingernail tore them. Towards the end we were double wrapping the grape leaves in order to make a whole one. They turned out delicious though and went very well with the hummus, pita, roasted veggies and lamb.

Check out the recipe and what other daring cooks did over at The Daring Kitchen.

See more pics after the jump.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely that they worked so well for you and it is always nice to have a friend help you well done on this challenge. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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  2. That filling looks amazing! I'll have to give it a try.

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  3. Sounds like you guys had a feast! Well done on the challenge, I'm glad you liked it!

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  4. Yay! You took a picture of the leaf. I was going to, just to show how leafy it was, but I had to go to fast because "someone" was getting up from her nap. Did you end up eating these cold like they're supposed to be, or eating them hot?

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  5. How cool! I love that you turned it into an entire meal. Those stuffed grape leaves look very yummy!

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  6. We ate them hot that night but the leftovers I've enjoyed cold. Both ways are delectable.

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  7. How fun to make them with a friend. It sounds like a great night with wonderful food.

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