There are so many things around us that we can use as food, but we just do not pay attention because we do not know that we can use them. In this episode, we will show you one of them – Vine leaves.
We harvest the grapes, but we can also use the leaves of the vine – they are a wonderful free product and actually a very healthy food rich in vitamins and minerals.
In our video, we will show you how to prepare vine leaves for cooking and also how to freeze them for later use, so you have them when you crave for Dolma/ Sarma and you want to prepare it at home.
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#vineleaves #grapeleaves #sarma
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If you have grape wine like this one that has not been sprayed with anything, don’t throw these leaves away. Nowadays, when the food is getting so expensive, they are wonderful free product that you can use in your kitchen. You can cut some and use directly in cooking or preserve some for winter. The leaves can be used in different dishes, but the most popular one is called Dolma or Sarma. If you have been to Greece or Turkey or Middle East, you have probably tried this dish. These leaves are stuffed with rice or meat and after that cooked, and they are really delicious. So what we do with the leaves? We cut the leaves without the stems like this one. You can cut the younger leaves and the bigger ones, but separate them for different sizes of Dolma depending on what you like. Try to cut the leaves that have this shape. These ones are not good for stuffing because they have this. Both younger leaves and bigger leaves are edible and can be used in cooking. They just require different cooking time. That’s why it’s a good idea to separate them. We cut the grape leaves we need. We wash them well to remove any dirt. And now we need to bring water to boil. I already did that. And we have to blanch these leaves for 1-2 minutes until they change their color. I usually do this in batches, 10-15 leaves at a time. We need one of these to remove the leaves. See they already started changing their color. You don’t need to cook the leaves, you just need to blanch them until they get soft. Like this. And that’s all. We need something heat resistant to remove the leaves. And you have to leave them to cool. I’ll process all of these leaves. Leave them to cool. And later I’ll use some of them for cooking. The rest I’ll just freeze for winter. The water has to be boiling. So if there is any bacteria, the process of blanching makes the leaves soft and removes any bacteria that can be on the leaf surface. I’m doing this today in my improvised kitchen. But I hope you like the view. This may look like many grape leaves for you, but when they are blanched they shrink a lot. Plus I want to freeze some for winter and cook with them. In our household we love Dolma. So when I make Dolma, I usually make at least 50 Dolmas. They don’t last very long. That’s why I need so many grape leaves. We’ve done blanching. Now we have to leave the leaves to cool, but not to dry. Because after that we’ll be rolling them and freezing them. And I forgot to mention that this is just water. No salt, nothing is added to this water. The vine leaves have cooled. We have also removed all excessive water. Don’t leave them for too long because they will get brittle and you won’t be able to work with leaves. This is where I separate the smaller leaves and bigger leaves and prepare them for freezing. I try to put about 10 leaves equal size. I personally found that freezing vine leaves works best because in most of the other methods you use salt and when you cook with the leaves it affects the taste of the dish. But it’s up to you if you prefer the other methods you can use them. I’ll freeze these leaves. Make sure if you’re freezing you have some of these freezing bags. Don’t forget to write what’s inside because you think you remember, but when you put them in the fridge in few months you forget and you don’t know when and how and what is in this bag. And I’ll just mark this like small. What I’m doing, I put about 10 leaves of this. Roll them like that and put them in the bag. Roll them gently. Vine leaves freeze really well, when you decide to cook with them just take them out of the freezer and move them to the fridge so they can defrost really slowly because otherwise they will get brittle and the next day when they are defrosted you can use them in your dish. These are our fridge bags ready for freezing. I usually put between 50 and 70 grape leaves in each bag. And when I decide to cook it, I defrost it a day before. You just have to find a nice recipe for stuffing you like. Cook it in advance so when you decide to make the dolma it has to be cool and you just have to prepare the dish. Vine leaves are packed with vitamins and make really delicious meal.
Dining and Cooking