Dolmades With Avgolemeno Sauce


From closet cooking site with some variations. these can either be a main dish or an appetizer, depending on your appetite and amount you put inside each. Serve with good crusty bread and a greek salad. I like ingridh's suggestion that you fry up a small portion first to do a test taste for salt and pepper adjustments. You will get somewhere between 32 to 35 of them. also, think you could sub swiss chard leaves for grape. Recommend making ahead and warming up later or freeze w/o sauce. Could be adapted to crockpot if you want- guessing 2 hours on low with weighted plate directly on dolmades. you do not want it to boil. Here is a link for rolling with 9 slide shots http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekcookinglessons/ss/foldleaves.htm

Steps


Separate the grape leaves and place in a large bowl.
Cover the leaves in boiling water and soak for 20 minutes.
Drain the water and rinse leaves few times.
Meanwhile , in a medium saucepan over medium heat , add onion , rice , and water.
Cover and simmer until rice is half cooked , about 8 minutes.
Drain off and discard any liquid.
Add garlic to rice mixture.
Mix the onion / rice mixture , ground meat , tomato puree , feta , lemon zest , green onions , dill , mint salt and pepper in a large bowl.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Take one leaf , shiny side down , cut off the stem , and place 1 teaspoon of the mixture at the bottom end of the leaf.
Fold both sides of the leaf towards the center , roll up from the broad bottom to the top , and place into a 4 quart pot.
Repeat with all leaves , rolling tightly- leaving no gaps as leaves are placed in pot.
Put onto tray.
Repeat until all of the filling is used up.
Put leftover leaves in bottom of baking dish.
Place stuffed grap.

Ingredients


grape leaves, onion, short-grain rice, water, garlic cloves, lean ground lamb, tomato puree, feta, lemon, green onion, dill, mint, salt, black pepper, chicken stock, eggs