Dolmeh Barg-e Mo - Persian stuffed grape leaves
Dolmeh Barg-e Mo is Persian stuffed grape leaves that usually is cooked during the spring season. This dish can be served as appetizer.
Ingredients
- 1 jar grape leaves in brine
Stuffing
- 200 grams minced meat
- 1 cup basmati rice par-cooked
- ½ cup yellow split peas cooked
- ½ cup fresh parsley chopped
- ⅓ cup dill chopped
- ⅓ cup mint chopped
- ¼ cup chives chopped
- 1 tbsp dried tarragon
- 1 tbsp summer savory
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- salt and pepper
The sauce
- 2-3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- ½ cup fresh lemon
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp sumac
- 1-2 tbsp honey / sugar or grape molasses
Instructions
Filling
- Heat some olive oil in a pan over medium-heat.
- Sauté onion and garlic until golden brown.
- Add in the minced meat and brown it. Don’t forget to add the Turmeric to the meat.
- Remove the meat from the pan and sauté all herbs, or you can stir in the herbs on top of the meat and cook for a few minutes.
- In a large bowl mix together cooked yellow split peas, par cooked rice, minced meat, and the herbs.
Sauce
- Mix together the molasses, sumac, lemon juice, water and sugar. The sweet and sourness should be balanced.
To wrap
- Soak grape leaves to rinse off brine. (do this a few times)
- Remove all the stems, then place one of the leaves on a board (The side with the veins showing should be up).
- Spoon some of the stuffing mixture in the center of the leaf.
- Bring the edges of the leaf from four sides and overlap to cover the stuffing snugly to create a small square bundle. (no larger than 3 cm)
To cook
- Pour some oil at the bottom of a non stick pot and spread all over, arrange few grape leaves on the bottom of the pot making sure that all the surface is covered.
- Place all the Dolmehs very tight against each other in the bottom of the pot, come up layer by layer, making sure there is no space between them.
- Pour the sauce over Dolmeh, you can throw in a few golden dried plums too.
- Place a heat proof plate down over the top of the Dolmeh.
- Cover and bring it to boil over medium heat and immediately reduce the heat to medium low and cook for an hour.
Notes
- You can garnish Dolmeh with dried barberries, fried onions , etc
- Serve Dolmeh with side dishes such as plain yoghurt or Mast-o-Khiar ( Persian cucumber yoghurt )
- Some people add golden plums or greengages to their sauce to give it a stronger sour taste.