Directions: |
Directions:Rinse and drain the rice in a large bowl, add all spice and salt. Use half a stick of room temp butter, mix it into the rice and add the ground meat and combine altogether by hand. Add a half a cup of water to the mixture to slightly soften. Set aside mixture. Open a free area to work with a flat surface. Open each grape leaf and remove its stem with a scissor from the top. Flatten out your grape leaf in front of you with the stem closest to you, and the veins facing upward. Depending on the size of your grape leaves, use about a teaspoon of your rice and meat mixture, and drop it towards the stem first. Then make a straight line across the leaf, tuck in the top of the leaf followed by each side of the leaf and roll all the way to the bottom away from you. You should end up with a rolled grape leaf resembling a tiny cigar. Repeat this process until all the leaves and mixture are completed. Season your steak with all spice and salt then place it at the bottom of a large pot. (Your pot should be large enough to hold all of your completed grape leaves with a bout 3 inches to spare on the top for the water to boil.) Add your peeled garlic to the pot on top of the meat. Begin arranging your completed grape leaves in a circle and stacking on top moving upwards. DO NOT leave the middle empty. You will need to tightly pack them in. Add in the other 1/2 of the stick of butter in to the middle of your pot. Now you need to have a weight to place on top of all the grape leaves before adding your liquids. (I use a stone weight and an upside down plate. You can use just an upside plate if you want, but it is preferred to put a weight on top after.) Your plate should be slightly smaller than the circumference of your pot. Now add lemon juice with about 3 tbs of salt or to taste, finally add your water to cover the grape leaves around 2 inches over your plate. Boil on high in the beginning for about 2 min, then taste your broth if more lemon or salt is needed. Finally lower to a simmer on low and cover. This will take about 2 to 3 hours to fully cook. At 2 hours into cooking time, taste the doneness of the leaves. If tender enough, alter your cooking time to less than 3 hours. Add time only to cook longer. Keep on low until ready to serve. DO NOT TURN OFF HEAT until ready to serve. When ready, remove the cover, and the weight but leave the plate on and slowly strain the broth and save it to the side in another small bowl. Find a round serving tray (larger than the pot) to transfer cooked grape leaves into. Now remove the plate and position your tray above the pot, safely and quickly flip this over upside down to transfer the grape leaves from the pot to the serving tray. Slowly shimmy your pot off the tray, releasing all of your cooked grape leaves. Use your reserved broth for reheating your left overs. Hallelujah, YOU DID IT! |
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