Normally I only get to have them when we go out for Greek food or if we end up attending a Greek Festival, but since I've moved, there haven't been many places for me to have that opportunity. My mum doesn't cook them either. It's all Italian here, because she's not my Greek side! I had my fingers crossed that my innate Greek would make this attempt go off flawlessly.
I think it went well!
Grape leaves remind me of the tree stars from The Land Before Time! They look kind of similar, don't they?!
I always grew up having them stuffed with meat and rice and some vegetables, but because I rarely eat meat anymore, I found a couple of recipes online, combined and removed what I didn't want, and made a vegetarian version. This one is onion, rice, pignoli, parsley, and mint. (I burned some of the rice a little by accident!)
I don't have any photos of the process because well my fingers were covered in oil and rice from stuffing the leaves, and I definitely didn't want to get that all over my phone.
The end result of my first foray into Greek cuisine.
To me they taste just like ones that I've had in a restaurant, and they're delicious. Clearly my inner Greek decided to show itself and help out! I won't be making these often though. They take forever! Or maybe that's just because it was my first time. I want to say, all said and done, it took me about four hours-ish. Between rinsing and draining and boiling the grape leaves, to browning the onions and cooking the rice, and removing the stems then wrapping it all and an hour to cook. Definitely time consuming, but it was a lot of fun! Definitely something I would do again in the future when I have more free time.
I wish I could share them! Even though I've already eaten a bunch of them, my tummy is rumbling just writing this post!
