My friend Annie loves to make Stuffed Grape Leaves, I have made them with her a few thousand times, and have had them more often then that in the last fifteen years. A few days ago I made them by myself, well almost I had Annie by my side giving words of advice and adding funny antidotes throughout the morning.
Stuffed Grape Leaves start with grape leaves of course, they can be bought at the grocery store, though Annie grows, picks, blanches and freezing them in packets of ten. This she does in May when the grape leaves are tender and haven't been chemically treated.
The next ingredient: Onions, which had me crying as their perfume rose with the first slice. Chopped finely they are sauteed in a bath of olive oil. I stirred the onions often until they were golden: Annie stood at my side by her small stove, under the oven hood. At one point I said, "Annie we are going to reek onions!"
Annie poked me then said as she rolled her eyes, "Do you have a lover?" I was caught off guard, laughed and said, "No? What does that have to do with smelling like onions?" Annie with her dry sense of humor turned to chop the fennel that she had picked by the parking lot next to the grocery store, said, "Well I don't either, so who cares if we smell like onions. If we had lovers…well not counting Yann because husbands are not lovers, they expect the day to day stuff from us, but lovers… well then smelling like onions wouldn't do." I laughed out loud, "Really Annie?" She laughed back, "I think so. Well at my age who is smelling me now?"
I nearly fell into the pot of perfumed onions with that comeback.
Annie took out the package of grape leaves she had collected in the spring, we placed them on the counter, one by one, with the ribbed side, or the shiny side facing down.
Ingredients:
Grape leaves
Onions
Olive oil
Round Rice
Fennel and mint,
Lemon juice,
(I would also add, though Annie does not: Roasted pine nuts and chopped raisins.)
The stuffing for the grape leaves is made exactly like the stuffing for her Cabbage Rolls, minus the tomato sauce. You can find the full recipe here.
The preparation is the similar to the cabbage rolls as well. After you have sauteed the onions in a bath of olive oil, add the other ingredients, stir often, when the rice is golden and slightly cooked, spoon a teaspoon full to each of the grape leaf, then fold the leaf and roll, put the rolled end facing down in the pot, cover with boiling water, cover and let simmer until the rice is cooked, about fifteen minutes.
We rolled the grape leaves putting them back into the pot. I was surprised that Annie did not re-roll any of mine, she usually does… so I beamed, "Hey Annie I am a pro grape leaf roller, you haven't unrolled any of mine this…" Without looking up, she kept rolling at the speed of lightening, and slipped in, "Well, three of yours are rolled with the back side up… but since they are just for us it doesn't matter. Though you have improved."
I looked at the pot full of stuffed grape leaves thinking she doesn't miss a trick.
Honesty in a grape leaf.
Isn't it a blessing to be loved for who we are? As for me the smell of onions and upside down stuffed grape leaves never felt better.
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