Tis the Season!

(Que music) It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, maybe not THE most wonderful, but, it is pretty darn awesome. It's date season!! When Ayman first brought these home from our local arabic market and told me they were dates and to try one, I was pretty sure he was trying to poison me or he really didn't understand the English word date. Think of my dear, sweet Ayman as an Egyptian Ricky Ricardo and I am definitely his Lucy. In case you were wondering,  yes, generally I have a lot of "splainin" to do. I once again threw caution to the wind and tried one. To my delight,  I was not only not poisoned but, I was actually enjoying this new found food that was not like any date I had ever known. In Egypt they are called"balah" which to me sounds exotic and fabulous. 

Dates are the fruit of the date palm which thrive in desserts around the world. The US crop hails from California and The Great State of Arizona (I'm biased and that's okay). These sweet little gems are harvested from September to March, so now is the time!  They are crunchy like an apple and have a nutty carmel like flavor and make an awesome snack or a fantastic addition to any cheese plate. You can most likely find them beginning in September,  in your local arabic market. So get out there and buy some, you won't regret it!

 

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Keep Those Grape Leaves Rollin' !

I'm going to be very honest. Do these bad boys of the Middle East look like a wet cigar? Heck yes.  Do these same small, green, tightly wrapped packages taste like a little bit of awesome? Absolutely! As a kid my mom would make these on hot summer afternoons and we would dine like Bedouins on these and other Middle Eastern style foods while we sat in our living room on our giant Persian rug (Yeah, yeah, I know Iran is completely different from the rest of the Middle East, don't judge, when your 8 it is all the same figgin place!)  and my Dad played the soundtrack from Lawrence of Arabia on our record player upstairs. My Mom would serve us wearing her best galabeya type outfit and all of her beautiful Afghani jewelry.(You make think my Mom is of Middle Eastern descent as I describe her, but, she is not. My Mother is a rather tiny, very blond chick who looks as Swedish as they come.) As a side note, Lawrence of Arabia is to this day one of my favorite movies of all time. But I digress, the feeling was magical.  The only problem was, I really wasn't a huge fan of the grape leaves, they tasted great, but, looked well, unappetizing. So the majority of my meal consisted of homemade hummus. It wasn't until I met Ayman that I would embrace the stuffed grape leaf.  As some of you know Ayman is Egyptian and most of his family is still there.  I learned the proper methods of rolling and stuffing grape leaves from Ayman's mother Reda.  It took hours to learn how to do it and after hearing "mesh kedah" (basically Arabic for "you're doing it wrong") more than once I finally mastered her recipe and techniques.  Ayman loves them and I know that his mother would be proud.
This recipe is actually pretty simple, the only time consuming part is the actual stuffing and rolling.  When I am having people over I will do all of my stuffing and rolling in advance.  I roll the grape leaves and stick them directly into the pot that I will cook them in and stick that pot into the fridge until I am ready to add the boiling water and cook them.  This recipe is delicious, fun, authentic and great to serve as an appetizer or main course.  I hope you enjoy and learn to love this neat little package as much as I have!


Rolled Grape Leaves
By: Vanessa Madigan

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups of rice, uncooked and rinsed
3 tbs black pepper
3 tbs salt
5 tbs ghee (if you don't have ghee available, you can substitute butter)
1 medium yellow onion, shredded with a coarse cheese grater
1 jar of large grape leaves in brine 

Grape leaves in a jar are available at most major grocery chains in the Middle Eastern foods section.

 

 

 

Directions:

 

• Remove the grape leaves from the jar and place them in a colander to drain. You will want to separate them and lay them flat one on top of the other. Rinse them thoroughly with cold water and press them down with the flat of your hand to remove most of the excess water. Set them aside to continue draining.
• Meanwhile, take your ground beef and place it in a large mixing bowl. Add your uncooked rice, ghee, onion, salt and pepper to the ground beef. Now, here is the fun part, with clean hands mix the ground beef with the other ingredients (think of the hamburger helper scene in Vacation).  Once all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined it is ready to go.

 

The filling (rice, meat, onion, salt, pepper and ghee)

 

• Now, you can begin rolling and stuffing.
• Take on large grape leaf and lay it flat on a large plate, remove the stem with your thumb and forefinger. Make sure the veins of the leaf are facing up towards you. Take a small handful of the meat mixture and squish it in the palm of your hand until it is approximately the size of your pointer finger.  You don't want it to be too big, because once the rice cooks it will expand.
• Place your finger sized bit of filling in the center of your grape leaf. Pull either side of the grape leaf inward and then begin rolling the leaf up from the bottom so that it make a nice, neat and tight little cylinder.

 



Now you're ready to roll!

 

• Have your cooking vessel ready to go. I use a large stock pot.
• After you roll your grape leaf, place it in the bottom of the cooking vessel. As you continue to roll the grape leaves place them in the pot in a straight line one right after the other. You will want them packed in the pot relatively tightly so that when you add the boiling water and boil them they won't fall apart and bounce around while they are cooking.  Continue building your stack until you are out of leaves or your pot is full.



This is how I roll and stack mine, nice and tight.

 

• At this point if you are going to be serving them later, you can stick the entire pot in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook and serve them.
• Place your pot full of the grape leaves on the stove with the burner off.
• In a separate medium sized saucepan bring about 3 cups of water to a boil.
• Once the water has reached a rolling boil, turn on the heat under the pot with the grape leaves to medium and immediately add the boiling water.  You will want the water to cover only about half of the grape leaves.
• Allow your pot to simmer, covered for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.  After about 45 minutes check them by removing one with a pair of tongs (be careful, it will be quite hot!) and tasting it. Make sure the rice is cooked and not al dente. Once the grape leaves are cooked and the rice is done, remove from the heat, and again using tongs place the rolled grape leaves on a serving plate.  Serve them to your friends, family and enjoy a little taste of something exotic and divine!



Enjoy!