Dolmeh

Hello my friends. It's been about one month since N and I created this blog and it is my first post here. Our intention is to show and share our experiences with people who like cooking.


My cooking style is not like many others. I am not a professional cook but I love cooking. What I believe about cooking is innovation, imagination and fun. In my idea, a GOOD cook can follow a recipe, shop for ingredients, and properly prepare a dish but a GREAT cook doesn't need a recipe most of the time. S/He uses whatever is handy in the kitchen, and can make a terrific meal every time.


It's hard to memorize thousand recipes. It's easier to be more creative and learn how and why food "works" together to make great meals. If you learn the whys and wherefores of cooking, you'll have a thousand recipes for everything without ever cracking a book. You can be infinitely imaginative and try tastier combinations that you've ever imagined.


So in my recipes here, I won’t bring exact quantities of ingredients. I'll just let you use your own talent to mix the ingredients. Although in some cases in order to prevent wasting, if there are some points I will mention them. For example, for recipes with saffron it is necessary to know how to brew saffron.


Here I am writing about my experience in cooking dolmeh which is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes. In my country Iran, the stuffing is wrapped in grape or cabbage leaves, or stuffed in aubergine, tomato, zucchini or bell peppers. I think the best-known and popular one is the grape-leaf Dolmeh. But my East Asian friends who have sweet taste may prefer the others which is less sour or they can increase the amount of raisins.


Ingredients:


Capsicums, Aubergines, Tomatoes, Onion, Rice, Walnut, Barberries, Raisins, Pomegranate paste, Minced beef, Tomato paste, Advieh (a mixture of caraway, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, pepper, khosrodar*), Tarragon, Salt, Frying oil, Water.


Method:


1) Cook the rice in (salted) water until tender, drain and put aside.


2) In the meantime remove the pulp from the inside of each aubergines, tomatoes and capsicums. It is recommended that you season the insides with salt and then wash the salt out. If you don’t do that, especially with capsicums and aubergines, they may taste a bit bitter. To have a more colorful meal, you can use the red capsicum, or even the buttercup-yellow or orange ones.


3) Chop the onions and garlic. Cook them in a tablespoon of oil, add the minced beef and fry until brown. Add 2 teaspoons of pomegranate paste and stir.

4) Add rice to the meat and mix well.


5) Add herbs to meat and rice. Add advieh and check to see if more seasoning is needed. Mint is a favorite herb in our kitchen, but you can play around with other herbs in this dish; parsley, dill, chives or tarragon. In this stage you can add some other things like walnut, barberries (to make it sour) and raisins (to make it sweet).

6) Add about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and stir in. Remove from heat.


7) Stuff aubergines, tomatoes and capsicums with rice mixture.


8) Arrange stuffed aubergines, capsicums and tomatoes in a pan where they can stay vertical. In a small bowl, mix 3 tablespoons of tomato paste with 2 cups of water. Pour it over the stuffed vegetables, cover and cook on medium heat for about half an hour or until they are cooked.

Dolmeh is served warm or cool (especially for breakfast) and here in Iran it is often eaten with Doogh (yogurt drink).

- E -

* Khosrodar is a kind of spice. We're still trying to find out what it is in English. Or if any of you knows about it, please drop us a note. Much appreciated. Thanks. ;)