If you’re from the Caucasus or the Middle East, dolma is a staple in your diet. It’s not just something you eat, it’s something that has its own category on the Food Pyramid. And it’s not just food. It’s family and love, and because it’s a social activity and takes so long to prepare, it’s probably got some gossip baked into it too.
Whether you call it dolma, or sarma or “stuffed grape leaves,” in which case you’re probably eating them out of a can, it’s a little bundle of joy that resonates with more than just your taste buds.
There will come a day, if you want it to anyway, when you might be making some of this decadent dolma yourself. If you’re completely baffled as to how dolma goes from droopy grape leaves to a burst of heavenly flavor in your mouth, read on. Here are a few tips from the one person I know that makes the best dolma I’ve had (with exception to yours of course): my mother.
Grape leaves matter. The fresher they are, the better they taste, which is why you’ll find grapes in every Middle Eastern person’s backyard. But if you have to get them in a jar, make sure you’re choosing them based on color. In this case, the lighter the better.
Garlic is a must. Make sure you’re including garlic to liven the taste. Depending on how much you’re making (and let’s be honest, it’s probably enough to feed a small village), two cloves should work well.
Vegetarians eat dolma, too. Though Western Armenian households traditionally eat the meatless version in grape leaves (which is called sarma, not necessarily dolma), Eastern Armenians tend to eat it with meat. But if you’re vegetarian, don’t fret. Substituting meat with pine nuts, lentils and even mushrooms works well in addition to “meatless” meat substitutes.
There’s technique involved, lot’s of it. Cooking your dolma doesn’t just mean dropping them in a pot. First, the pot must be lined with reject grape leaves, so the dolmas near the bottom don’t burn. Actually making them look nice to begin with is another matter. After you prepare your filling, open the grape leaf in the palm of your hand and add a tablespoon of your filling in the center. Then begin folding as if you would be folding a box, first the left and right edges and then the top and bottom. They must also be packed tightly in the pot to support each other’s weight.
Spices are important. Depending on where you’re from, you’ll want to use a variety of herbs and spices when making your dolma. Turmeric, curry and sage are just a few suggestions.
More goes in to the pot than you thought.
In addition to adding water and oil to the pot, take a plate and put it upside down on top of the dolma, so it keeps its shape throughout cooking for 5 days, I mean 2 hours.
To make the filling extra juicy, you can also add one or two tablespoons of regular, plain yogurt.
Pre-prep is a life saver. Our lives aren’t as mellow as they used to be, which means you probably don’t have 12 hours to devote to talking about your neighbors and rolling grape leaves. So buying your ingredients and chopping up your herbs and greens and refrigerating them can be done a day before.
It gets easier, I swear. Or at least that’s what my mom says. “It takes a lot of time and it’s a lot of hard work, but when you keep doing it and keep practicing, it gets easier,” she tells me.
As always, indulge in your dolma with a bit of yogurt or sour cream ( or a lot). Sometimes you’ll find that dolma, much like pizza, tastes even better on the second day.
Got any tips on how to make dolma preparation easier? We’d love to hear your stories, recipes and memories. Leave us a comment below.
All photos © ianyanmag/by L. Aghajanian
Yalanchi is a staple in my family and my maternal grandmother does a great job making it. She tried to teach me once, but, apparently, I have no grape leaf rolling skills.
I love to make them as of yesterday i made for christmas party tow i make sarma ,with lots of parsley onion walnuts lemon juice pomegranate syrup.its vegetarian.
From my experience, Eastern Armenians are the ones that go meatless with their sarma, and Westerners eat it with meat. Interesting…
In my family (from Harpoot two generations ago) we always make it with meat filling and call it sarma. The term dolma is specific to other vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini stuffed with the same filling. Yum…now I need to go make some!
OMG, it’s like you are talking about the food I grew up with.
I love dolmeh! I find that with the jarred grape leaves, you must separate and rinse them all — they tend to carry grit and dirt. I learned the hard way (through a whole pot full of exploded dolmehs) that the actual grape leaf shouldn’t be wrapped too tightly around the stuffing because the steam will make them bust at the seams while it’s all cooking. Which is super depressing after you have gone through all that effort to put them together! And if you’re making them the way my family does (we’re Persian so I don’t know if the flavors are a little different) they need to be stuffed with a lot of fresh chopped herbs and they need to be basted repeatedly through the 5-day (ha) cooking with a sweet & sour sauce to make the leaves soften, darken and take on a nice flavor. yummy! now i want to make some!
When making dolma or tolma or sarma, it is imperative that you cut out the big veins from the grape leaves. Yes, it is a pain but it’s better than having your guests spit out the chewy veins or, worse, gag on them on their way “down”.
There are zillions of recipes for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian sarmas (now you know where I’m from), but they all boil down to a grain (rice or bulgur) + filling extras (meat or veggies and nuts) + herbs (especially for the vegetarian version). Bulgur, it appears, is more traditional since rice is an import to the region. If you use bulgur, use the #3 or #4 size (otherwise, you will just end up with dough).
Size matters (ha ha). In this case, as in all Armenian cooking, smaller is better. The ideal size for a meat-filled sarma is the size of a cigarette (or even smaller). The veggie version can be a bit larger but not by much (Eastern Armenians do both versions larger). This is yet another reason to take out the veins in the grape leaves.
Don’t pack the filling too tight. The grain will expand and burst your sarma. Don’t “double wrap” your sarmas. You don’t want your guests to chew on them for hours or, worse, ask for the steak knife in order to cut through the wrapping. Do pack the sarmas side-by-side (no gaps!) in the pan and, yes, the plate on top is a must–unless you want to see the result of 2 hours of wrapping literally float away in the bubbling pan juice.
For extra fun, interleave cleaned lamb tongues between layers of your (meat filled) sarma. For even more fun, get a cleaned lamb’s head and stick it in the middle. Plan B: put a bunch of garlic cloves in the middle of your pan of meat filled sarma. Trust me, they are to die for.
And, finally, why stick to boring grape leaves all the time? Armenians have made sarma with pretty much any edible leaf or leafy vegetable: cabbage, Swiss chard, beet leaves, strawberry leaves, etc.