“Yaprakia” Dolmadakia with minced meat with avgolemono sauce

Ingredients

You’ll make approximately 100 dolmades but it also depends on the size of the vine leaves 

• 300 g vine leaves
• 1/2 cup olive oil for the pot

For the filling

• 500 g ground beef
• 1 large onion chopped in the chopper
• 1/2 cup carolina rice
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup chopped parsley
• Salt and pepper

For the avgolemono sauce

• 2 eggs
• 2 lemons
• 1 tbsp cornstarch for every cup of broth

Preparation

For the vine leaves

Rinse the vine leaves well and cut their stalk. In a saucepan of water that gently boils, boil few leaves at a time, in tens for example. The time we leave them depends on how tender our leaves are. Indicatively, I would say 2-3 minutes for fresh vine leaves of medium size and medium hardness and 1 minute for those that are in brine, although the packaging usually says that it is not needed. This is of course optional but I recommend it because this removes the characteristic taste of packaged brine and the leaf looks fresh. Remove the leaves with a slotted spoon and let them cool and drain off the excess water.

For the dolmades

Put all the filling ingredients in a bowl and knead the mixture well. Take some vine leaves that you won’t use because, for example, they have been torn and lay them at the bottom of the pot. You can even layer the leftover parsley stalks to give some more flavour.

On a plate, place a vine leaf with the nerves on the upper side. Put 1 tablespoon of filling at the bottom end. Fold the lower section of the leaf over the filling towards the center; bring the two sides in towards the center and roll them up tightly.

Place each rolled dolma in the pot, one next to the order, in layers. Pour half a cup of olive oil over the dolmades and place a plate upside down on top of them to keep leaves from moving. It is good to add some extra weight on top of the plate, like a stone, to make sure that the dolmades won’t unfold. Pour a little salt in some hot water and pour it over the dolmades until covered. Simmer for about 45 minutes.

For the avgolemono sauce

When it’s ready, carefully drain the broth in another saucepan, measuring how many cups there are and prepare the avgolemono sauce. Beat the eggs very well, preferably in a blender. Squeeze the lemons and dissolve the cornstarch in their juice. The ratio is 1 tablespoon of cornstarch for each cup of broth. Pour the mixture into the eggs and stir well.

Slowly add 2-3 ladles of hot broth while beating the mixture.  Then return it to the saucepan, mixing well with the rest of the broth. Bring to a boil until it gets thick and creamy.

After that, you have two options. The first option is to pour the sauce into the pot and shake it to spread the sauce over the dolmades. The second option is to put the sauce in a saucepan so that everyone can put as much sauce as they want on their plate. This option is more convenient because if the sauce thickens, you can dilute it with a little water.

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