#japrak

[morethansalad]

Vegan Japrak (Albanian Cabbage Rolls/Stuffed Grape Leaves)

[mamasrecipebook]

Stuffed collard greens (Japrak/Sarma)

Sarma is a traditional Bosnian dish, often made with cabbage leaves, but I’m partial to the collard greens version myself. This was my first time making it myself, under my mom’s guidance, of course.

Ingredients

1 large bunch of collard greens

1kg ground beef

1/2 cup of uncooked rice (I used brown because it’s healthier, but traditionally, white rice is used)

3-4 onions

1 medium tomato

2 large carrots

1 parsnip

1 fresh bushel of parsley

a few celery stalks with leaves

a few thin slices of smoked meat

fresh ground pepper

Vegeta*

Some of the ingredients are harder to quantify, so here's a picture of all the veggies I added:

*Vegeta is a Croatian spice mix that is a staple of all cuisines in this region. This kind doesn't have msg and is as good as the original (which comes in a blue bag):

We use it for soup and many traditional dishes, and it is truly amazing. I highly recommend checking out an international food store in your area to pick some up. If you can’t find it, you can just use salt instead, but it’s definitely worth the extra effort of buying Vegeta.

Directions

To prepare the collard greens:

rinse the leaves individually to clean off any remaining dirt or soil

let them drain for a bit and then stack them in one big pile

fill a large pot about halfway with water and bring to a boil

drop the collard greens into the boiling water in one big stack, making sure to submerge them completely

use a large pair of tongs to flip the whole stack over and re-submerge it

cover the pot, turn off the stove, and let it sit for 5-10 minutes - this will get the leaves soft and pliable so you can roll them

For the filling:

finely dice all the veggies (incl. parsley and celery) - or, better still, chop them coarsely and throw them into the food processor, then blend until everything is diced and mixed, like so:

in a large bowl, mix the ground beef with the diced veggies.

rinse and drain the rice and add it to the meat and veggie mixture

add lots of ground pepper (I asked my mom how much, and she said “lots”)

add about 3Tbsp of Vegeta

mix all the ingredients until they’re well incorporated. The best way to do this is to use your hands. You can knead it like dough and just kinda squeeze it together in your fist.

Rolling the sarma:

This is the trickiest part of the process, and I’m still getting the hang of it myself!

depending on the size of the collard green leaves, you may need to split some of them in half length-wise before rolling

place a dollop of the filling inside the leaf, closer to the bottom end

fold the bottom of the leaf over the filling and roll it tightly, once or twice, before folding over one side of the leaf over the filling

then continue rolling all the way up and tuck in the other end

here’s how my mom does it:

Cooking:

You can use a regular pot and just cook it that way, but a pressure cooker is easier, so that’s what I did!

cover the bottom of the pot with a layer of thinly sliced smoked meat

layer the rolled sarma in the pot - the individual pieces should be squeezed fairly tightly together, and you will probably have about three layers of them:

add about a cup (maybe less) of water to the pot, just enough to touch the top layer of the sarma but not to submerge it all

lock the lid of the pressure cooker and cook on high heat until at full pressure

let cook at full pressure for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to low to maintain pressure

cook for 15 minutes, remove from heat and let rest 10 minutes

[sarashali-blog]

My Dolma recipe is available in caption👇 ¼cup  oil / 1large onion, minced / 1 ½ lbs lean ground beef or lamb or pork / ¾cup short-grain rice / 3tspoons chopped of fresh mint or 3 tspoons dried mint / 3tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 3 teaspoons dried dill / salt & freshly ground black pepper / 100jarred grape leaves, packed in brine, rinsed thoroughly (about) / 1½lemons, juice of boiling water / 2 beef bouillon cubes DIRECTIONS Combine meat with oil, onion, herbs, rice and season generously.Line the pot you will be cooking your dolma in with a couple of layers of torn grape leaves (to prevent the dolma from being scorched while cooking).Place a grape leaf, shiny side down, on surface in front of you.If the stem is quite thick, cut it out with a knife, making a V.Pinch off about a teaspoon of the meat filling and place in the centre of the leaf.Fold in sides of leaf and roll up, not too loose and not too tight (allowing a bit for the expansion of the rice as it cooks), into neat little packets.Place neatly in pot and continue making dolma until you've used up all your meat mixture.Pour lemon juice over and cover dolma with boiling water, covering dolma with about 1/2 inch of water.Weight down with a plate and put lid on pot.Cook at a gentle simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until rice is tender.Carefully remove dolma, and place in a heatproof platter. Recipe by me @sara_shali_ashkanzad راز و رمز یک دلمه خوب چیه دوستان ؟ #japrak #yaprakh