Cellar Tastings

One of the healthiest Greek recipes, Dolmas are fresh and delicious. While they can be made with lamb and even beef, this recipe for Greek “Dolmades” is vegetarian, using pine nuts, fresh herbs, and raisins, along with the rice. In Greece, this recipe originated millennia ago, using the edible grape vine leaves. “Dolmades” are eaten everywhere in Greece, but even abroad you can find the tinned version of Dolmas (quite nice, actually). They are also served with Easter Sunday Lamb in Greece. Apart from Greece, the Syrians, Armenians, Turks and Israelis also feature Dolmas in their local cuisine. These are tasty, easy to make, and perfect for a “Greek Dinner party”.

Ingredients

• 225 grams preserved vine leaves
• 115 grams “”Arborio” style rice (short grain)
• 1 medium sized white onion
• 175 ml olive oil
• 1 Garlic Clove, mashed
• 3 Shallots, diced
• Chopped Parsley, handfu
• l Chopped Mint, handful
• Chopped Dill (fresh), handful
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 70 grams of Pine Nuts
• 75 grams of Raisins (Greek of Californian)
• Juice of one large Lemon

Preparation

Place the Vine leave in a large pot and fill to the brim with boiling water, leave stand for 20 minutes or so. Then, place in a bowel of cold water for another 20 minutes, rinse again and drain in a colander. Separately, cook the rice until tender, for about 15 minutes (with water and a pinch of salt). Leave the cooked rice on the side. In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, adding in the onion (chopped finely). Sauté the onion gently for about 5 minutes. Slowly add in the rice, the pine nuts, the raisins, the shallots, the fresh herbs, salt to taste and plenty of black pepper. Mix well and let simmer on low heat for 5 more minutes.

Place the vine leaves on a flat surface and start filling each one with a dollop of the rice mix. Roll into cigar shapes, and place the Dolmas into a pan, only one layer deep. When all of the stuffed vine leaves are shaped and placed in the pan, pour over the olive oil and lemon juice over the top. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 45 minutes on very low heat. When fully cooked, allow the Dolmas to chill slightly. Drain the Dolmas and arrange on a presentation dish. Garnish with lemon wedges, and pita bread. Greek Tzatziki dip goes perfectly with the Dolmas.

Try this dish with: Amethystos dry white wine, Constantin Lazaridis

From the wine region of Drama, located in Greece’s mountainous beautiful Macedonia wine producing area, in the community of Adriani, lies one of our favorite wineries in Greece- Constantin Lazaridis. Leaders in top Greek wine production and also in wine tourism in Greece, Lazaridis makes a range of wines from the Amethystos brand, to Chateau Julia, the flagship range. They also have an interesting distillery where they produce Eau-de-Vie.

The white Amethystos wine is made with principally Sauvignon Blanc, in an ultra dry, very zippy style. It tastes quite similar to how you would imagine a Bordeaux “Entre-deux-Mers”, as indeed it is blended with Semillon blanc and also the Greek varietal, Aegean Assyrtiko. The color is pale straw with hints of green and the bouquet is pure peaches! The flavours and aromas are intense and there is a lovely, long finish. Highly recommended.