Since the time of the Ottoman Empire, the most popular dish in Turkey is dolma. This name is derived from the Turkish verb dolmak, which means to fill, stuff. This is why Turkish dolma is a variety of stuffed vegetables. For example, stuffed peppers are bieber dolma, and stuffed zucchini is a dolma tavern. Outside the region, dolma is more often understood as minced meat wrapped in cabbage, grape or beet leaves, but it is in Turkey that this dish is called sarma.
It is necessary
-
- Assorted dolma
- 10 small thick eggplants
- 8 small zucchini
- 6 small red bell peppers
- 2 large green bell peppers
- 1 large tomato
- full pot of water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 lemon
- For filling
- 1 kg lean ground beef
- 3 cups short-grain rice
- 2 large ripe peeled tomatoes
- ¾ cup finely chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup finely chopped mint
- 3 very large cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons red pepper
- 1 green hot pepper
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup
- 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon of cumin
- For filling
- 2 lemons
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2-3 stalks of mint
- 1 1/2 cups water
Instructions
Step 1
To understand which dolma you like the most, prepare an assortment of different types of this dish. Fill a large saucepan with water and add salt and juice from one lemon. This solution will be used for peeled eggplant and zucchini, it will help their flesh from darkening, and it will also give it a light lemon and salty flavor. Wash all vegetables. Cut off but do not discard the tops. Cut the flesh out of the eggplant and zucchini so that you get neat thick walls. Put them in water. Remove the baffles from the peppers and scrub the seeds thoroughly. Do the same with the tomatoes.
Step 2
Knead the minced meat. Peel and chop the pepper and garlic, add them to the beef, put rice, spices and herbs there, pour in the pomegranate syrup, squeeze the lemon juice. Take the eggplants and fill them with minced meat to the very top, cover them with the tops that were previously set aside and place them tightly on the bottom of a large saucepan, then do the same procedure with the zucchini. Dip the rest of the vegetables in a lemon-salt solution, shake off excess water, stuff and place in dense layers in a saucepan. Tomatoes are the last to be put.
Step 3
Put 4 chopped garlic cloves on the vegetables, squeeze the juice from one lemon and sprinkle with mint, pour one and a half cups of boiled water and press down with a load. Place a saucepan over medium heat, bring water to a boil, reduce heat to minimum and simmer dolma for about 1.5-2 hours. Turn off heat, let sit for 15-20 minutes and serve with thick Turkish yogurt.
Step 4
To make this dish vegetarian, replace the minced meat with 3 more cups of rice, add all the spices and herbs to it, as well as a few handfuls of fresh raisins, pine nuts and a glass of good olive oil. Mix the minced meat, fill the vegetables, and cook in the same way as in the previous recipe.
