When we talk about comfort food The first thing that usually comes to mind is a spoon dish made by our mothers or grandmothers, something purely contextual and of which each one has their own particularities. For me comfort food It is a fake carbonara – with cream and bacon, yes -, some lentils or a gazpacho: with the passing of the years and the complicated independence, one ends up creating one's own wild card meals to feel protected by a dish.
Beyond the taste, the mere fact of seeing, smelling and cooking something specific can make us feel that we are really at home (beyond physically being there, because depending on the pace of life you lead, sometimes you may not even feel like your home. It is your house). Interestingly, traditional foods from other countries and cultures have something special that passes my comfort food filter. This is the case of Turkish dolmas.
Dolma is a starter that is prepared with grape leaves and filled with rice, minced meat and spices. The fun thing about this is that you can add whatever filling you want, and that's why we are going to make a slightly different version of the original. The grape leaf, somewhat complicated to obtain – and with a flavor that, personally, I do not like – we are going to replace it with chard, but you can use cabbage or even any type of vegetable that you like, since this dish is usually prepare to stuff peppers, eggplants, zucchini, etc. That being said, let's get down to business.
Difficulty: Requires a little practice to shape them, but nothing too far
Ingredients
For 15 dolmas
- 15 chard leaves
- 200 g jasmine rice
- 250 g minced beef
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 4 cloves of black garlic
- 1 fennel bulb (with its leaves)
- 2 shallots
- 1 green chili (optional)
- 25 mint
- 8-10 cilantro stems with their leaves
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1.25 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 level teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Fill a large pot with water and plenty of salt. When it boils, add the chard or cabbage leaves for no more than 20 seconds and remove them to a bowl with very cold water.
In a saucepan, add a little olive oil, rice and turmeric. Measure the rice with a cup or glass to know the volume it occupies. Sauté until the rice takes on the color of turmeric and add 1.5 times its volume to boiling water to cook it. Cook until it is cooked and the water has been absorbed.
In a food processor or chopper, add the garlic cloves, black garlic cloves, shallots, fennel, chili, mint, coriander, spices, oil and salt. Chop everything until it is very well integrated.
Add the minced meat and cornstarch. Mix everything until combined.
Fill the chard leaves with the mixture and close them like a joint or a roll.
To cook them, put them directly in a pot with a lid, placing them one on top of the other, with a little water or broth to generate steam (you should not cover them). Cook them for about eight minutes.
Serve them with lemon wedges and sesame seeds. If you have pomegranate molasses, you'll be successful with it.
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