SWISS CHARD DOLMA

Swiss chard dolma

Ok, I know it has been a long time that I’ve last posted here. I am still writing my recipes but in a Turkish blog. Looking at the traffics of this English blog I thought it is not really interesting to put Turkish recipes on the internet. 

Anyway. But I know there are people out there who would and indeed do take interest with what I have to share. Big thanks to Sandra, the English lady in Italy, who genuinely gives me courage to continue with what I have to offer. 

I will start putting translations of recipes I’ve posted earlier on my Turkish blog. 

Here we go. Again. :)

Well, dolma stuff are really typical Turkish food. I know that in the neighbor countries like Romania, Greece, and Armenia and or even in the Middle East they make dolma. In Europe dolma is called dolmades after the Greek ones.

Normally the most common dolma we make is with the grape leaves. You can find freshly picked grape leaves or brined grape leaves. So all year long you can make them :) They also make dolma of any other leaves actually. Like swiss chard, like swiss chard or collard greens. It is the first time I try the swiss chard, but I can assure you that it is delicious. I found that the swiss chard is more difficult to work with than the grape leaves because they are more tender than the grape leaves. You have to be careful not to tear the leaf. But the result is great! I think it might be even more convenient for the palate of the European people because it is so tender. In Turkey we say “it is like eating Turkish delight” when we say that something is soft and tender in the mouth (like a piece of sofly baked meat) and I think swiss chard dolma was also like Turkish delight in that sense :)

Ingredients (see the notes below)

1 bundle of swiss chard, washed and drained

a bundle of swiss chard

a bundle of swiss chard

For the filling:

1 glass of rice, washed and drained

1 medium sized onion, chopped fine

1 handful of fresh mint, chopped fine

1 handful of parsley leaves, chopped fine

1 fresh onion, chopped fine

Salt to your liking

3 – 4 drops of sumac molasses (see the notes below)

Water

Olive oil

Method:

1. I started with preparing the filling: I heated the olive oil in a pan and I sautéed the onion for 3 – 4 minutes. Then I added the rice and sautéed it with the onion until the rice became transparent. When the rice was transparent I added half of a glass of water and closed the lid and cooked the rice until it soaked all the water on low fire.
2. When the rice soaked the water and was half-cooked, I turned off the fire; I added some salt and put the pot uncovered aside so that the filling could cool down a bit.  
3. While the rice was cooling down, I prepared the leaves of the swiss chard: I cut off the stalks of the swiss chard and put them aside. I used my pressure-cooker to steam-cook the leaves and I steam cooked the swiss chard leaves for 2 minutes. I let it aside a bit to let it cool down and squeezed the leaves to get rid of the excess water they had when they were a bit cooler. (see the notes section below)
4. When the rice filling cooled down, I added the fresh herbs and the sumac molasses and mixed.
5. Before rolling the dolma, I made sure that I placed the rice filling on the part of the leave where the windpipes are placed.  This will ensure a better looking dolma on the outside. Also, on the wider part of the leaf, if not the very middle. I closed the leave from left and right on the filling as if I am making a package. I rolled the pointy upper part on the filling and started rolling the whole leaf (see the pictures). I continued with this process until all the leaves were filled with the filling.
6. I placed the dolma’s in a pot and poured half a glass of water (or a bit less). On low fire, I cooked the dolmas until the rice is soft. For me it took 15 – 20 minutes. 

Step 1 - the filling of the swiss chard dolma

Step 5 - place the filling in the internal part of the leaf where you see the thick windpipe of the leaf

Step 5 - place the filling on the wider part of the leaf. 

Step 5 - close the left and right wider sides of the leaf on the filling

Step 5 - close the pointy upper part on the filling; by enclosing from the sides, start rolling 

Step 5 - swiss chard leaf rolled around the filling

Step 6 - cook the dolma for about 15 - 20 minutes in half a glass of water so that they don't burn or stick to the bottom

Delicious swiss chard dolma

Swiss chard dolma

Notes:

• This amount will only be enough for 2 people for a dinner or lunch.
• Alternative to the steam-cooking, you can blanche the leaves of the swiss card. Place them in boiling water and keep them there for 30 seconds to 1 minute; that is, until they are bright green and soft. Squeeze them out of the excess water without tearing the leaves.
• If you do not have any sumac molasses available; alternatively you can use pomegranate molasses or half a lemon juice.

STUFFED BORAGE LEAVES IN TOMATO SAUCE

(Recipe in English is below. Domates sosunda hodan dolmasi tarifi için burayi tiklayin)

When I made this delicious dish of borage, I kept some leaves apart in order to make dolma! (Btw, I know that in English the Greek word “dolmades” is the common term used for what we call “dolma” here. But as the Greek word is also derived from the Turkish word, I kind of find it absurd to call it “dolmades” in my English blog. FYI: Dolma comes from the verb dolmak (to fill/to stuff) in Turkish and this way dolma means “stuffed”)

I tried to make pictures of the process of rolling the borage leaves, but none of the pictures were clear; therefore I cannot post any here! I will try to explain in words!

Actually I know nobody that makes dolma of the borage leaves. I got the inspiration to use a few borage leaves to make dolma from a food magazine in Turkey. However, I did not like the recipe that had for filling; therefore I browsed the internet to see if there is anything worth trying. I saw only two recipes which were similar but not interesting. Therefore I created my own filling! And it was simply delicious! Too bad I have used the minced meat that came out from my deep-freezer, otherwise I would have kept the dolma’s in the deep-freeze in order to serve to my guests! The combination with the tomato sauce was also very successful; the tomato sauce just completes the taste of the dolma! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients (serves 3 – 4 people)

20 – 25 borage leaves, small leaves if possible. 

borage leaves, the ones I had were quite big!

For the stuffing:

150 gr. Minced meat

A handful of dill, chopped fine

A handful of parsley, chopped fine

A handful of çeçil cheese (I did not find the English word for this specific cheese of Turkey. But that’s what I found on the internet: http://davescupboard.blogspot.com/2009/03/turkish-cheese-3-cecil-peyniri.html) , chopped. On the link it is said that “Çeçil peyniri's flavor is very similar to young, mild cheddar”, therefore you can substitute this specific cheese with young cheddar)

çeçil cheese

çeçil cheese, chopped

1 egg

Flaked red pepper to your liking

2 spoons of corn flour
1 garlic tooth, crushed

1 spoon of olive oil (in case you use low fat minced meat)

Salt to your liking (take the salty taste of the cheese into account)

For the tomato sauce

1 spoon of olive oil

1 teeth of garlic, chopped

2 – 3 tomatos, pureed

Salt

1 spoon of pomegranate syrup (optional if you do not have any, but it’d be a pity if you did not have any because it tastes great and takes the simple tomato sauce into another level! :) )

Method:

1. Steam-cook the leaves for a few minutes. Alternatively you can boil water, soak the leaves in that water for a minute and take the leaves out of the water and drain by squeezing a bit.
2. If your leaves were as big and as thick-veined as mine, fold the leave from the middle where you see the thick vein and cut the vein off without damaging the leave. The dolmas should be small, not too big; therefore I cut the big leaves into two or sometimes three pieces. Cut a medium sized leave into two in the middle where you just cut the vein off. If the leave is too big, then measure three fingers up from the pointy end of the leave and cut the leave from there. You can divide the rest of the leave into two by cutting from the middle.
3. Mix the ingredients for the stuffing.
4. Time to fill the leaves with the stuffing: put the shiny side of the leave down and the veiny side up. Take a spoon of the stuffing and place it on the veiny side of the leave, give it a tubular shape. Take the upper end of the leave (if you cut your leaves into 2 – 3 pieces as I explained above, then place the stuffing on the longest end of your leave) and roll it under the stuffing (if not totally under, it should at least cover the whole stuffing.) roll once, and bring the left and right ends in, tuck them in, roll a bit more and tuck the unrolled part of the leave in and roll until you have the dolma.  
5. I steam-cooked the dolmas for about 15 – 20 in my pressure-cooker. Alternatively, you can place the dolmas in a Teflon pot, add a few spoons of water and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes. Cook some more if not soft enough.
6. For the tomato sauce: Heat the butter and a drop of olive oil in a sauce pan; sauté the garlic for a minute. Add the tomato puree and cook for a few minutes until you have a sauce. Add the pomegranate syrup and mix and turn off the heat.
7. Take the dolmas to a plate and pour the tomato sauce on the dolmas! 

Step 5 - I steam cooked the dolmas

Step 6 - tomato sauce

Step 7 - take the dolmas on a serving plate...

Step 7 - Pour the tomato sauce on the dolmas! Ready to serve!

DRIED EGGPLANT DOLMA (STUFFED DRIED EGGPLANTS)

(Text in English is below. Tarifin Türkçe versiyonu için buraya tiklayin)

Dried eggplant dolma is one of the other delicious dishes of Gaziantep. This dish is served usually as starter in the kebab restaurants. You might think that the amount of ingredients given below is way too much but I usually keep some for a day or two and the rest I keep in the deep freeze. When there are guests, it is a great pleasure to serve some of these dolma’s as starters! Totally home-made!

You can find the dried eggplants in strings in the Turkish supermarkets. In Belgium it was no problem to find these, so I can imagine no problem elsewhere.

The recipe is for dried eggplant; however in the pictures you will see some kind of courgettes as well. The procedure for these is also the same. In Turkey, there are many other variations to these dolma’s from dried vegetables such as dried courgettes, dried red peppers (paprika like), dried gherkin… The filling is the same in all these cases and the procedure to an important extent as well. 

Ingredients:

35 – 40 dried eggplants

Dried eggplants

3 glasses of rice, washed

4 or 5 medium to big size onions, in small cubes

Olive oil (I usually don’t measure the amount of olive oil I use to cook things. Instead, I usually add so much to have a thin layer of oil covering the whole surface of the pot in which I am cooking)

Lemon juice from 2 lemons, or lemon salt

3 spoons of tomato paste (domates dalçasi)

2 spoons of red pepper paste (biber salçasi)

3 – 4 cloves garlic, chopped fine

2 - 3 glasses of warm water (depending on the quality of the rice you use, the rice will need less or more water in order to get soft. I cook the rice until it is not hard anymore; but also not too soft, as the rice will be cooked some more in the eggplant as well. We don’t want it too soft)

Pepper and salt to your liking

Cumin and pimento to your liking  

Method:

1. Boil the dried eggplant for about 15 to 20 minutes. If my nail can go into the flesh of the eggplant, then they are ready.
2. Rinse the eggplant in cold water multiple times until the water becomes transparent again. This procedure is important in order to release the bitter taste of the eggplants.
3. Heat the olive oil, sauté the garlic and the onions together for 2 – 3 minutes.
4. Add both the tomato and the pepper paste and continue sautéing some more.
5. Add the rice and sauté for one minute and then add the warm water and close the lid (see the comments in the ingredients section in regards with the amount of the water to be used). Let it simmer.
6. Once the filling is ready, I spice it and then close the lid and let the filling cool down a bit. Otherwise, it is not pleasant to work with hands burned while stuffing the dried eggplants J
7. Add the lemon juice to the filling and mix it slowly.
8. Stuff the eggplants with the filling.
9. In a wide pot, place the stuffed eggplants side by side. Add a bit of warm water and cook it on low fire with the lid closed. If your rice was soft while preparing the filling, 20 – 30 minutes of cooking should be enough. If the rice was still a bit hard being on the edge of soft, then cook some more. You can check whether or not the rice is soft enough for you after 20 minutes anyway.

Step 1

steps 3 and 4

step 6

haylan kabagi (haylan courgettes stuffed)

step 9

step 9 for haylan courgette