Just Keep Rolling…Rolling…Rolling

I’m always about a cultural experience and when it in involves food, even better Recently I had the opportunity to be taught the fine art of rolling stuffed grape leaves with my wonderful friend Joey. You’ve heard about Joey before in other posts, he is more than a friend to me, he is family. We have for quite some time talked about my coming to their home and making an authentic Middle Eastern meal, to be exact a Palestinian meal and this past Sunday I got to have one of the best experiences of my life involving family and food. In Palestinian homes cooking is a communal event involving the entire family, whenever families gather for a meal you find them gathered around the table rolling the leaves in the perfect way. I’ve ate and loved stuffed grape leaves since the first time I discovered these delectable cigar shaped bundles of heaven at a Greek restaurant. In Greek they’re called Dolmades and are usually vegan with rice, dill, mint and parsley; however, there are meat versions in Greek cooking usually with ground lamb. In Palestinian homes they are called Warak Dawali and are layered with stuffed Cousa Mahshi or Middle Eastern Summer Squash which are pale green, smooth and very mild in flavor. The cousa is hallowed out and filled with the same rice, spice and meat mixture as the grape leaves. Joey being the ingenious soul that he is, devised a method of coring the squash using a drill with a large bit and he could core a squash in under a minute taking away some of the labor intensive work of doing it by hand. I’ve seen jarred grape leaves in Mediterranean specialty markets around Detroit but as if I had cussed, Joey slapped (not really but I’m sure he thought about it) my hand when I asked about using them I was told that they are brine preserved and not at all as good as the hand-picked leaves that his family picks from the wild grape vines in their back yard. This is a labor of love for a dish that is beloved to their heritage. The leaves are hand-picked, washed, then blanched in salted boiling water quickly -they are then layered and frozen to use throughout the winter months of the year. In spring and summer, they are picked fresh, blanched and rolled the same day. The meat and rice filling is a mixture of medium-grain rice (they use Egypt’s Best Rice brand), we actually had to go to the local Middle Eastern market to purchase more along with a couple of bags of delectable fresh made warm pita we would enjoy with the meal. The meat used was a coarse grind of beef that I could tell was marbled perfectly with lean and fat. The spices I’m sure are probably a family secret, I didn’t ask but I could smell allspice, cinnamon and possibly nutmeg and maybe cloves. The addition of olive oil not only acts as a filling binder but also aids in the actual rolling process. Once the Cousa were ready and the filling was made, a very large stack of grape leaves appears, and the rolling fun begins. The leaf is placed with the smooth side up and the top point up, wider side towards you. Place a small amount of filling as the base of the leaf, trust me you will want to put more filling than is needed, and a few times I saw Joey looking at my filling amount and I knew I had to remove a pinch. The filling should be a line across the bottom. Fold the bottom half up over the filling and then the sides of the leaf over toward the center. Keeping everything tight roll the leaf away from you, I discovered that a slight rub of oil from the filling bowl helped with the rolling. Trust me when I say, this is an art form and my first few attempts were anything but artful. Though Joey being as patient as I’d ever seen him be talked me through it and by the time we had rolled at least fifty I felt proud of myself for somewhat mastering this process. With each Dawali your confidence grows and by the time your fingers have turned slightly brownish-green you have accomplished something that makes you happy! I wondered why we were making so many, I mean there was only four people to eat this mountain of goodness. Joey and his brother George both stated matter-of-factly that you never just make a few you make enough to enjoy for days and with others. Once we had the mountain of leaves filled and the squash filled, we were ready for the cooking magic to commence, closer to the eating magic I kept thinking too. Fresh lemons were cut and placed onto the bottom of the pot, then the layering between cousa and dawali began, making sure that the seams of the filled leaves were down and packed tightly. In Palestinian cooking the liquid used to cover the pot of dawali is made from tomatoes (we can of diced tomatoes) and lemon juice freshly squeezed into it, the cooking liquid is then brought to a boil and cooked for just a minute or two. The boiling concoction is gently poured over the pot of cigar shaped filled leaves and a heavy plate is placed on top to keep everything tight and in place for the hour-long cooking journey. It was served on a large metal platter resembling a large deep-dish pizza pan and the pot of deliciousness was inverted with everything being coated in a warm lemon-tomato sauce. I couldn’t wait to dig in and dig in I did, I discovered that I loved the cousa it was tender and sweet. My favorite way of eating the grape leaves was by opening one of the soft warm pitas’ and filling it with the dawali and adding Laban or plain yogurt…It was truly an experience that I always welcome and live for. Spending time with a friend who’s family to me and learning hands-on about his culture and sharing a delicious meal that is special to his heart!
Whether you eat them as dawali or dolmades, if you’ve never tried stuffed grape leaves, I highly recommend you find yourself a friend like Joey and make a memory of a lifetime!