Yebra (no, not surfer slang I’m talking grape leaves)!

I love all things grape related.  I bet you thought I only enjoy the fruits of the vine, but oh no, my obsession doesn’t end at the bottom of the wine glass.  Surprise…..I love the grape leaves as well! 

You may be thinking, “Grape leaves?  What the heck is she going to do with grape leaves?”  Well let me tell you…grape leaves are the perfect package for a traditional Syrian dish known as Yebra.  You’ve probably heard about this dish, in Greek cooking it is known as Dolmas, but the Syrians do it different (and better in my opinion).  

Unfortunately it’s not a dish we eat often because it’s a work horse kinda meal.  You have to painstakingly hand wrap a mixture of rice and meat into grape leaves that turned out looking like little cigars, which, as you can imagine, takes some time.  It’s not the most fun meal to make solo, however; when I made it with my family, my Teta (grandmother in Arabic – make she rest in peace) and my mom, it was a much more fun endeavor. 

In true middle eastern fashion grape leave rolling turned into a juicy gossip session.  I listened mostly, because I didn’t have much to gossip about when I was a kid, but the things I learned….oh momma!  Now I look back at those days and realize I wasn’t just helping with the meal, I was carrying on a family tradition that my Teta did with her mom and her grandmother and so on and so on.  Now that  Teta is gone I always feel a little sad wrapping grape leaves, but I also realize how fortunate I was to learn from her and to appreciate what she and my mom passed down to me. 

Ingredients:

1 jar of grape leaves 16 ounce (can be found at international markets or if all else fails order online here). Drained and rinsed.

2 lbs of ground beef (93% lean)

2 cups of rice uncooked (this can vary depending on how meaty or ricey – is that a word? – you want your mixture to be. I tend to do a 50/50 split so the leaves are not meat heavy)

3-5 teaspoons of allspice

10 cloves of garlic peeled and left whole

2 lemons

salt to taste

Rinse rice and drain. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. If the mixture is too thick add a few teaspoons of water until the meat feels pliable to work with.

Place a grape leaf on a plate and cut off any remaining stem. Make sure the shiny part of the grape leaf is down so when you roll it the shiny side will be up.

Place about 1-2 tablespoons of meat on the leaf and turn in the sides. Begin rolling the leaf as if you were rolling up a cigar. The leaf will stay put since it should still have moisture in it. Repeat with each leaf until all are rolled.

Start stacking the leaves in a deep sauce pan. Once you have the first layer add 3 -4 garlic cloves. Begin the next layer and add the garlic again. Depending on the pot size you’ll have 3-4 layers. Once all the grape leaves are stacked in the pot, fill it with water to the top of the leaves. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook covered for about 10-15 minutes. After simmering for 10-15 minutes squeeze the juice of 2 lemons into pot and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes until rice is cooked through.

Plate up and enjoy the “fruits” of your labor!

Wine to pair?

Well you have the beef which lends to a bolder wine, but then there is a bit of tanginess from the lemon juice and the leaves. I tend to go somewhere in the middle for this dish. I would pair it with a Grenache or even a Chianti. Also it helps to “test” the wine out while you’re rolling the leaves just to make sure you’ll be happy with the paring.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do. Even though you didn’t make this with your Teta, I hope you have a grandmother you made or are still making special memories with. Love them and learn from them as much as you can; they have a lot to teach and I don’t mean just in the kitchen. Cheers!