Dolmades With Vine Leaves and Egg Lemon Sauce

Preparing the leaves

• Heat the leaves in a pot of water over medium heat, gently boiling.
• Add the leaves every 10 to 15 minutes. Leave them for 3 – 3.5 minutes if they are fresh and tender and if they are in brine leave them for 5 minutes.
• Remove them with a slotted spoon carefully so as not to tear them and leave them in a colander to drain and cool.

For the filling

• For the filling, in a large bowl mix the minced meat, parsley, dill, onion and spring onions. Mix the two types of rice together with 20 ml of lemon juice and add them to the mixture.
• Add salt, pepper, salt and 20 g of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
• Place the parsley and dill sprigs in the bottom of the pot (or the pot) and cover them with 2-3 vine leaves spread out straight.

Rolling the dolmades

• Roll out each sheet in one hand, take 1 teaspoon of the filling, place it along the length of the sheet and start rolling the top first, then right, then left and continue rolling the whole dolmada.
• Put the opening of the leaf down to rest on the bottom so that it doesn’t open when boiling and start placing them first around the sides of the pot, then towards the center of the pot.
• When you finish the rows of dolmades, add the butter cubes, salt, 80 ml of olive oil and cover with an inverted plate a little smaller than the perimeter of the pot (to hold the dolmades).
• Dissolve a bouillon cube in a cup of hot water, add this to the pot and cover all the dolmades plus half a centimetre more with water.

Boiling the dolmades

• Place over high heat and when it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium and leave with the lid on for about 30-40 minutes (if you put them in the pressure cooker, it takes 10 minutes).
• When this time has passed, open the pot and test if a dolmade is soft. If it is firm, carefully drain the juice from the pot into another pot and bring it to a boil.
• However, in a glass of cold water, dissolve the cornstarch and add it little by little to the pot with the broth, stirring at the same time until it becomes a thick sauce. Remove from the heat, taste if it needs a salt or lemon supplement and let it cool a bit.

Making the lemon sauce

• In a bowl, beat the egg and lemon well and start adding a little bit of the sauce with a tablespoon, stirring constantly. After adding 3 – 4 tablespoons of the juice to the egg mixture, I add backwards from it spoonful by spoonful into the juice, shaking well so that the egg doesn’t “cut and cook”.
• Serve the dolmades immediately, drizzling the egg lemon sauce over them.

ENJOY!