Dolma / Yarpaq dolması

Azerbaijan

Yarpaq dolması, vine leaves rolled around a spiced meat and rice filling, served with its own cooking juices: small firm rolls of dark green vine leaf packed tightly in circular rows on a plate, a thin glossy layer of reduced cooking liquid pooling beneath them.

Illustration

Time: 1 hour 50

Researched: 8 sources cited

Azerbaijani sources treat dolma as one of the core dishes of Turkic-Azerbaijani cuisine and list over thirty named types, divided between leaf-wrapped versions and vegetable-stuffed ones, eggplant, tomato, apple, quince. See The Disputed Table above for the naming and origin question.

As tradition built it

An hour's preparation, then 40 to 50 minutes on a low heat. No serving count given.

Ingredients

The filling

360 g fatty mutton
60 g sheep's tail fat
50 g onion
90 g round rice
30 g mint, finely chopped
30 g coriander, finely chopped
30 g dill, finely chopped
0.5 g cinnamon
10 g salt
5 g black pepper

The leaves

150 g grape leaves, fresh or salted
as needed water

To serve

70 g qatıq (yoghurt)
5 g garlic, crushed

Method

Pound the mutton, tail fat and onion together on a board, or put them through a mincer.
Mix in the salt, pepper, rice and cinnamon, then the coriander, dill and mint.
Cut the stalks off the grape leaves. Lay filling on each and roll it up.
Thread the rolls on a string and pack them into a deep pot.
Set a plate on top and pour in water to come above it.
Cook over a low heat 40 to 50 minutes.
Stir the garlic into the qatıq and serve it with the dolma.

Notes

The recipe is the Azerbaijan National Culinary Centre's, on its Milli Dadlar site; the leaves it names are of the ağ şanı and kişmişi grapes. The state portal azerbaijan.az gives per portion 180 g mutton, 30 g rice, 40 g leaf and melted butter, sometimes with soaked split chickpeas, and cooks it an hour; it blanches fresh leaves and half boils salted ones. Resept.az uses butter, washes salted leaves in hot water, and cooks until the pot is down to its fat.

What a modern chef changes

The meat filling given the same rice-toasting discipline as its neighbour above.

Rung 6

Method

Brown the mince lightly before combining with the rice, rather than mixing everything raw, for a deeper base flavour a purely simmered filling does not develop.
Weight the pan during cooking, as with tolma, so the rolls hold their shape through the longer meat-and-rice cooking time.
Rest the finished dish 10 minutes off the heat before serving, so the rice finishes absorbing residual liquid rather than sitting wet on the plate.

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