Etli yaprak sarmasi / Mince meat and rice stuffed vine leaves

Etli yaprak sarmasi

Mince meat and rice stuffed vine leaves

Ingredients

250 gr lean steak mince

1 large onion chopped

1 cup of rice washed and drained

2 table spoon tomato paste

3 table spoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon dried mint

1/2 jar of vine leaves in brine

(soaked in fresh water overnight or at least 1 hour to reduce the salt)

Preparation

Mix all the ingredients except the vine leaves and mix until evenly combined.

Take the vine leaves out of the water and carefull unwrap them. You may tear a few of them when unwrapping the lot. Don't worry you will use the torn ones to line your pan.

Here is a little sketch I made showing the steps to stuff the leaves. First lay one leaf on a chopping board, nip the stalk off the leaf.

Place roughly a teaspoonfull of stuffing and carefully wrap the leaf around the stuffing.

Repeat until you finish all your stuffing.

Cover the base of a pan with the torn leaves and place your finished stuffed and wrapped leaves as you go along.

Add 1 1/2 cup of hot water to the pan. Cover and keep on high heat until the water starts to boil then lower the heat and let it simmer in low heat for 40 minutes.

Serve it warm accompanied with yogurt.