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Prepare the Dipping Sauce
In a saucepan, heat about 100ml of red wine vinegar. Add two teaspoons of honey, black pepper, and oregano to the vinegar. Boil the mixture until about half of the liquid has evaporated, and it becomes slightly thicker, resembling a syrupy consistency.
Prepare the Filling
Lightly toast fennel seeds and cumin seeds. Grind them in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of fleur-de-sel until they form a fine powder.
Usually you don't need to to blanch the vine leaves, but if the vine leaves are tough, you can blanch them by dipping them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then drain and let them cool. Larger leaves might need a little more time.
Now make the pork mince mix. Sauté finely chopped onions in a pan. Add pork mince and minced garlic and ginger. Mix in the fragrant fennel seed and cumin powder, a bit of fish sauce, a little water, and some wine. Cook the mixture until all the liquid is evaporated or absorbed, and the mince takes on a brown, caramelized color. Stir in chopped coriander and parsley. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Assemble the Vine Leaves
Lay out the cooled vine leaves. Place 1/2 a prawn and approximately a teaspoon of the pork mince mixture in the center of each leaf.
Fold the left and right sides of the leaf over the filling, then roll from the bottom towards the top, ensuring a tight, secure roll. Make sure the rolled leaf is tightly wrapped!
Place the rolled 'dolmas' on kitchen paper in the fridge to allow them to absorb excess moisture and become tighter. This will stop the oil from spitting too much.
Shallow fry the Dolmas
Heat olive oil in a pan until hot. Reduce the heat to medium and add 5-6 vine wraps at a time. Fry them for 2-3 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Allow them to drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Optionally you can also grill them on the bbq for smoky, crispy goodness!
Serve the Vine Leaves
Reheat the dipping sauce until it's slightly warm. Serve your vine leaves with some of the dipping sauce in a little saucer.
Stuffed Vine Leaves with Pork Mince & Prawn
Serves 6
45 minutes
With a honey & red wine vinegar dipping sauce laced with copious amounts of Greek Oregano and Black Pepper!
Continuing our series of recipes from The Delicious Legacy Podcast host Thomas Ntinas
I know it sounds a little bit Asian this dish! Garlic, ginger, pork and prawn, fish sauce...! Surely it's Vietnamese right?
Well, I've always found the far Eastern cuisine very interesting, fragrant, complex yet delicate. The ancient Mediterranean cuisine from what has survived in texts, seems to have very similar tones woven into it.
A recipe inspired partly from Apicius (the oldest surviving Greco-Roman cookbook written sometime in the 4th century CE but based on recipes from at least the 1st century BCE), partly from Archestratus (the Greek Sicilian gourmand who according to a legend “circumnavigated the world to satisfy his hunger”), partly a need to create something when I needed 'finger food' for an event. Of course, this dish, with the use of vine leaves, is firmly established in the modern Greek kitchen and also all over eastern mediterranean. Vine leaves are edible, succulent, delicious and used for stuffing since Classical times (or even before that!)
- Ingredients
The filling for 30-35 vine leaves:
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Around 40 vine leaves, some might break some might be too small. Better have more than less!
1 onion grated on the cheese grater
300g pork mince
3 garlic cloves grated as above
a large thumb of ginger grated as above
3 tbsp white wine
1 tsp fish sauce
Black pepper
Fleur-de-sel sea salt
A large handful of chopped coriander leaves and parsley
15 cooked, peeled prawns
For the dipping sauce:
100ml red wine vinegar
2 tsp honey
Black pepper
Oregano
