Dolma, originally a Greek/Turkish class of stuffed vegetable dishes, is vastly popular in the entire Meditteranean region, with the stuffed vine leaves being the most famous of them all. The Persian style dolma, called dolme in Farsi, is slightly different from the ones from the neighboring countries. First of all, Iranians tend to stuff a wide range vegetables such as vine leaves, cabbage leaves, capsicums, zucchini, eggplant, and tomatoes. Furthermore, the herbal mixture in the Persian stuffing is unique, usually containing an assortment of aromatic herbs. Inspired by the Italian rollatini, presented here is a modern Persian eggplant Dolme. Note that the traditional Dolme is not baked in the oven but is slow cooked in large pots.
Ingredients:
2 medium Italian eggplants
1 cup Jasmine, Basmati, or long grain rice
1½ cup water
1.43 Pounds (~650 gr) 80/20 ground beef, cold
8 Ounces (~225 gr) aromatic herb mixture (equal amounts of cleaned and washed, Chinese chives, Italian parsley, tarragon, summer savory, and dill)
2 eggs
2 TSP salt
2 small white onions, one grated the other finely chopped
½ TSP turmeric
¼ TSP cinnamon
1 cup tomato puree
1 TBSP fresh lime juice
Add the rice and water (with no salt or oil added) to a saucepan. Cook on medium-low heat until all the moisture is absorbed by the rice, right before the rice starts to stick to the bottom. Spread the rice on a tray and let cool. In the meantime, combine the cold meat with salt, eggs, the grated onion, and chopped herbs. Knead for 5 minutes or until the mixture is homogenized and sticky. Proper kneading is important for this style of Persian dishes. Mix the cool rice with meat mixture and knead until homogenized.
Cut the eggplants into a quarter of cm (~0.1 Inch) of slabs. Do not season them with salt as the stuffing mixture has enough salt. Shallow fry the eggplant until the slabs get soft
and each could be easily bent without being torn apart. Finely chop the remaining eggplant scraps and sauté them with the second finely chopped onion.
When the vegetables are translucent, add the turmeric and cinnamon to the pan and toast them in the oil for thirty seconds. Add the tomato puree and lime juice and cook until the sauce is thick. Do not add salt to the sauce as the stuffing mixture has enough salt. Spread the sauce on the bottom of a rectangular baking dish (e.g. a 13x9 pan). Take a handful of the stuffing mixture (enough to make a large meatball) and form it into a fat sausage-shaped patty. Wrap the patty with a slice of fried eggplant and place it on the sauce, with the overlapping section of the rolls facing down. Repeat the process for the rest of the ingredients. In case you have some of the meat mixture or eggplant slices left over, mix and chop them finely and add them to the sides or below the rolls. It enhances the flavor of the sauce. Cover the pan with aluminum foil.
Bake in the 400F (~205C) oven for 20 minutes covered, and another 20 minutes uncovered.
Comments