Dolma/Sarma

The forecast for today suggests staying in, and who am I to argue over that.

This morning, I was greeted by foggy windows and a gloomy sky, the apartment still has a dolma odor from yesterday preparation. Despite having two doors separating the kitchen from the rest of the flat, smell always manages to creep everywhere. Although I might not mind if it smelled like cakes, the aroma of sauerkraut doesn't really excite me all that much.

But dolma is something that is worth making an effort for. Once more, traditional food is only considered traditional because it was always served during holidays and other special occasions in the past.
Originally coming from the East, Turkish empire left it to us, next to the many words we adopted.
Dolma is actually a stuffed dish, mostly is wrapped in cabbage, vine, or other leafy greens, stuffed with peppers, or tomatoes. Filling simply contains meat, vegetables and rice..

Even though neither the ingredients nor the preparation are difficult, cooking takes up the majority of the time. To be completely honest, I wouldn't suggest making it in an apartment. In our area, making sauerkraut is a winter dish that is a MUST. The hardest part of the stem is typically removed from whole heads of cabbage, which are then salted, and pickled with a liquid that I have no idea how to make except that it contains vinegar. :D

Fortunately, it was made available for sale long ago and is now available in stores in vacuum-packed form.

Since there are no exact measurements, so for 15 sarmi you will need..., oh wait wasn't we preparing dolma? Official name of this dish in Serbia is sarma and it means "rolled" - word we kept from Turks.

A large amount of onion, 400 grams of minced meat, 1 cup rice, a whole head of sauerkraut, salt, pepper, allspice, and laurel, no need to mention oil.
As shown in the photography above, separate the leaves, cut the onion as thinly as possible, fry the meat and onion, and then add the spices, then combine with the rice and cook slowly. Even if everything is medium fried, no worries cause oven is awaiting them after the long slow cooking.

I completely forgot that parsley is an optional addition. This dish actually has a variety of spices, so you can add or subtract them without doing any harm, with the exception of the laurel, which I would never leave out. Even though I adore this aroma, I don't like picking the dry leaves off the plate, so when I recently came across ground option, I knew I had to have it.

Simply remove the firm part of the leaf that is close to the stem to prepare cabbage leaves for rolling.

On the leaf's very edge, place a spoonful of filling. Pinch the sides together, and roll up. To prevent them from unraveling while cooking, it is important to roll them tightly as possible.

By the way, I've made this dish twice so far because I was always worried that it wouldn't be cooked through enough or that I might mishit the proportion of rice to meat (neither should prevail). If I remember correctly, the first time I was not satisfied, at least it wasn't as tasty as mom's.

p o s e.

Stacking before cooking has specific requirements as well, so try to pack them closely together.

Another reason why it's important to stick together - less chances to fall apart.

Line the bottom of the dish with a couple of whole leaves of sauerkraut, then fold sarma in. Also use far leaves for covering the top.

Pour about 250 ml of water into, cover it with a plate that you may soon say goodbye to (it might break during cooking), and then press something heavy and heat-resistant on top. About the plate, rarely cracked so far but just in case it's mine to tell. :D

The rolls are now tightly fastened, and this cooking technique prevents them from floating and instead keeps them firmly tucked in until serving.

Served and clumsily photographed, the light has already largely disappeared from the kitchen, and how could not be after 4 hours of cooking and about 30 minutes of baking in the oven.

The taste is nom-nom, but the only thing that caught me off guard was the amount of acidity, which is entirely typical for a this kind bought food. Next time, I'll manage to rinse the leaves in water first.

A perfect dish, for gloomy autumn days, thin sour crust of cabbage with a fantastic mixture of stewed onions and meat.

Bon appetite!