Dolmadakia With Avgolemono Sauce Recipes

DOLMADAKIA AVGOLEMONO: GRAPELEAVES IN A LEMONY SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine the onion with ¼ cup olive oil in a pot and cook over medium heat until soft and golden. About 10 minutes.
• Combine the ground beef, herbs, rice, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add the cooked onions and the oil that they were cooked in. Mix until combined.
• Rinse and dry the grape leaves. Cut the hard stem from each leaf. Reserve the smallest and the torn leaves to lay on bottom of pot.
• Lay a grape leaf shiny side down and place a tablespoon of rice filling on the bottom end of the leaf, near the stem.
• ​Fold the stem end of leaf over the filling. Fold the sides over and roll up snugly but not too tight. The rice will expand while cooking.
• Repeat with all of the remaining grape leaves until your filling is done.
• Layer half of the small and torn grape leaves to create a bed for the dolmades in a pot.
• Season the lamb on both sides with salt and pepper and place in the pot along with the grape leaves.
• Place the dolmades seam side down and very close together over the bed of leaves. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Pour the olive oil and lemon juice over the dolmades.
• ​Place the remaining reserved small leaves over the dolmades.
• Pour the water or chicken stock over the dolmades.
• ​Place an inverted plate over the dolmades to weigh them down and to prevent them from moving around and opening while cooking.
• Cover with lid and bring to a boil.
• Reduce to a simmer and cook about 45 minutes or until tender.
• Carefully strain the liquid out of the pot into a pitcher. There should be 3 cups of liquid. Add more water or chicken broth if there's not enough. Place the broth in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Combine the egg yolks, cornstarch, lemon juice, and dill in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth.
• Add some of the hot broth to the eggs and whisk well to temper.
• Add the egg mixture to the pot and whisk to combine. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened.
• Either pour the sauce over the dolmades or pour some over them and serve the remaining sauce in a gravy boat alongside the dolmades with some lemon wedges.
• Enjoy!

DOLMADAKIA WITH AVGOLEMONO SAUCE

Steps:

• Do not cook the rice, but soak it in boiling water 5 minutes and drain in a sieve.
• Unfold the vine leaves and rinse under cold running water.
• In a bowl, combine the the rice, onions, meat, mint, parsley, seasonings and oil; mix together with clean hands.
• Form 1 Tbs of the mixture into an oval shape, place on a vine leaf and roll up, turning the ends in to seal; repeat until all the stuffing is used.
• Arrange stuffed leaves closely packed in layers in a small flame-proof baking dish (I use an 8 x 8-inch pan or a Pyrex deep 9-inch pie pan).
• Pour in the broth or water to cover; sprinkle with the juice of 1 lemon.
• Place a heat-proof plate on top of the grape leaves to weigh them down.
• Cover with foil, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour over very low heat.
• Let the leaves cool slightly in the broth and remove from broth, reserving the broth.
• Beat the egg yolks Add the juice of the other lemon to the yolks.
• Heat the yolk mixture, slowly adding some of hot broth from dolmadakia while heating.
• Remove from heat, stir into rest of broth and let stand 5 minutes to thicken.
• Serve immediately while sauce is warm.

DOLMADES WITH AVGOLEMENO SAUCE

Steps:

• Separate the grape leaves and place in a large bowl. (This will take a long time guessing 20 minutes.).
• Cover the leaves in boiling water and soak for 20 minutes.
• Drain the water and rinse leaves few times.
• Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add onion, rice, and water.
• Cover and simmer until rice is HALF cooked, about 8 minutes.
• Drain off and discard any liquid.
• Add garlic to rice mixture.
• Mix the onion/rice mixture, ground meat, tomato puree, feta, lemon zest, green onions, dill, mint salt and pepper in a large bowl.
• PREHEAT OVEN to 375 degrees.
• Take one leaf, shiny side down, cut off the stem, and place 1 teaspoon of the mixture at the bottom (stem) end of the leaf. (If you want a bigger amount, put 1 tablespoon of filling in.).
• Fold both sides of the leaf towards the center, roll up from the broad bottom to the top, and place into a 4 QUART POT.
• Repeat with all leaves, rolling tightly- leaving no gaps as leaves are placed in pot (to prevent from opening while cooking). Put onto tray.
• Repeat until all of the filling is used up.
• Put leftover leaves in bottom of baking dish.
• Place stuffed grape leaves into a baking dish in layers, squeeze them gently, pack tightly into container, and just cover with chicken stock-might be too much stock. WEIGH DOWN BY placing a heavy oven proof plate inside casserole directly on top of dolmades-weigh that down with another oven proof weight.
• Bake in a 375 degrees F oven for about 1 hour, check to see if rice is done. You do NOT want it to be a rolling boil or they will burst open.
• Whisk the eggs in bowl over a small pan of simmering water until frothy, about 3 minutes.
• Slowly pour in the lemon juice while whisking.
• Gradually add some of the hot but not boiling liquid from the baking dish-guessing about 5 tablespoons- and continue whisking until it thickens.
• Mix most of the avgolemeno sauce into the dish with the dolmades reserving some for garnish.
• Serve the dolmades garnished with the reserved avgolemeno sauce and some chopped dill and or mint.

EASY AVGOLEMONO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, bring broth to a boil.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the lemon juice and whisk until frothy.
• While continuing to whisk, pour half the boiling broth into the eggs in a small stream, whisking vigorously and continually so that the eggs don't cook.
• Return the broth to the flame and pour the tempered eggs into the remaining broth, whisking the whole time. Cook until the sauce thickens slightly, but NEVER LET THE SAUCE BOIL. This will take about five minutes.
• Serve immediately. This sauce doesn't reheat well.