Leaf Wrap with Olive Oil 👩🏼‍🍳

Hello, even though life is hectic, it is a source of motivation to try these flavors when we are craving something. Today, I will talk about our cultural dish, the olive oil leaf wrap made from grape leaves. Our mothers make this wrap of leaves very well, and we strive to make it as beautiful as they do.

Although it is difficult and time consuming to make leaf wrapping, it is nice to do when we feel like it. I learned leaf wrap from my mother and sister. I apologize for that in case you crave before we move on to the recipe.

My sister got my leaf from her friend. Since there are no leaves in winter, it must be prepared in summer. My mother collected leaves from her garden and prepared them for me. But this time, I wanted to wrap it with leaves that my sister bought. I would like to briefly talk about the preparation of olive oil leaf wrap. It is not possible for me to give an exact ingredient list like the previous recipes, because I did not make this recipe completely according to certain measures.

Materials ;

• Grape leaves (as much as we want to use)
• Lemon
• Olive oil or vegetable oil

Inside Metariel ;

• Rice (We should adjust the amount of rice according to the amount of our leaves.)
• 1 large onion
• Spices upon request (chili powder, black pepper, cumin, salt)
• 2 Pieces of garlic (I try to use it in all dishes.)
• Liquid oil
• Tomato paste
• Ground beef (optional)

Preparation

• First of all, because my leaves were in brine, I changed the water and kept them in water for a day. Just in case it has too much salt.
• Washed rice is put into a bowl.

• I add the finely chopped onions on top of the rice.
• We add spices, tomato paste, salt, olive oil or sunflower oil, garlic and minced meat (I had some minced meat, I added that too).
• I make the ingredients without roasting. I added the visual of the interior material. There are some people who make it by frying onions, but I do it this way because I learned it that way.

• We put the inner mortar we prepared in the middle of our leaf as seen in the image. It is wrapped by closing our leaf from the sides.
• We repeat this process until our stuffing and leaves are finished.
• We should not put too much internal mortar inside our leaves. Otherwise, our leaves may be torn. I make thinner leaf wrap, but since I didn't have much time, it turned out a little thick because I wrapped it quickly.

• After I finish the wrapping process, I put the stems of the leaf on the bottom of our pot. Leaf stalks give better flavor. And I put the leaves on the bottom of the pot, with this process, we prevent our wraps from burning while they are cooking.
• Then we put our leaf wraps in the pot one by one. We should take as much care as possible while arranging. We repeat this process until our leaf wraps are finished.

• We put oil or olive oil on the leaves we have wrapped. Then add lemon slices on it. I didn't use a lemon slice so that it wouldn't taste too sour, I just used the juice of the lemon.
• We add some water and salt to the tomato paste and put it on the wraps. We add a little more water and put it on the stove to cook. Since the cooking time will change, we need to constantly check whether the water has decreased.
• If you want, you can prevent it from falling apart by placing a plate on it.

• We take our cooked leaf wraps on a plate for serving. You can serve it with yogurt on the side. Good luck to those who try this local dish. 😊

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. Take care of yourselves. Hold tight to your loved ones and never let go of their hand. 😊