FOOD OF THE MONTH DEC’2023

Traditional Armenian dish Tolma. Name coming from the word “Toli “, means grape vine. What Tolma is, it’s ground spiced meats,a bit of rice and herbs, mixed together, stuffed with grape vines. Simple and so delicious. Traditionally Tolma was made with finely chopped lamb meat. Nowadays it’s made with different meats, and every household makes it slightly different, but always delicious.

Dolma is a very popular traditional Armenian dish. Armenians most of the times prepare it for some festive tables such as the New Year. They also prepare it just for special guests.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 kg of minced meat (pork and beef)
• 1 cup of rice (round)
• 2-3 onions
• tomato sauce (1 table spoon)
• butter (150g)
• pepper (black and red)
• salt (1 table spoon)
• 1 kg of grape leaves
• Other ingredients (parsley leaves and also coriander, depending on your taste)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Massage the minced meat with the hands and add half a cup of warm water, chopped onions, rice, tomato paste, butter, salt, and pepper as well as other ingredients.
2. After mixing them well, let the current mass take a rest for about 3-5 minutes.
3. Then, put about one spoon of the mixture on each of the opened grape leave and then roll it up.
4. Bring a saucepan and put the opened grape leaves on the bottom of it.
5. Put the dolmas on the leaves and add water till it covers them.
6. Put the saucepan on the fire and turn the fire down.
7. Depending on the fire, after about 30 minutes up to an hour, dolma is ready
   
   (if the rice inside is cooked,  then dolma is ready, so to check it out, one should taste the rice)

References:
https://travel-armenia.org
https://www.kitchenstories.com
https://www.iarmenia.org
https://heghineh.com
https://phoenixtour.org