Monday, September 19, 2011

Warak Inab

For years one of my favourite dishes has been "warak inab," or stuffed grape leaves. I first had them in Jordan when I was 16, made by the mother of a friend of mine. My favourite non-Slovak restaurant in Slovakia made them wonderfully, and I've hunted for years for a good recipe. (As well as grape leaves-- not so easy to find in small-town Tennessee.) When my Mom was here last summer for Hadassah's birth, we tried a recipe she and my sister found online. Not so very good. Tolerable, but not good

The thing is, there are tons of recipes for stuffed grape leaves out there. Some of them are Greek, some are Jordanian, and some are I-don't-even-know. Back in the spring, I picked up some grape leaves from The Fresh Market in Chattanooga and ordered two Middle Eastern cookbooks that I'd had a hankering for for awhile. One of them, The Middle Eastern Cookbook by Maria Khalifé, had the recipe that I used to make some warak inab today. 

Here's her version:
  • 1 lb 2 oz vine leaves
  • 1 medium potato, peeled and cut into thick slices
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into thick rings
  • 1 medium tomato, cut into thick slices
For the stuffing:
  • 12.5 oz (4 cups) parsley
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
  • salt to taste
  • .5 tsp white pepper
  • 5.5 oz (3/4 cup) short-grain rice, rinsed and drained
  • 3 medium tomatoes, rinsed and chopped
  • 2 fl. oz (1/4 cup) lemon juice
  • 3 fl. oz (1/3 cup) olive oil
Here's how I used and adapted her recipe:

  • 2.5 cups of fresh parsley, chopped up. (Don't use the stalks.) 
  • 5 small tomatoes and 1 medium sized one, chopped up
  • salt, to taste
  • white pepper, to taste
  • black pepper, to taste
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup butter (I was out of all forms of oil)
  • 3/4 cup jasmine rice, uncooked
  • 8 oz of Jimmy Dean sage sausage (I would have used some ground beef instead but I didn't feel like defrosting any from our freezer and I had the sausage handy in the fridge), uncooked
I combined the parsley, tomatoes, lemon juice, and butter and then blended them all together in my food processor. I didn't blend for too long because I wanted to have some chunks left while getting a finer consistency than I could achieve through merely cutting the parsley and tomatoes with a knife. Then I dumped it all back into my starting bowl, added a fair amount of salt and both peppers, and poured the rice and sausage in. I mixed it all up, washed up, and got out the grape leaves. You're supposed to pull them out and drop them in boiling water for a few seconds, but I didn't. Instead, I pulled them out of their jar and, one at a time, spread them out with the protruding vein side up (subtle difference, but it's there). Make sure you have no stems attached. At the base of the leaf, right above where the stem begins, I added a spoonful (more or less, depending on the size of the leaf) of the stuffing. I then folded in the sides of the leaf and rolled it up-- firmly but not too tightly. 



When all the stuffing was used up, I placed the bundled leaves face down (the flap-side down) in a pan, covering the bottom. I had a few layered on top as well. Then I covered the bundles with water, placed a small plate on top of the bundles in the water to help them keep their shape, turned on the burner to high, and let the whole thing boil for about a minute before turning it down and covering the pot to simmer for an hour.

If you try this, you'll know it's done when you try one and the rice is soft. Scoop the warak inab out of the pan and place on a plate. Some people serve it chilled, but I like mine warm. Dobrù chuť!

Finished product


3 comments:

  1. So you never actually said if they met with your approval better than the last ones... Or maybe that's what Dobrù chuť means I just don't know. :)

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  2. Yes! Very good. Not the same as I've had in Jordan or as I liked in Slovakia, but my favourite that I've had since. Hadassah was quite fond of them as well, though that doesn't say much as she'll eat just about anything. : )

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  3. I remember the ones we had when Hadassah was born were not that great. I'll have to try these.

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