Azerbaijani dolma

Ingredients

• Vine leaves300 g
• Lamb — minced600 g
• Rice150 g
• Onions2
• Fresh mint50 g
• Coriander50 g
• Dill30 g
• Ghee60 g
• Matsoni or yoghurt400 ml
• Garlic4 clove
• Cinnamon½ tsp
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Scald fresh leaves for a minute; soak preserved ones half an hour in cold water.

   32 min

2. 2

   Rinse the rice and mix it with the mince, finely chopped onion, salt, pepper and cinnamon.

   12 min

3. 3

   Chop all the herbs fine and work them into the filling; their volume should be obvious.

   12 min

4. 4

   Put a teaspoon of filling on each leaf, tuck in the sides and roll it into a tight cylinder a finger thick.

   45 min

5. 5

   Line the bottom of the pot with torn leaves and pack the dolma in tight layers, seam down.

   12 min

6. 6

   Dot the top with ghee, add water level with the top layer and cover with a weighted plate.

   6 min

7. 7

   Cook an hour on a low heat and serve with matsoni whisked with crushed garlic and salt.

   65 min

About the dish

Mint and coriander go into the filling in quantity in Azerbaijani dolma. That separates it from the Turkish and Greek: there the herbs sit in the background, here they are one of the main flavours.

The leaves are rolled very small, the size of a finger. Large dolma read as careless work, and in Azerbaijan that is judged strictly.

It comes with matsoni whisked with garlic. The acidity of the yoghurt against fatty lamb is an obligatory part, and dolma is not served without it.

Worth knowing

• — The weight is not optional. Without it the top rows unroll and the filling ends up in the broth instead of the leaves.
• — The rice goes in raw and sparingly. It trebles in volume, and too much bursts the leaf from within.
• — Dolma is better on the second day. It takes up the liquid and the flavours even out, and in Azerbaijan it is often cooked the day before.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

26 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

40 g

More from Azerbaijan

• Shah plov — Pilaf baked in a crown of lavash. The crust holds its shape and is cut in wedges like a pie.
• Kufta bozbash — A clear broth with one large meatball per portion, a dried plum and apricot hidden inside it.
• Baku pakhlava — Diamonds of eight layers of dough with a nut filling, under a saffron syrup.