This page describes some variations on this recipe. The first two are quicker versions, and the last changes the filling and the cooking liquid to arrive at something... interesting.
Instead of rolling the filling into the leaves, you can make a "pie". In a heavy saucepan lined with foil (unless you want the bottom layer to be caramelized), alternate one layer of leaves and one layer of filling. This will use up about half a jar of grape leaves. Finish with a layer of leaves, and cook as in the other recipe. When it's done, the "pie" will come out of the pan pretty easily, and you can cut slices to serve. This variation saves a lot of time, and tastes pretty good too.
I did this variation with the leftover leaves from the previous variation, which I had frozen. Make the filling as before, except combine the rice and the meat in a saucepan. Chop the leaves coarsely, mix in with the filling, add the cooking liquid and cook for about 30 minutes. Let stand for a few minutes before eating. If you find that the rice is undercooked, or not uniformly cooked, stir it, add some water, and cook some more. When I made this I cut even more corners, and didn't bother with a cooking liquid other than water. I did add some fresh chopped tomatoes to the mixture. I skipped the tomato paste, thinking that it would overpower the flavor, but on reflection that was probably a mistake. Still, with lots of lime juice this was surprisingly delicious, and really didn't take much effort at all.
An interesting vegan variation. I'm sure the above time-saving tricks could also be applied to
this recipe. Use long-grain brown rice instead of white rice. The amount of cooking liquid should
be twice the amount of rice (3 cups in this case). For the liquid, combine equal parts water, red
wine, and canned crushed tomatoes and their juice, and blend. You can adjust the balance of flavors
to suit your taste. Cook for about 70 minutes, and let stand for a few minutes before transferring
the leaves to a plate. I would use a light, fruity red for the wine, like Chianti. If the wine has
strong tannins or flavors, they will intensify while cooking and probably be unpleasant. For a
fresher taste (but more work), you could make the same cooking liquid as in the original recipe, and
blend two cups
of it with one cup of red wine.
Katia Hayati
Last updated October 18, 2004