members recipes

traditional Greek dish .it is the main course of summer family\'s lunch

Ingredients
Makes 6 serves

8 medium size zucchinis

20-25 medium size vine leaves

350 grms minced meat(use mixture of beef, pork and lamb)

50 grms white rice

2 tea sp salt

1 tea sp sugar

1 tea sp pepper

2 green onions

1 big onion chopped

A handful of mint and dill

3 table sp olive oil (add it in the stuff during the mixing of the ingredients)

Lemon juice(squeeze 2 medium lemons)

½ cup olive oil(to be used for the cooking)

Method
It’s a little bit complicated recipe but the dish worth a lot.
First of all wash the zucchinis and use a knife to cut a slice (thin one ) from their bottom and also cut their stalk.
Use a hand “digger” ,to dig their inner flesh. Dig them gently trying to avoid holes on their surface(I mean don’t penetrate their shapes).
Add a pinch of salt inside every zucchini. Set them aside till you stuff them.
Now wash the vine leaves (prefer those that are “tender” and newly germinated).
Put them for 2 minutes in a salty boiling water(not more…if you use canned vines you will need more time ,about 10 minutes). Set them aside and let them drain their liquid.
Now its time to make the mixture.
In a bowl, place the minced meat, the rice and the herbs(dill,mint ,onions). Mix them with your hands.
Now add olive oil. Salt,sugar and pepper. Mix again, till you make a mixture like the one you make when you cook meatballs.
Set this mixture aside for 30 minutes(another option is to put it in the fridge).
Now its time to do the stuff work.
Pick one by one the zucchinis, and stuff them from their upper side using your hand. Be careful ,don’t overstuff them, and also remember that the bottom side of zucchinis does not have a hole (this is very important if you want to keep the stuff inside them during the cooking). Set them aside.
Now its time to stuff the vine leaves. Pick a leave and place it in a surface you like(wherever is convenient for you).Use a tea sp to pick minced meat mixture, from the bowl, and stuff the leave.With your hands, pick the two opposite sides of the vine leave, and close the mixture inside it. Roll the leave and you have a vine stuffed leave.
Now place all the stuffed veggies into a casserole.There is just a secret here to avoid overcooking of those zucchinis and vines that are in the bottom of the casserole. To avoid this ,just place some vine leaves on the bottom and then place the veggies.
Put them in a way that the veggies will be tight in the casserole.
When you finish laying them, put some vine leaves on top also.
Add 2 ½ glasses of water ,lemon juice and olive oil. Cook them for about 50 -60 minutes in slow fire.
KALI OREXI