The Turkish Sarma aka Dolma Recipe
OK - after what must seem like an eternity to my countless followers around the world, here it is: the family secret long assiduously guarded by each generation of Wandering Turks, revealed in a moment of weakness, after some comments on a blog and an ensuing hasty promise. This revelation is (obviously) bigger than Geraldo's wait outside the Chicago vault for Capone's long lost blood money. It towers heads and shoulders above the WMDs in Iraq. In fact, I'm having a hard time coming up with superlatives for it (I'll take $300 for things which don't exist Alex).
Before I fork over the recipe (like that? "fork" over - in a foodie post..yes, I'm brilliant and...modest), let's clear up a couple things up about this sarma versus dolma business. Dolma and sarma are stuffed vegetable dishes originating from the geographic area that Turkey currently occupies. The dishes are quite popular in various forms, typically consisting of different fillings and spices throughout the Middle East, Iran and the Balkans (especially Romania). With the exception of Romania, in most countries outside Turkey, no distinction is made between dolma and sarma (but there is one!).
Dolma, as a word, is a past participle of "dolmak" or "doldurmak", which means to "stuff". Sarma on the other hand comes from the verb "sarmak", which translates to "wrap" or to "roll". Grape leaves are rolled with their filling (sarma), and other veggies, such as bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini are hollowed out and then stuffed (dolma). This is an enormous distinction – right? Once Turkey gets into the EU (nobody hold their breath), maybe we can claim it to be traditional Turkish product and so everyone else will have to come up with their own name for it. We have plenty of time for such tomfoolery – underestimate our ability to waste time at your own peril.
OK - so now that I have that off my chest, and you now have the ability to go to your local Middle-Eastern delicatessen and huffily deliver a diatribe on the difference between sarma and dolma, let's move on to the recipe. First off, allow me to apologize. There was a grand plan to photograph all of this step by step, but it went by the wayside after the first sip of beer and once we started watching The Office. What I give you is a crapola end-product picture. For my lack of planning though, I will throw in a second recipe for free! (I feel like the OxiClean guy: (shouting) we’re going to give you the dolma recipe…but wait, we’ll also give you the sarma recipe! And yes! We’ll even throw in the sigara boregi recipe! That’s 3 recipes for the price of 1! Call us now!).
Ingredients:
- 1 pound (that’s roughly ½ kg) of Grape Leaves. If you can get them fresh – great – otherwise, a jar will work fine. Place the leaves a in bowl in warm water.
- 1 pound of ground beef – a little on the fatty side – 15% fat (they label them here in the US so we know to get the more fatty ones to feed our obesity craze).
- 3 medium yellow onions – mince as small as possible
- 2 (200ml) cups of short or medium grain white rice – initially let it sit in cold water
- Dry mint – 2 tablespoons
- Parsley – flat or curly leaf – a handful
- Sumac – 1 tablespoon
- Black pepper – ½ tablespoon
- Salt – ½ tablespoon
- Cayenne pepper – ½ tablespoon
- Tomato Paste – 4 tablespoons
- 1 juicy medium tomato - minced
- Citric acid, aka limon tuzu – ¼ tablespoon - mix in a small amount of warm water in a cup
- Some non-stick spray
- 50 grams of margarine
- Nice to have – biber salcasi – aka red pepper paste – ½ tablespoon
- You will need fresh bread (Turkish bread = best bread in the world but a French baguette will do if you don’t have a firin or bakkal close to you) and plain yogurt.
It’s prep time!
Dolma and sarma stuffing can get messy. Be sure to have some old newspaper or some washable underlayment before you begin. Other absolutely necessary items include a friend or two you can chat or gossip with while you stuff and roll and a really bad movie on the telly. Remember, this is meant to be a communal and fun experience!
Ah – we come to the easy part. Take all of the above, except the grape leaves, (the rice sans water), and mix it all in a tepsi (one of the most underrated contributions of Turkey to global cuisine IMHO), if you have one. Otherwise, you will need a large glass bowl. One thing I do is to slowly mix in the rice at the end. I don’t like my filling too ricey, and I feel I can get the mixture right this way. I end up using around 1 ½ cups of rice most of the time. Mix it all together for around 5-10 minutes whilst jabbering away. It should be relatively solid but slightly gooey filling concoction by the end of it all.
This filling can be used for sarma and dolma. Grab a small amount of the mixture in your hand and start your movie and chat with your friend. Wrap and stuff to your heart’s content. If you have questions on how exactly to fold the grape leaves, I refer you to the following link – it is quite easy and fun once you have it down. Lightly squeeze the mixture in your hand before wrapping to get excess liquid out. For dolma, you can buy fresh veggies and hollow them out. Do try to get bell peppers with thin skin. These are hard to find in the US, although most veggies produced South of the border and available at a lot of farmer markets in Austin, seem more similar to Turkish veggies than ones found in the supermarkets. I highly recommend (and this is what I ended up cooking), if you can get it, to get dried bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant from Turkey. These last forever and can be used at a moment’s notice, and require no prep other than getting placed in hottish water at the same time you place the grape leaves in their warm water.
As your inventory of sarma and dolma builds up, prep your pot by spraying it with some non-stick cooking spray. Put down a single layer of grape leaves on the bottom of the pot, such that there is a fair amount for intercrossing occurring between the leaves. These leaves are a buffer zone to ensure your sarma and dolma do not burn during the initial heating phase. The leaves can come up on the sides of the pot, up to an inch or so.
Start laying the sarma and dolma – you want to lay them horizontally so they form even layers. I’ve never encountered a difference in whether I lay the sarma or dolma first on the bottom. If you have bell peppers with thicker skin, I suppose it may be better to get those on the bottom first. Anyhow, not a big deal either way.
As you get done with a layer, cut several thin pieces of margarine on various sections on the layer (no need to spread or be exact), and then start laying the next layer. And…that’s it. You’re ready to cook and enjoy delicious sarma and dolma in one hour. Add 1 ½ glasses of water and turn up the heat to high. The water will start to boil within a minute or two. Put on the pot’s top. Keep the heat on high for 10 minutes and then bring it to a simmer for 50 minutes. Serve with yogurt and fresh bread.
posted by The Wandering Turk @ 3:54 PM
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