Dolmas with tzatziki sauce recipe

Published July 30, 2011 1:01PM (EDT)

Michelle's Dolmas

Ingredients

  • Cooked rice
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic (minced)
  • Carrot (grated)
  • Zucchini (diced)
  • Fresh dill or fennel (diced)
  • Salt
  • Feta cheese (optional)
  • Water
  • Lemon juice

Directions

  1. Cook rice.
  2. Sauté onion, garlic, grated carrot, little pieces of zucchini and little pieces of fresh fennel. Add dill or fennel, more olive oil, and feta cheese. Turn off heat.
  3. Remove a grape leaf from your jar and spread it flat on a cutting board. Take a spoonful of the rice and vegetables and plop it in the center of the grape leaf. Fold up the bottom of the leaf first, then fold the sides in and roll.
  4. Put the dolmas in a big saucepan. (You want to fill up the bottom of the saucepan with dolmas.) Add water until the water level is about halfway up the dolmas. Add lemon juice.
  5. Set a kitchen plate on top of the dolmas to hold them down during the steaming process. Put a lid on the pot and bring the water to a boil.
  6. Minimize heat, and steam the dolmas for 30 minutes on the stove top. Keep an eye -- the dolmas should be ready when the liquid is gone.
  7. Drizzle with olive oil and serve with tzatziki sauce.

Michelle's tzatziki sauce

Time: 2½ hours

Ingredients

You will need

  • 1 yard of cheesecloth
  • Rubber band
  • Dowel or chopstick
  • Large sauce pot
  • Mixing bowl

Ingredients

  • 4-lb. tub of yogurt
  • 1 large cucumber
  • 4-5 cloves garlic (pressed)
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • Dill to taste
  • Salt to taste
  • Olive oil

Directions

  1. Spread cheesecloth on a flat surface.
  2. Remove top from yogurt container. Take container and turn it upside down onto cheesecloth. Lift away container. Wrap yogurt in cheesecloth. Seal top of cheesecloth with a rubber band.
  3. Stick chopstick or dowel through top of cheesecloth and suspend the bundle over an empty pot. Let drain for two hours.
  4. Meanwhile, grate cucumber and squeeze liquid out. Press garlic.
  5. After yogurt has drained, dump the resulting cheese into a bowl. Add garlic and vinegar. Stir.
  6. Add dill and salt to taste and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with dolmas.

 

 


By Felisa Rogers

Felisa Rogers studied history and nonfiction writing at the Evergreen State College and went on to teach writing to kids for five years. She lives in Oregon’s coast range, where she works as a freelance writer and editor.

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