Dolmades With Avgolemeno Sauce

Total Time: 2 hrs 55 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr 15 mins Cook Time: 1 hr 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 8 ounces grape leaves
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 1/2 cup short-grain rice
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 garlic cloves (chopped)
• 1 lb lean ground lamb
• 1/4 cup tomato puree
• 1/2 cup feta (crumbled)
• 1 lemon (zest)
• 1 bunch green onion (sliced)
• 1/4 cup dill, set aside a bit (to garnish, chopped)
• 1/4 cup mint, set aside a bit (to garnish, chopped)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 cups chicken stock, hot maybe less
• 2 eggs
• 1 lemon (juice)

Recipe

• 1 separate the grape leaves and place in a large bowl. (this will take a long time guessing 20 minutes.).
• 2 cover the leaves in boiling water and soak for 20 minutes.
• 3 drain the water and rinse leaves few times.
• 4 meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add onion, rice, and water.
• 5 cover and simmer until rice is half cooked, about 8 minutes.
• 6 drain off and discard any liquid.
• 7 add garlic to rice mixture.
• 8 mix the onion/rice mixture, ground meat, tomato puree, feta, lemon zest, green onions, dill, mint salt and pepper in a large bowl.
• 9 preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• 10 take one leaf, shiny side down, cut off the stem, and place 1 teaspoon of the mixture at the bottom (stem) end of the leaf. (if you want a bigger amount, put 1 tablespoon of filling in.).
• 11 fold both sides of the leaf towards the center, roll up from the broad bottom to the top, and place into a 4 quart pot.
• 12 repeat with all leaves, rolling tightly- leaving no gaps as leaves are placed in pot (to prevent from opening while cooking). put tray.
• 13 repeat until all of the filling is used up.
• 14 put leftover leaves in bottom of baking dish.
• 15 place stuffed grape leaves into a baking dish in layers, squeeze them gently, pack tightly into container, and just cover with chicken stock-might be too much stock. weigh down by placing a heavy oven proof plate inside casserole directly on top of dolmades-weigh that down with another oven proof weight.
• 16 bake in a 375 degrees f oven for about 1 hour, check to see if rice is done. you do not want it to be a rolling boil or they will burst open.
• 17 whisk the eggs in bowl over a small pan of simmering water until frothy, about 3 minutes.
• 18 slowly pour in the lemon juice while whisking.
• 19 gradually add some of the hot but not boiling liquid from the baking dish-guessing about 5 tablespoons- and continue whisking until it thickens.
• 20 mix most of the avgolemeno sauce into the dish with the dolmades reserving some for garnish.
• 21 serve the dolmades garnished with the reserved avgolemeno sauce and some chopped dill and or mint.