Well, today we're going to do a Middle Eastern dish that I grew up on called Yabra.
That's Arabic, Middle Eastern also refers to these as Damaros in Greek, grape leaves
in American and rolled cabbage is probably what you know, but the Arabs and the Middle
Eastern people use grape leaves. They're very flexible. You can buy them at the store. This
is the Orlando brand. They're very good. California grape leaves, they come in a jar very tightly
packed. I usually will take them and put them into water like that to make them a little
more supple so that you can work with them. But the first thing that you want to do is
cut the vein of the grape leaf out, the stem part right here. It's a little hard to work
with. Some people will cut these into a V, laying the grape leaf out like this, cutting
this way and this way to take care of it. I just simply wrap it up like this, take the
knife, come up a little bit like this, cut it off, end up with this part, which can be
thrown away. And then there's my grape leaf ready to put the stuffing in and to roll.
Alright, we're ready for our next step, which is going to be to make the stuffing that goes
in the grape leaves. And what we're going to use is a pound of ground beef. This happens
to be 2.48 pounds. We're going to take about half of this, a little less. We're going to
use a half a cup of uncooked rice. Uncle Ben's original rice is usually a real good choice
on this. Uncle Ben's been making yabarak for a lot of years.
That's probably pretty close to a pound, so we'll break this up to make our mixture. Pour
that in here. Like that. A traditional yabarak or grape leaves in the Middle East is made
with lamb, but since we have the ability to have a lot of cattle over here in the U.S.,
we can do it either way. I've had both. The lamb has a tendency to taste a little more
on the wild side. This onion, and then I'm going to grate it down a little bit. I'm
going to use this little machine. This is kind of cool. And what you can also just put
this stuff in a blender works pretty well. That part, plus that, is done. And we are
ready to go to the next step. So we've done that. I add different things to my mix. Obviously,
I add the mint flake, and you can do this to your flavor. I love mint. I put a little
basil in. I'll toss this just a little bit of garlic in just to give it some additional
flavor. Like that. And we're now ready to add a little salt and pepper to the mixture.
And we'll reach up and grab some salt. And another real cool Middle Eastern spice that
they use a lot of is cinnamon. So we'll throw a little cinnamon in on this, too, just to
add flavor. Brings all those flavors together. Finally, the last thing we're going to do
is we're going to take some stewed tomatoes, and I'm going to open the can, and we're going
to put that in there to make our mixture. And we'll mix it all up by hand. And then
we're going to be ready to start rolling the grape leaves. This is the gooey but fun part.
And you're going to mix this all up so it's a real fine filling. Take a little bit of
real lemon juice and just kind of squirt a little couple of squirts in there. Pretty
good stuff in this. You can use real lemon, squeezed lemon, or you can use this whatever
you decide. I'll mix this back in so it all mixes together. And now we are ready to put
our first grape leaves together with the shiny side of the leaf down. I'm going to take
just a smidge. Probably the easiest thing to do wrong in this mixture is taking too
much. So you start it like right down here. Just set a little bit up like that. And then
you'll just simply roll it in a couple of times like that. And you're going to take
and fold the flap in to the left. Fold the flap in to the right. Pull it to you. And
then very tightly just roll down. That is how you do a grape leaf. We've got about
5,000 more of these to do. So we'll catch you on the other side and show you how we
put them in the pan and cook them. Alright, getting ready to put the pre-made grape leaves
into this pan. There's a little trick that the old country used to do. First of all you
would take some leaves that you don't use and you line the bottom of the pan. Adds
a little flavor, probably a little protection from the heat. So as you can see how that
looks they're all nicely lined in there. Then you just will take the grape leaf and
just start arranging them in the bottom of the pan. And then we're going to add some
more tomato juice and water when we cook them.
Well, we've now completed making the rolled grape leaves. Remember my grandmother when
I was a little kid going down to the Wabash River in Indiana and actually picking these
things wild. Talk about a great taste. And we still have a little bit of the mix left.
So what I usually do is just sprinkle it in over here. It'll cook up. It'll be just fine.
I'm out of grape leaves and don't want this to go to waste. You could save this I suppose,
bag it, use it for another day. But this stuff is so, so, so good when you eat it. You just
have to devour it all at one time. It's always fresh, makes a great lunch, and so forth.
So the last thing we're going to do is we have the juice left from the pan of grape
leaves when they came in. So I'm just going to pour that over these. Gives it that nice
wild taste. I'm going to add a little bit more tomato. I added a little bit of additional
spices, a little bit of oregano, a little more mint, a little more cinnamon on top just
to bring it down. More crushed or stewed tomatoes, whatever you like. And now we're
ready to turn on the heat and let this thing cook for about 20 to 35 minutes depending
on how you like them. I'm going to turn the heat on medium.
And I'll be, uh, Yabba-da could do it. I bet they're about finished.
