Turkish Meal Mondays: Dolmas

Turkish Meal Mondays are a glimpse into the food we enjoy here in Turkey, accompanied by a recipe.  Mondays are one of our favourite days, because they're Market Days. Ever since our first market day a year and a half ago we have only missed two, due to torrential down pour a few weeks ago.  Our trips to the market will continue to focus on selecting fresh and delish produce to use in our weekly Turkish recipes.  Get ready... This blog just became appealing to foodies.

Turkish people love to stuff things.  So much so, that they have a special term for the large category of stuffed food types: Dolmas.  They stuff peppers, and eggplant, and squash, and zucchini, and zucchini flowers, and grape leaves... I could go on and on. 

So I figured dolmas really deserved their own day. I've made pepper dolmas before, and I thought I would look for something new.  I've found this LOVELY Turkish recipe blog: Almost Turkish. But after looking at her 50 dolma recipes, I couldn't decide.  I wanted to make them all.  So we headed to the market with the plan to buy lots of veggies to stuff. Basically I went dolma-crazy. 

Grape Leaves:  I didn't buy these.

Dried eggplant (patlıcan), and peppers (biber): We also didn't buy these, because we have all the fresh versions, but I am dying to use some.

To be stuffed:  eggplant (the long skinny kind), zucchini (kabak), small green bell pepper (dolma biber), and an onion (soğan).

 

Peppers: cut the tops off, and rinse the seeds out.

Eggplant and zucchini: cut the top and bottom off, cut in half, and use a knife or spoon to scoop the middle out.  Leave a half an inch or so in the bottom.  Your making little dishes. 

Save the tops and bottoms of everything to use later.

 

The onion: (No pictures.  Sorry.) Cut a quarter inch off of the top and bottom. Peel.  Boil for 20 minutes of so.  Rinse.  Squeeze the onion gently until all of the layers pop out and separate.  Don't stress if they break, it will all work out. 

Stuffing ingredients:

Note 1: This made SO MUCH STUFFING! I had enough to make like 10 weird (but good) meat balls.

Note 2: This ended up being a mix of all of her recipes. I left things I don't and added things I do like, but in the end, I didn't want to make 4 different stuffings, so I just made one.  If you want something more traditional, check out Almost Turkish. She has so many options. 

2 tomatoes (domates), 1 onion, garlic (sarımsak), a handful of mint (nane), and a handful of parsley (maydanoz)

Chop and throw in a BIG bowl.

 A few spoons of tomato paste, a spoon or pepper paste, and 2 cups of dry white rice.

Add to bowl.

Herbs: A scoop each of garlic powder, sumac, and cumin.

 Not pictured: Meat. Raw. (It's just not that photogenic).  Any sort of ground meat is fine.  Or no meat.  

Olive Oil: Quarter cup.

Mix everything with your hands. Squish Squash.

Spoon into all of your little veggie cups.

Pretty peppers.

Add the tops on like cute little hats. 

Cut some slices of left overs if you don't have enough tops.

Boil in a few inches of water for around 30 minutes, or until the rice is done.

I made a sauce from Almost Turkish, using olive oil, pepper paste, mint flakes, garlic powder, and lemon juice.

 I poured the sauce on the eggplant and zucchini.

I used yogurt for the bell peppers.

And I used pomegranate sauce for the onions.

Ratings: 

I liked the onion and pepper casings the best, but I loved the sauce on the eggplant and zucchini.  Also, I love yogurt on everything now.  So maybe the sauce and yogurt with the peppers or onions next time.

Afiyet Olsun