Everybody has a hobby. For some of us, reading cookbooks and recipe/food Internet sites is a hobby. We have introduced recipes from some of our favourite cookbooks over the years, and now, we have found a few online sites that are going on the list of favourites. One of the sites that we are always fascinated with, although it is not our "go to" site, is About.com. Nancy Gaifyllia is the resident Greek Food expert for this site, and offers a variety of recipes and insight into Greek cuisine. About a year ago, we had seen this picture of the grape leaf wreath and started thinking about making it. It looked beautiful in the picture, but you need the audience and occasion to eat such a large dish. We love having friends or family over for dinner, we enjoy entertaining or being company, so we knew we had the audience, but finding the time to make this was another story. This dish will take about an hour and a half to make, or to get it to the point of refrigerating overnight. So, when you are ready, make sure to allot enough time to make it completely and get it in the fridge.
For Pascha, you may not associate a wreath with the holiday. In some traditions, people associate bunnies, flowers, or baby chickens. In Orthodoxy, we have our symbolism in the red dyed eggs, the braided bread (tsoureki), and the cross. But, we DO use the wreaths. On Holy Thursday evening, when Christ is hung on the cross, after reading the 5th Gospel (out of 12), there is an assortment of flower bouquets, wreaths, and candles that are put around the crucifix in all Orthodox churches throughout the world. Typically, as the last of the Gospels are read, and the all night vigil begins, parishioners will rotate the various wreaths and candles on the cross. This continues all night while the Epitafio is decorated and Confessions take place in the small chapel. The flowers are beautiful. The community will bring these wreaths and flowers for the health of their families, so it becomes personally important to have a wreath on Christ's neck that night. We do participate in bringing a flower wreath to the Church, and now, we are participating with a different type of wreath.
For this recipe, you will need the following:
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup uncooked lentils
salt and pepper to taste
Dressing:
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 TBSP red wine vinegar
1 cup oil
2 TBSP oregano
1 teaspoon mint
salt and pepper to taste
Also:
15 ounce jar (about 400 g) of grape vine leaves
1 Bundt pan
(for non-fasting period, you may want to include 1 cup crumbled feta cheese)
This process begins with cooking the rice. However you normally make a simple rice, do so. We used a rice cooker. Also, cook the lentils. Bring the water to a boil and add the lentils. They need to boil for 30 - 45 minutes to be tender and soft in the middle. Make sure they are completely cooked through. If you are using canned lentils, drain and rinse the lentils. You will need just over 2 cups of cooked lentils for this recipe, so that would be about one and a half cans full. For dry lentils that you cook, using green or brown lentils give you the best results for this. Red lentils have a different texture and will get mushy.
Once the rice is cooked and the lentils are cooked, and both are still warm (more hot, but manageable), mix the two together. Season this with salt and pepper. Now, make the dressing.
For the dressing, place all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. You want to make sure that all the ingredients are equally distributed in the oil. If you whisk long enough, your dressing will seem creamy, and that is good.
Pour 1/2 of the dressing into the rice/lentil mixture while the rice is still warm. The warm rice will absorb some of the dressing, as will the lentils. Let that mixture rest while you prepare the pan.
Jarred grape vine leaves are usually packed in a salty brine. We rinse our leaves because that brine can be very strong in its flavour. Other people do not rinse because they like the saltiness of the brine. Rinse or not, that is your choice; then unroll and separate the vine leaves. You want to use the whole leaf, which means look at each one, including the ones that are stuffed in the middle of the roll -- that is where the partial leaves often hide. Make sure you have nice looking vine leaves to start.
Using a Bundt pan, line the leaves in a pattern to cover the insides of the pan. One by one, making sure that the seams face you, overlap the leaves so the pan is completely covered. Remember, we are going to flip this upside down to turn it out of the pan, so the pretty side will be seen when this is served to the family. We also used a small pair of scissors to cut the short stem at the base of each leaf. Often, this stem is too hard to chew, and when the leaves are cooked, that stem becomes more unappealing to eat. So, using scissors as needed, cut off the small stem from each leaf.
Overlap each leaf so there is a strong layer, and continue around the pan so the sides and the centre are also covered. Make sure to leave enough of the vine leaves hanging over the edges so you can create a bottom for he filling, without having to lay more grape vine leaves.
Once the pan is completely covered and there are no more bare spaces inside, it is time to add more dressing to the rice filling. Add 1/2 cup of the dressing to the rice and mix well. Now, you should see that there is a small amount of dressing left over, an that is good, we will need that. The rice and lentil mixture with the dressing mixed in may start to seem "soupy" or very soft.
Fill the leaf lined pan with the rice/lentil mixture until the rice is all used and distributed evenly around the Bundt pan. Level out the filling with the back of your spoon, or with a spatula. Pour any remaining dressing into the pan, going around in a circle to try to distribute it everywhere.
Now it is time to fold over the hanging parts of the grape vine leaves.
Fold over the centre leaf edges first. Then, fold the outer edges down to touch the rice filling. When you fold them, make sure they face the same direction for appearances sake. You may see small pleats in the grape vine leaves, and that is fine since this is the bottom of the dish, and will become the bottom of the wreath. Make sure all the rice is covered with vine leaves. If you need to fill a small space, use one of the partial leaves from the jar, or cut a less attractive leaf to fill the space and overlap the already folded leaves.
Wrap this with plastic. You want to wrap the open part of the Bundt pan, making sure the plastic wrap touches the vine leaves. You don't want any air in the pan if you can help it. Make sure the whole wreath is covered. Then, use some fruit, lemons, tomatoes, or something to weigh down the bottom of the wreath. We used some kiwi fruit. Others have used lemons or small oranges. Whatever you have handy, put a little weight on the plastic to sit on the bottom of the wreath to keep everything tightly packed. Use something that can be refrigerated overnight.
Why add weight to the pan? Rice and lentils expand as they absorb liquid. The dressing is liquid, and even though both the rice and the lentils are cooked, they still will absorb some of the dressing and expand a bit more. You want everything to stay together, in place, where you put it, so a little weight on top is important. It's like when you cook dolmades in a pot, you weigh down the dolmades with a plate inside the pot to keep everything together.
Put this in the refrigerator overnight.
DAY 2:
We took the stuffed grape leaf wreath out of the refrigerator today to take it to a relative's house for dinner. We thought it looked beautiful! But, we still had to get it out of the pan. To do this, and put the wreath on a serving platter, first remove all the plastic wrap. You don't want to serve this on a bed of plastic! Now, find a dish that is larger in diameter than your Bundt pan. Place that dish upside down on top of the Bundt pan, so you can read the bottom of the plate. We found a simple Corelle dish that worked (since you can read all the words).
Using TWO HANDS, hold the plate and the Bundt tightly together, and FLIP! It is typically a swift motion, and if you loosen your grip this will get messy! So, turn over the plate and pan so that plate becomes upright and the Bundt pan is upside down.
Now, lift the Bundt pan and … ta dah! If there are any loose ends or grape vine leaves sticking out from the middle or along the edges, use a spoon to push those corners back into the wreath. You can garnish this with lemon or chopped mint or parsley. We chose to leave ours plain because it looked stunning on the white plate.
To cut this, use either a very very sharp, thin knife and cut pieces, or use a serrated knife. We chose a serrated knife, gliding back and forth carefully through the filling. The hardest part was cutting at the bottom of the wreath, against the plate. Make sure that you cut through each piece because, if you don't, you could dismantle all the leaves with one pull! Slice this like a large rice-lentil cake and enjoy. It really is something different that will make for conversation around any table.
Husband tasted it and decided to add another squeeze of lemon with a small dash of salt; he thought it was as good or better as most vegan dolmades he has tasted. In fact, he declared that the really enjoyed the addition of the lentils! We shared the rest of the stuffed wreath with other members of the family who also decided that this dish was a welcome, tasty addition to our Lenten table.
"Remember, never to fear the power of evil more than your trust in the power and love of God."Hermas, one of the Seventy
