Dolma Japrak Stuffed Vine Leaves

1. 1
2. Preperation
3. Add the onions to a saute pan and fry for 5 minutes in olive oil until the onions start to brown.
   5 minutes
4. 2
5. Turn off the heat and add the meat, rice, pepper, paprika, dried vegetable stock, parsley and basil. Mix all the ingredients together.
6. 3
7. Carefully unwrap the vine leaves. Place one vine leaf on your hand with the base on the bottom of your palm and the point pointing towards the top. Add a second vine leaf with the point pointing downwards and base of the leaf at the top of your fingers. there should be a good overlap. You can do this on a flat surface if preferred.
8. 4
9. Place a spoonful of the meat and rice mixture in the middle of the leaves. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the mixture, fold in both sides and the roll the leaf upwards sealing in the mixture into a parcel shape.
10. 5
11. Layer a layer of vine leaves covering the bottom of a deep saucepan and then add the vine leaf parcel on top.
12. 6
13. Make as many vine leaf parcels as the meat and rice mixture will make adding each one to the saucepan. Pack the parcels side by side util the saucepan is covered, then start another layer on top.
14. 7
15. Cooking
16. Pour into the saucepan enough boiling water to just cover the top of the vine leaves and bring to a boil. Leave to simmer with a lid on for 1.5 hours. All water should be absorbed however top up with a little extra boiling water if this happens before the time is up.
    1.5 hours
17. 8
18. Serving
19. Remove from the saucepan and leave to cool for 10 minutes before serving.
    10 minutes

Cooking notes

Scaling works best when you weigh ingredients rather than measure by volume — small differences in packing can compound at higher multipliers.

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When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.