Dolmadakia With Avgolemono Sauce

Total Time: 1 hr 25 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• Servings: 8
• 2/3 cup raw rice
• 1 (1 lb) jar grape leaves
• 6 small onions, finely chopped
• 3/4 lb ground lamb or 3/4 lb ground beef, uncooked
• 1 teaspoon crushed dried mint
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
• 1 pinch cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• chicken broth or water
• 2 lemons
• 2 egg yolks

Recipe

• 1 do not cook the rice, but soak it in boiling water 5 minutes and drain in a sieve.
• 2 unfold the vine leaves and rinse under cold running water.
• 3 in a bowl, combine the the rice, onions, meat, mint, parsley, seasonings and oil; mix together with clean hands.
• 4 form 1 tbs of the mixture into an oval shape, place on a vine leaf and roll up, turning the ends in to seal; repeat until all the stuffing is used.
• 5 arrange stuffed leaves closely packed in layers in a small flame-proof baking dish (i use an 8 x 8-inch pan or a pyrex deep 9-inch pie pan).
• 6 pour in the broth or water to cover; sprinkle with the juice of 1 lemon.
• 7 place a heat-proof plate on top of the grape leaves to weigh them down.
• 8 cover with foil, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour over very low heat.
• 9 let the leaves cool slightly in the broth and remove from broth, reserving the broth.
• 10 beat the egg yolks add the juice of the other lemon to the yolks.
• 11 heat the yolk mixture, slowly adding some of hot broth from dolmadakia while heating.
• 12 remove from heat, stir into rest of broth and let stand 5 minutes to thicken.
• 13 serve immediately while sauce is warm.