The story of Stuffed vine leaves
Stuffed vine leaves are probably the oldest and most famous of all stuffed dishes. In Ottoman cooking they were called sarma, a roll, and dolma, a stuffed thing, and from there they spread to Greece, the Balkans, Armenia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Wherever vines grew, cooks used the young spring leaves, and when the season ended they preserved them in brine so they could roll all year.
In Israel vine leaves belong to everyone: the slender rolls of the Druze villages in the Galilee and on the Carmel, the meat and fruit rolls of Syrian Jews, the sweet and sour dolma of Iraqi Jews, and the cold olive oil leaves of families from Turkey and Greece. The differences lie in the size of the roll, the sourness, and whether there is meat in the pot.
What makes Stuffed vine leaves itself
The vine leaf gives the roll a gentle sourness and a green, slightly bitter taste that no other leaf has. All the work is in the balance: a roll tight enough not to open, yet loose enough for the rice to swell inside. In the vegan version olive oil and lemon are the whole sauce, which is why it is especially good after a night in the fridge, when the flavours have soaked into the rice.
