Dolmades with leaves from beets

NTOLMADES WITH LEAVES FROM BEETS

Ingredients

1 bale beets 1.5-2 kg with nice fresh leaves

1 bunch parsley

1 bunch dill

2 large dry onions

200 g. Carolina rice

Salt, pepper, oregano, savory

350 g. ground beef

150 g. minced pork

100 g. olive oil

10 seeds cumin

2 large eggs

The juice of 1.5 lemons

2 to 3 cups beef broth

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Preparation of materials

Leaves

Distinguish the bulbs from the stems and the leaves of beets.

You will use only the stalks and the leaves of the beets.

Cut the stems at the point that the leaves begin.

Fill a large bowl with water and put the stalks into it.

Wash them very well moving them with your hand in the water with jerky movements.

Change the water and put clean into the bowl.

Wash them again as before. Repeat one more time the changing of the water and the washing.

Put the washed stalks in another bowl. Cut vertically the stalks into pieces having a length of 2 cm each.

Let the cut stems aside, to use them later.

Fill a big kitchen bowl with water and put the leaves of the beets into it.

Wash thoroughly the leaves changing the water at least 3 times.

Put 2 L water in a pot and place it over high heat to boil.

Take the 1/3 of the leaves and dip them into the hot water, to wither.

Remove them almost immediately from the hot water and put them in a shallow pan.

The leaves do not need to stay too long in the boiling water because they become very soft and they dissolve.

Continue in the same way with the rest of the leaves.

 Let the leaves to cool and prepare the filling.

Stuffing

Scour the parsley and dill.

Put in a bowl the herbs and wash them thoroughly.

Mix the ground beef and the minced pork put some salt on them and knead.

Peel the onions and mince them in a food processor.

Pour the onions on the minced meat and knead again.

Pour on the minced oregano, savory, the grated coriander and pepper.

Knead all this again.

Put two tablespoons of olive oil into the mince.

Finely chop the dill and parsley and add them on the minced meat.

Knead briefly.

Add rice and knead all together.

How to make the dolmades

Take a leaf of beetroot and open it in your palm.

Put a table spoonful of filling in the center of the leaf.

Cover the stuffing from the left and the right and then wrap it around in a small cylinder.

Place the dolma in a pot.

Continue in the same way and wrap up all the leaves and make dolmades.

Put the dolmades into the pot next to each other.
After you finish the dolmades place over them the chopped stalks.

If the stuffing is finished and there are left over leaves put them over the dolmades as a lid.

If the leaves were not enough and you have left over filling, make a burger with it and put it over the dolmades and leave it to boil with them.

Place a plate upside down over the dolmades.

Pour over the plate the olive oil, the meat broth and the caraway seeds.

The broth of meat must cover the plate and reach 1 cm above it.

If it does not, add water until it does.

Boil over medium heat for about 40 minutes.

Egg and lemon sauce

Knock in a bowl two eggs with a fork.

Pour slowly the lemon juice into the eggs without stopping the beating.

Get with a deep ladle broth from the pot and pour it slowly into the eggs while continue beating.

Pour two more deep ladles broth into the eggs to cook them.

Pour the egg and lemon sauce into the pot over the dolmades.

Wiggle the pot from left to right.

The lemon sauce gets color from the beets and it becomes pink.