This is a recipe I have wanted to make for a long time, but have thought it was too insurmountable until now. When I saw it mentioned several times throughout the book, I figured I should just go for it already! My husband’s family is Armenian, so I finally just got some advice from an auntie and got to cooking. My rolling skills need a little work, but I’m sure I’ll become a master eventually…

Mum is going through a phase of making us any meal on request: jerk chicken or curried goat with rice and peas, ackee and saltfish, stuffed grape leaves, shepherd’s pie, Sunday roast. — excerpt from The Black Flamingo

Grandma says “Ela agape mou.“ Gesturing me to come to the table. She has made stuffed grape leaves, like the ones Mum makes, except these have real meat and not the tasteless soy beef. — excerpt from The Black Flamingo

Ingredients:

Large jar preserved grape leaves
1 cup dry rice, rinsed
3/4 cup olive oil (separated into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
2 tsp tomato paste (separated into 1 and 1)
2 tsp red pepper paste (separated into 1 and 1)
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Rinse each grape leaf under cold water, remove stem, and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, place rinsed rice and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10 min.
In a large skillet, saute onions in 1/2 a cup of olive oil until translucent.
When rice has cooked for 15 min, add to the onion mixture.
Add parsley, 1 tsp tomato paste, 1 tsp red pepper paste, salt, and pepper, and stir all together. Cook for about 5 minutes, turn off heat and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350F and line an oven-safe baking dish or pot with wooden skewers or a roasting rack (mini cookie cooling racks).
Once mixture is cooled, place a single grape leaf on a plate and spoon about 2 Tbsp of the rice mixture in the middle toward the bottom (where the removed stem was). Fold bottom 2 pointed triangular bits up, followed by the bottom side 2, and then roll up towards the top. Continue until all filling is used up.
Line your prepared oven-safe dish (on top of the rack or wooden skewers) with a single layer of empty flat grape leaves, and place rolled grape leaves on top.
Cover with yet another layer of flat empty leaves.
In a small bowl or measuring cup combine 2 cups water, 1 tsp tomato paste, 1 tsp pepper paste, 1 tsp pomegranate molasses and stir well.
Pour mixture over top of grape leaves, and then add just enough water to just cover.
Drizzle remaining 1/4 cup olive oil over top.
Place uncovered dish into oven and bake for 45 min.
Turn off heat, but leave dish in oven for an additional hour and a half.
Let grape leaves cool a bit and serve room temperature or cold.
Top with a little lemon juice and extra parsley if you feel so inclined.
Enjoy!