Fig & Pistachio Dolmades

The Daring Cooks Oct 10 Challenge: WE ARE ON A ROLL!

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

So following on from my previous blog re Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades, I thought that I'd separate the Savoury Dolmades from the Sweet Dolmades.

This particular recipe is one that I made up on the fly because I was determined to try making a sweet version of this time honoured tradition - if there's rules to be broken, I'll usually be the one doing it ;-)



My Sweet Version of the traditional Dolmade!



 I started by basing the whole idea off a rice pudding wrapped in the grape vine leaves.  I basically soaked the rice for around 30 minutes in some milk with a cinnamon stick - I then decided that maybe I should nuke it in the microwave to soften the rice a bit more and absorb some of the liquid.

Whilst nuking the rice, I scrounged around my baking cupboard and found some dried figs. Perfect!  I'd add some of the figs to jazz it up a bit, so in went the chopped figs, then I added some of the chopped Pistachios and oh!, I have some cream in the fridge, so lets add a bit of that too - baby, I was on a roll!

Now, bear in mind that I was preparing the Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades at the same time, whilst also cooking a roast chicken for the family for dinner - I had a feeling that the children would not take too kindly to their mother serving them Dolmades for dinner... so needless to say, I was in full production mode and didn't take as many photos of these ones as I should have.


Fig & Pistachio Rice Pudding



 Once I was happy that the consistency wasn't too thick or too runny, I was ready to rock & roll.  Once again, I laid out all my leaves and trimmed off the stems - then I added a teaspoon of the rice filling to each leaf



The Fig & Pistachio Filling

Before I started to roll the sweet dolmades, I decided to take out a little extra insurance by adding a little sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

The Roll Technique used

 Now, in my haste, I forgot to take a photo, but the next step was to line an ovenproof dish with torn leaves before carefully placing each dolmade in.  I then covered the dolmades with milk and added the cinnamon stick.  This was then baked in the oven for around 50 minutes (again, following the advise via google to allow the liquid to cook dry...)

Straight out the oven

Whilst this was baking, I made a Fig Syrup and I am now ready to plate up!


Fig & Pistachio Dolmades with Cream and Fig Syrup



 Fig and Pistachio Dolmades with Cream & Fig Syrup ^ã

Note – the measurements provided  are approximate  as this recipe was create by Louise Raper whilst flying by the seat of her pants in an attempt to raise the bar in the October 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge: Dolmades  – feel free to use more or less as desired J

P.S – This recipe has copyright and whilst you may use it freely, all acknowledgements to originator of this recipe will need to be noted ;-) 

Ingredients

 1:    Rice (+- 2 cups)

Milk (enough to cover the rice)

6-7 Soft Dried Figs – Chopped fine

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 tsp Brown Sugar

1 Egg

2:    ½ Cup Cream

5ml Vanilla Essence

10 ml Cinnamon Sugar

Ground Pistachio Nuts (Toasted)

Milk (just enough to make the mixture slightly damp)

3:     Grape Vines leaves (if preserved then let them soak for approx 24 hours to remove the salty taste)

Method:

1.       Mix the ingredients from (1) and set aside for approx 30 minutes.

2.       Place the Rice mixture in the microwave on Medium heat for 1 minute

3.       Stir the rice and repeat for another minute.
    This will result in the rice mixture being slightly dry and a bit gluggy

4.       Mix ingredients from (2) into the rice mixture (1) – adding the milk LAST - just enough  to
          make the rice pliable

5.       Place a teaspoon full of the fig rice mixture onto the grape leaf

6.       Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar [for luck] before rolling the dolmades - resembling a cigar

7.       Once all the rice mixture is used up, place the dolmades closely together  in an oven proof
          casserole dish

8.       Pour enough milk to cover the Dolmades

9.       Place a plate upside down over the Dolmades to hold them in place

10.     Put the Casserole Lid on and Bake on 180^oC for approx 45 minutes

Once the Fig & Pistachio Dolmades are cooked, serve with Cream & Fig Syrup