Fig Syrup

Whilst flying by the seat of my pantz in the Fig & Pistachio Dolmade challenge, I decided that I needed to make a syrup or something similar to accompany it with (to be honest, my motives were more along the line of having an extra insurance policy to counter the saltiness of the grape vine leaves...)

Anyway... I started by adding sugar and water - then I remembered that I had frozen some fresh figs last week, so out they came and in they went.


Sugar, Water and Figs

I then decided to add some honey and a smidgen of lemon juice to balance the flavours (or so I was hoping).  Once I was happy with the flavour, I poured the syrup through a sieve.



Pushing it through the sieve

And now for the Piece de résistance...



Fig Syrup

Now, this syrup can be drizzled over almost anything - as I say, I made it with the Fig & Pistachio Dolmades in mind, however I have to say that I also used it the other morning when I made crepes for breakfast ;-)

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

Chicken & 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

This is my first Daring Kitchen Challenge and although I completed the challenge within the time frame, I've only now just got a spare moment to figure out how to blog it! 

Having never even tasted Dolmades, this was going to be a challenge for me indeed.



After a fair amount of research I finally decided to make two different types - one savoury and one sweet (this is where the Daring bit came in for me!)







Chicken and Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt



 Fig and Pistachio Dolmades with Fig Syrup and Cream 





Now that I've decided on my fillings, the next challenge was to find the grape vine leaves - this turned out to be quite an adventure because there were so many new and interesting things in the Persian store that I ended up leaving with more than just the Leaves and Ajvar (capsicum paste) - I could not ignore the beautiful pink dried mini roses and the sour Hibiscus Tea which was, you guessed it, PINK! I was delighted :D

Ok, so the stakes were high, "Ba" was making Vegetarian Dolmades and Veal Dolmades and "Be" was making Lamb Dolmades - the "judges" were getting excited and the tension was building... who's Dolmades were going to win??

Saturday afternoon and I started to soak the preserved Vine Leaves - I needed to wash out as much of the saltiness as possible if I was going to attempt a sweet version.

Sunday morning and I've got to get cracking if I'm ever going to get both types done in time for the judging on Monday.  I decided to complete the savoury ones first because I had a recipe to follow and thought that I needed as much help as I could possibly get, so first up is the Chicken and Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt - recipe compliments of SBS.

Now that my leaves had been soaking overnight, I decided to sort and group them into tiny, small, medium, large and damaged groups.  (oh, did I mention that I can be quite anal...)  

Sorting the Leaves



Next step was to prepare all of the ingredients required then mix them all together:





preparing the required ingredients



The prepared Chicken filling







And now the fun begins...

Preparing the Leaves

The thought of making one at a time what just too much for me, so I went "production line" style

 

 



Placing the Chicken filling in each of the leaves

 Once all the leaves had been laid out, face down, I cut off each of the stems and was FINALLY ready to begin.





 Now we're on a roll!


Step by Step

 I managed to stay sane and finally got them all rolled and into the pot.  I decided to try making them in the oven rather than on the stove, so once they were all layed to rest on a bed of damaged leaves, I drowned them in chicken stock and popped them in the oven.



Ready for the oven!



Google informed me to leave them in the oven until all the liquid had been dried up, however I found this made them a little dry - next time, I'll take them out sooner.

Straight out the oven



Serve with a Minted Yoghurt dressing and finely chopped pistachio.


Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt



So who won I hear you ask?? Well, Be’s leaves kept breaking ,so he wasn’t able to bring his in – ZERO points for Be, however Ba was given some leaves from a friend of a friend as well as a time honoured vegetarian dolmades recipe (grudge!) and she won with flying colours!

HaHa – well done Ba! (If truth be told, they were actually very moist and delicious)

 

Chicken & Pistachio Dolmade Recipe

Filling

• 2 ½ cups long grain rice
• 250g chicken mince
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• 2 tbspn mint, finely chopped
• 2 tbspn continental parsley, finely chopped
• ½ cup ground pistachios
• 1 tspn Turkish capsicum paste ( (biber salca - available from Turkish stores. Substitute ajvar - Macedonian capsicum paste)
• 3 spring onions, finely diced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbspns lemon juice
• 1 cup tomato concasse
• Vine leaves – either fresh and blanched or preserved (remember to rinse)
• Sliced tomato
• One sliced lemon
• Two cloves of garlic, sliced
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

 Method
Mix together all the ingredients for the filling, making sure the mix is not too wet and not too dry. Place a small quantity in the centre of a vine leaf, starting at the stem end, and roll into a small, fat cigar, tucking in the side edges as you roll.

Line a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan with tomato slices, any torn vine leaves, the sliced lemon and the garlic. Pack the vine leaf parcels into the pan, fitting them together snugly but allowing a little room for them to expand.

Place a large plate over the top and fill the pan with water to the rim of the saucepan. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

** Variations to this recipe - I lined the saucepan with torn vine leaves only and I used Chicken Stock instead of water.

Credits:
Dolmades - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/298/Chicken-and-pistachio-dolmades
Yoghurt - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/7/Minted_yoghurt/search/true