Dolmades or Koupepia (as we call them in Cyprus) are made from grape leaves (also known as vine leaves) and are stuffed with rice, ground pork or beef, fresh herbs and seasonings. I’ve been revisiting all the Greek traditional recipes over the past year and have been substituting pork or beef minced meat with turkey …
Vine leaves
This Greek roasted pork (or lamb) is stuffed with bacon, halloumi, feta, as well as other ingredients then it is wrapped in vine leaves and baked in the oven with potatoes.
Some days ago my son went to Sparta to visit his grandmother and our relatives who live there and when he came back, as usually,they sent us some fresh eggs from their chickens, pasto (which is cured pork), as well as sausages and finally some fresh vine leaves from their garden. If you like dolmas (meaning stuffed or filled in Turkish) plural dolmades, now is the best time of the year to buy and store fresh vine leaves as they are …
Vine leaves or grape leaves are the leaves from the grapes used for making wine or the grapes we eat.
The best period to get the vine leaves is when they first appear, during April – May, when they are fresh and tender and before they are sprayed with pesticide.
Dolmades me Avgolemono (dol-MAH-thes mé Avgolémono) , are vine leaves stuffed with ground meat and rice which are then served with an egg lemon sauce, called avgolemono (avgo = egg and lemoni = lemon).
Koupepia (as we call them in Cyprus) are dolmades made with grape leaves, stuffed with ground pork or veal, rice, fresh herbs and seasoning, cooked with tomato and lemon juice.