Greek Dolmades with Avgolemono Sauce Recipe
Greek Dolmades with Avgolemono are stuffed grape leaves with a rich egg-lemon sauce that will evoke your senses and make you feel like you're indulging right in the heart of a Greek village!
Servings: 40 Dolmades
Ingredients
- 40 large grape leaves, blanched OR 2 jars of grape leaves in brine
- 2.75 lbs ground beef 80/20
- 1¼ cup long grain basmati rice uncooked
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large lemons about 9 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 large onion finely diced
- 1 bunch dill finely chopped & stems removed
- 1½ tablespoon freeze dried mint
- 1½ teaspoon sea salt flakes
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 9 cups water
- 3 tablespoon Better Than Bouillon chicken base
Blanching Fresh Grape Leaves
- Ice water
- Boiling water
Avgolemono Sauce
- ¼ cup cold water
- 2½ tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 cups broth from cooked dolmades supplemented with water and better than bouillon, if needed
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- 3 large lemon about 14 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 10 large eggs, separated and divided
Instructions
Pre-Steps
- Blanch the grape leaves, if freshly picked.
- Remove stems from dill and chop finely.
- Dice the onion.
Blanching the Grape Leaves
- Fill a large mixing bowl filled ⅔ of the way full with cold water and ice cubes.
- Fill a large pot ⅔ of the way full with water and bring to a boil.
- Once the water is boiling, place several leaves in the pot with a skimmer spoon or strainer ladle. Press the leaves down gently with a ladle to ensure they are fully submerged in the boiling water. Let the leaves sit in the boiling water for a minute, or until the color has changed to a greenish-brown hue.
- After a minute, or until the color of the leaves has changed, remove them from the boiling water and immediately submerge in ice water to stop the heat from continuing to cook the leaves.
- Remove the leaves from the ice water with the strainer ladle and put them on a plate. Pat the grape leaves with a paper towel to blot them dry.
- Repeat these steps until all of the leaves for your batch of Dolmades are blanched.
Dolmades
- In a large mixing bowl, add the ground beef and pour in the lemon juice. Crack two large whole large eggs and add them to the mixture. Add in the freeze-dried mint and combine all ingredients by hand; do not overmix.
- Add the chopped dill and onion to the mixture. Sprinkle in the sea salt flakes and once again combine the mixture by hand. Again, do not overwork so that the filling doesn’t become too dense.
- Add the uncooked rice to and mix until all ingredients are combined.
- To add the filling to the grape leaves, lay each grape leaf flat and add a spoonful or so of filling.
- Roll each individual grape leaf with filling (see notes in text).
- Melt butter in a pot and pack the grape leaves tightly and layer. Cover with broth, created by mixing water & Better than Bouillon, and cook at a low simmer for at least an hour or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.
- Once cooked, remove Dolmades from pot to serve and drizzle with Avgolemono Sauce.
Avgolemono Sauce
- Pre-step: Mix together cold water with cornstarch until all clumps have subsided and it becomes a milky liquid; set aside.
- Fill your pot with the broth remaining from the cooked Dolmades. Supplement with water and Better than Bouillon if additional liquid is needed. Let this warm up and come to a simmer.
- Crack a large whole egg and an egg white (reserve the yolk to use later) in a separate mixing bowl and beat the eggs with a hand mixer until a smooth texture is achieved.
- While beating the eggs, add in the lemon juice.
- Continue beating the mixture and add in eight egg yolks, one at a time.
- Add in the water & cornstarch mixture and continue beating with the hand mixer.
- Begin to temper combining the hot broth into the egg-lemon mixture, one ladle full at a time. Continue to beat the mixture simultaneously.
- Repeat the tempering process a handful of times until the egg mixture has warmed up. Once warm, slowly pour the mixture into the pot with the hot broth on the stovetop.
- Add salt and/or black pepper to you preferred taste and whisk all ingredients until they are smooth and fully combined.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Dolmada