Page 517 - АЛЬМАНАХ КУХНЯ НАРОДНАЯ ДИПЛОМАТИЯ 2020-2023

opposite advice. See the photos in the recipe for a guide, and try to

wrap them a little snugly, but not extremely tightly.

3) MAKE SURE YOU BLANCH YOUR GRAPE LEAVES IF
THEY’RE FROM A JAR OR VACUUM-SEALED BAG.

I’ve included blanching instructions in the recipe below, so just

make sure you don’t skip that step. It is 100% mandatory if you

want to end up with edible grape leaves.

Reasons why you need to submerge them in hot water, instead of

just rinsing them: 1) You need to rinse off the excess brine from

the leaves. But just rinsing them under running water is not enough
to get in between each leaf. To do so, you actually need to

submerge them and swish them around. 2) The brine is sometimes

a bit oily, so hot water keeps the brine from clinging to the leaves.

4) USE YOUR OWN JUDGMENT ABOUT HOW MUCH SALT

TO ADD.

Even after rinsing your brined leaves, they’re still going to be

quite acidic and salty. Taste them to get a sense of what you’re
working with. Then decide how much salt to add to the simmering

liquid and meat.

5) THE DULL, VEINY SIDE OF THE LEAF SHOULD FACE

THE STUFFING (THE SHINY, SMOOTH SIDE SHOULD FACE
OUT).

You can achieve this by placing the dull, veiny side face-up before

placing the stuffing on the leaf. There’s no real practical reason to
go shiny-side-out, so feel free to interpret this step as optional. But

if you want your grape leaves to look authentic, you’ll want to

follow this instruction. They just don’t look quite as appetizing
with their dull, veiny sides showing. I also have a suspicion that

they hold together better this way.