Rolling Grape Leaves at Wisteria

Here's the finish product - ready to eat!

There’s plenty going on at Hawksbill Cabin this summer, but I have fallen a little behind on putting up some highlight posts from the vacation week that Mary and I spent there in late May.  This week I am working on getting caught up this week with a few posts – today is the second of three.

We spent Saturday afternoon enjoying a ‘music under the arbor’ event at our neighbors’ vineyard, Wisteria.  Since we were already out for the weekend, we had the chance to enjoy their annual grape leaves rolling event as well.

Sue and Moussa put together this little annual event – generally on a Sunday in the spring – but we missed it last year due to travel schedules.  I’ve been enjoying grape leaves since my USAF tour of Berlin, where we could get the Greek, Turkish, and Balkan versions within a short walk of the base, and Mary has been making them using a family recipe for all of her life, so we made a point of getting to Wisteria to join the fun this time.

Here's a look at the vegan stuffing mixture.

Freshly picked leaves from the vines at Wisteria!

They use a Lebanese variant of the recipe, making a vegan dish that combines fresh herbs, tomatoes, chick peas, rice, and spices in the stuffing mixture.  Moussa picked the leaves from the vineyard earlier in the week, and they had been blanched before we got there to soften them up for rolling.  (If you’re making them from bottled leaves, you’d need to do a pre-boil to eliminate some of the brine.)

We had fresh made baba ghanoush and hummus with pita while we were working – paired with a couple of wine samples.  After the leaves were stuffed and rolled, Sue boiled them, and we enjoyed sitting around a chatting while they cooked. 

In progress shot, before they were boiled to finish them.

Then they were done, and we dabbed a little fresh olive oil on them, along with fresh Greek-style yogurt.  

That made for a fine lunch – there was plenty for everyone, and then some.