Traditional Romanian Stuffed Vine Leaves | Sarmale | Granny's Kitchen Recipes

In this video I am making traditional Romanian stuffed vine leaves. There are a lot of variations out there, but this is how I make sarmale. You can use instead of vine leaves, white cabbage or pickled cabbage- you might know it as Sauerkraut- except the leaves are whole, not shredded, but the taste is very similar and it actually complements the meat. The vine leaves I used are pickled, however you can also use fresh vine leaves and par-boil them. If you do use white cabbage, you need to par-boil the cabbage before trying to stuff the leaves.

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INGREDIENTS: yields approx. 80 stuffed vine leaves ( I never count them )

1 kg of beef & pork minced meat
1 large onion diced
200 grams of rice
50 grams of salt
2 teaspoons of ground black pepper
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of dill
1 tablespoon of onion powder(optional)
1 tablespoon of Khucharek universal seasoning
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika seasoning
800 grams of tinned chopped tomatoes
Smoked sausage or chorizo
200 ml oil
Water
2 jars of vine leaves

DIRECTIONS:
Using a large bowl, add in the meat, diced onion, rice, salt, pepper, chopped parsley and dill (half of the quantity) , onion powder, Khucarek seasoning, smoked paprika and the oil and mix well. At this stage you will need to taste (if you dare) to make sure there's enough seasoning, typically salt. Mix all the ingredients well. Prepare your pot - add on the bottom, a layer of diced smoked sausage or chorizo, another layer of vine leaves ( pick the ones which are ripped and can't be stuffed - I ran out so couldn't do that, but I instead used extra parsley and dill for the bottom layer) . Now you can stuff your vine leaves with the meat mix from the bowl. Depending on how big a leaf is, around 1 tablespoon of mix will fit. Now it's time to roll the leaves. After you finished stuffing the leaves, add them in the pot, one next to each other to form layers. They will go layer on layer in a circle, up and up :) , until you finish placing all of them. After all of the stuffed vine leaves are in the pot, add the chopped tomatoes, water, enough to cover the stuffed leaves, salt, pepper, the remaining dill and parsley and if you have any meat left you can spread it in the pot. If you have any vine leaves left, you can cover the top layer with them. Allow to cook on low heat for around 1 hour or until the rice is cooked. You can serve them as they are, or you can serve them with bread, or you can serve them with sour cream on top, or bread and sour cream :) . You can even serve them with cooked polenta (Mămăligă).
Enjoy!

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