İngredients:
500 grams of minced mutton or beef, or a mixture of the two
1 chopped onion
½ Cup round rice
½ cup finely chopped coriander
½ cup finely chopped dill
½ cup finely chopped mint
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon or pepper to taste
About 80 small or 40 large grape leaves (split in two)
3 tablespoons butter
Directions:
To prepare the stuffing, knead the meat, onion, rice, coriander, dill, salt and pepper in a bowl with your hands until soft.
Prepare the leaf. If you use fresh leaves, boil water in a pot and keep the leaves in pieces (about 10 pieces) in boiling water for about 1 minute or less, depending on the hardness of the leaves. This process is necessary for the softening of the leaves. Remove the leaves from the water and strain well. If you have handles, cut them. If you use salted leaves, soak the leaves in water to wash off the salt. Then cut the stalks of the leaves. Occasionally, salted leaves become hard. In this case, soak the leaves in boiling water to soften them.
If the leaves are large, cut them in half. Let the little ones stay whole.
Take the leaves in hand, provided that the bright part is below. Put about 1 teaspoon of stuffing in the middle of each leaf. Hold the stuffing in one hand and bend the leaf round with the other.
Lay the wrapped stuffing close to each other in the pot and layer by layer.
Pour oil and half of water over the stuffing.
Place a small lid or pot on top so that the stuffing does not open when cooked.
Put the lid on the pot. Boil the stuffing first. As it boils, reduce the gas and cook the stuffing over low heat for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
The inside and leaves of the cooked stuffing should be soft, and the water in the pot should be drained.
Serve the stuffing with plain yogurt or garlic yogurt. To make garlic yogurt, mix crushed garlic (amount to taste) with yogurt.