Stuffed onion leaves

1 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
4 Very large yellow onions (up to 5)
1 pounds Ground lean lamb or beef
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ground allspice
Fresh ground pepper and salt to taste
½ cup Long grain rice, soaked in water for 1/2 hour, then drained
3 Ripe tomatoes, diced
Olive oil
⅓ cup Beef stock

Directions

This is from the Fugal Gourmet's first book.

ONION LEAVES

Place the whole unpeeled onions (the larger the better) in a pot, and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cover, and simmer the onions for 20 minutes. Remove, drain, and cool the onions so that you can handle them.

FILLING

Mix together the lamb or beef. Add the cinnamon, allspice, pepper, salt and rice. Mix well, and then add the tomatoes. Genly mix again, being careful not the squeese the juice out of the tomatoes.

(the above recipe is Armenian. If you would like to give it a Moroccan flavor you can add cardamon and dill to the filling) GRAND CONSTRUCTION

Cut the top and the bottom from the cooked unpeeled onions. Slice into the onion by making a cut down the side of the onion that goes to the center of the onion. Remove the outer skin, and then, very carefully, remove the large outer leaves of the onion. (save the center of the onion, the core, for some other dish.) You will get about 5 or 6 outer leaves from each large onion.

Place a bit of the filling in the middle of each onion leaf, and roll it up like a fat sausage. The skins will preactically roll themselves, so let the onion do the work.

When all are rolled, select a large frying pan with a tight fitting lid (a heavy kettle will do also; you need something large enought to hold all the onion rolls in ONE layer). When the pan is hot, add a bit of olive oil and then the stuffed onions, all in one layer. Cook for a few minutes on medium heat until they begin barely to brown on the bottom. Add the beef stock and cover. Simmer for 40 minutes, and enjoy.

Serve with a light salad and a side of green vegetables.

serves 6 - 8

If making for Pesach you can use a little matzo meal or farfel in place of the rice. Posted to JEWISH-FOOD digest V97 #124 by BUBBEG@... on Apr 17, 1997

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