Preserving grape leaves for the winter. Pickling grape leaves

These beautiful, aromatic, and also healthy leaves improve the taste and serve as the basis for delicious dishes and drinks such as dolma (stuffed cabbage rolls in grape leaves), sarmale, and grape tea. I'll tell you how to prepare grape leaves for the winter, spending minimal amount time and effort.

The most suitable time of year for assembling and harvesting grape leaves For winter, dolma is considered spring, when the vine has not yet had time to bloom. Then new shoots grow and tender young leaves are formed. Take grape leaves for dolma that are undamaged and of the same size. It doesn't matter whether they are big or small - it depends on personal preference.

Tender young grape leaves that have not yet had time to harden are suitable for harvesting for future use. You can distinguish them as follows: young leaves are light green in color, their veins are not hard, the leaf blade is elastic and elastic. Experts assure that best leaves White grape varieties are more tender.

It is from these leaves that dolma or tolma is prepared, a dish popular in the cuisines of the peoples of Transcaucasia, the Balkan Peninsula, Western and Central Asia, as well as North Africa. Essentially these are the same cabbage rolls, however, twisted into shoots grapevine. In Moldova, grape leaves with minced meat wrapped in them are called cabbage rolls or sarmale. If dolma is prepared with lamb and rice, then sarmale with pork and rice.

From Wikipedia: word dolma originates from Turkic. dolmak "to be filled" (i.e. a grape leaf filled with meat, rice and spices).

Preparing grape leaves for cabbage rolls

Before you start storing the collected grape leaves for the winter, you need to prepare them for further processing. Trim the petioles or “tails” at the base of the leaf. Rinse the young leaves thoroughly under running water.

Then dry them by laying them out on a clean towel. If the leaves are of different sizes, sort them into two or three piles.

Grape leaves for dolma or cabbage rolls can be prepared for future use in one of the following ways:

pickling
pickling
freezing
preparation in plastic bottles
dry canning.

Pickling grape leaves

Grape leaves pickled for future use are very popular. You will learn how to pickle grape leaves for winter storage in the following recipe.

Take the prepared leaves, roll them into 10-15 pieces and place them tightly in the jar.
The jar and lid must be thoroughly washed and sterilized.
Next, pour boiling water over the leaves for 10 minutes, and after this manipulation, drain the water.
Do this procedure twice.
Now fill the workpiece with boiling marinade solution and seal with a lid.

Turn the jar upside down and cover with a warm blanket. Wait until it cools down completely.

Recipe for making marinade No. 1:

Water – 1 liter

9 percent vinegar - 2 tablespoons

Salt – 1 tablespoon

Sugar – 1 tablespoon

But in Azerbaijani cuisine Leaves are pickled without vinegar, only salt and citric acid.

Marinade recipe No. 2:

Water 1 liter

Salt – 1 tbsp. spoon without slide

Citric acid – 1/2 teaspoon.

Keep canned leaves grapes can be room temperature.

Salting grape leaves for dolma for the winter

There is a recipe, proven by generations, on how to preserve grape leaves. You can simply pickle them!

Brine Prepare this way: boil water with salt at the rate of 20 grams per 1 liter of liquid.

We take 10-15 prepared leaves, wrap them in rolls and place them tightly in a jar. The same as we did when we pickled the leaves. The jars must first be washed and sterilized. To prevent the rolls from falling apart, you can tie them with a thread.

Fill with warm brine up to the neck so that the entire contents are completely covered.

Next you need to roll up the jars and cool them.

They are stored in a dark room at low temperature or in the cellar. If there is no cellar, then in the refrigerator.

For spicy lovers there is version with mustard .

Place the leaves in a 1 liter jar.
Cover them with a mixture of: 1 tbsp. l. salt, 1 tbsp. l. mustard and 1 tsp. ground pepper.
Pour boiling water into the jar on top.
Close the lid.
Place the lid down.
Wrap up.
Keep it this way until the jar cools down.

Keep refrigerated.

Preparing grape leaves for the winter for dolma Freezing

We prepare many products using freezing. Grape leaves for cabbage rolls are also frozen. This way all useful elements are preserved.

Take 10-15 prepared leaves and roll them tightly into a tube.

To prevent the tube from unfolding, you can tie the leaves with thread or wrap the tube in cling film.
Some ready-made straws place in a transparent plastic bag.
Place in the freezer for storage.

Such preparations are compact and do not take up much space in the freezer.

Attention! Before stuffing the leaves, it is recommended to rinse them with hot water.

How to prepare grape leaves for dolma in a bottle for the winter

Preparing grape leaves for dolma in bottles for the winter is a way to keep this valuable product fresh. Preserving vine shoots in a bottle is done like this: roll 2-3 sheets and put them in a plastic bottle.

Attention! The bottle must be clean and dry.

Compact until the bottle is completely filled.

It is recommended to keep a bottle with grape leaves in a cool, dark place; under these conditions, the shelf life is at least 1 year.

How to prepare grape leaves for dolma for the winter using the dry method

Place the prepared grape leaves for dolma, one at a time, into a washed glass container, sprinkling a little salt.
Place the leaves in this manner until the jar is filled.
Place the workpiece in the oven and sterilize at low temperature for about ten minutes.
Seal the jar with a sterilized lid.
Place the container in a cool, dark place - in a refrigeration unit or underground.

This semi-finished product can be stored for up to 1 year.

Grape leaf tea

To brew tea, take 1 teaspoon of ready-made fermented tea leaves and pour 0.25 liters of hot water. Infuse the drink for 10 minutes, then strain. You can add green or black tea to the grape brew to taste. Energetically valuable and healthy drink ready!

Is grape tea good or bad?

Grape leaves are a storehouse of health, they contain great amount minerals and vitamins. The nutritional value 100 grams is 93 kilocalories, contains 2.1 grams of fat, 5.6 grams of protein and 17.3 grams of carbohydrates. Also, 100 grams of grape leaves contain:

vitamins: beta-carotene – 16 mg (323.9% of daily norm); gr B – 14 mg (10%); A – 1376 µg (152.9%); C – 11.1 mg (12.3%); E – 2 mg (13.3%); K – 108.6 mcg (90.5%); microelements: Ca – 363 mg (36.3%); P – 91 mg; Mg – 95 mg (23.8%); K – 272 mg (10.9%); macroelements: Fe – 2.63 mg (14.6%); Mn – 2.855 mg (142.8%); Cu – 415 µg (41.5%); Zn – 0.67 mg; Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: 0.856 g (95.1% daily value).

Thanks to high content antioxidants improve vision, skin and hair condition. The rate of formation of free radicals is reduced, which reduces the possibility of developing cancer, atherosclerosis, cataracts and other diseases. An infusion of grape leaves is used for hypertension. A large number of calcium and manganese have a positive effect on the condition of bones and teeth.

To prepare an infusion of grape leaves, take 1 tablespoon of tea or just dry leaves, pour 1 tbsp. boiling water and infuse for 20 minutes.

Grape leaf tea has all the properties of fresh grape shoots. Drying is the best way preserve vitamins and microelements. True, if you brew tea from grape leaves, a certain amount of ascorbic acid will decompose under the influence high temperature. Other elements will be completely transferred into this drink, making it very nutritious and tonic.

There are contraindications prohibiting the use of tea made from grape leaves. Among them diabetes, obesity, ulcers and gastritis. It is necessary to carefully weigh the benefits and harms, and if you have any illnesses, we advise you to consult a doctor.

How to collect grape leaves for tea

Attention: Collect tea leaves from those vineyards that have not been treated or fed with chemically synthesized preparations.

You can dry both whole and slightly torn vine shoots. It is allowed to use substandard materials that are not suitable for other harvesting methods. Check them for signs of damage, rot and other stains. Then you need to wash and dry the sheets on a flat surface. Fold the leaves into an envelope and place them in an even layer on a baking sheet or wire rack. Place to dry in the oven or dryer. Ideal temperature– 65 gr. After drying, grind the tea leaves with your hands.

The tea really turns out wonderful. The young shoots make even better tea than the leaves. The length of the mustache is approximately 15 cm.

Don't Skip the Tea Fermentation Process

Ready fermented tea is stored in a closed glass container (jar) or in a paper or canvas bag in a dark, dry place.

Probably, every nationality has its own traditions, including culinary ones. Various national dishes are prepared in many families, and now recipes for their preparation can be found on the Internet. And this is wonderful, because new culinary experiments can provide great variety to your diet. So, any housewife can cook in her kitchen traditional dishes Transcaucasia and Central Asia, which undoubtedly includes dolma. But it can only be cooked properly in warm weather, since this requires grape leaves. And today we will talk about how to preserve grape leaves for the winter.

Dolma is somewhat similar to our cabbage rolls. But it is prepared exclusively in grape leaves. Traditional cabbage for cabbage rolls can be easily purchased at any time of the year, but with grape leaves the situation is more complicated. Therefore, housewives prefer to prepare it: pickle, can, freeze or salt.

It is better to store leaves collected from grapes for dolma at a time when the vine is blooming. Experienced chefs It is recommended to give preference to raw materials collected from white grape varieties. The leaves of the red varieties are used much less frequently, as they are stiffer and have an uneven edge. Of course, for dolma it is worth preparing only young leaves that were cut from plants located far from roads.

Keeping dolma leaves fresh

In fact, harvesting grape leaves can be done without any special effort. heat treatment. The prepared leaves must be rolled into rolls of ten pieces and filled into a glass jar. Afterwards, roll up the jar with a regular sealing lid and place it in the pantry (in a fairly dark place). In the cold season, the leaves will be the same as if plucked from a bush.

For the winter, grape leaves can be pickled.

Let's marinate!

For this option, dolma blanks must be cut from the bush required quantity leaves. Afterwards, you need to sort them out so that only whole, uninjured ones remain. They must be washed under running water and then placed in a fairly deep pan. Pour boiling water over the prepared raw materials.

The cooled leaves must be carefully laid out in piles of several pieces, and then rolled into rolls. Fill the jars with this raw material (quite tightly) and start preparing the marinade. Boil water, dissolve salt and black peppercorns in it. For one and a half liters of liquid you need to use a couple of tablespoons of salt and three to four peppercorns.

Pour the prepared brine into the jars so that it spreads evenly, filling the voids between the leaf rolls. Cover the jars with lids, wrap them up and leave them overnight. In the morning, seal the jars with plastic lids and put them in the refrigerator for storage.

Conservation

Many housewives preserve greens for the winter for dolma by canning. If this manipulation is performed correctly, the raw materials will remain tasty and healthy, and will also be perfectly stored.

Prepare the grape leaves: wash them, shake them off and dry them a little. Roll them into tubes, twenty leaves in each, and secure with a thread.

Take each of the prepared rolls with a slotted spoon and lower them into boiling water for literally ten seconds. Then immediately dip them in cold water.

Place the prepared rolls in half-liter jars. They should be located quite tightly. Fill such raw materials with cold brine. To prepare it, you need to use forty grams of salt for every liter of water.

Leave the grape leaves in jars with loose lids for three days.

Pickling

Another fairly popular way of preparing grape leaves for dolma is salting. This is a fairly simple method for which readers of Popular About Health only need to stock up on raw materials, water and salt. The leaves should be washed thoroughly first. You should also prepare saline solution- ten percent - and cool it. Pour the resulting solution into the leaves in a half-liter jar, seal and store in a fairly cool and dark place. At the same time, do not forget to soak the leaves before use, pouring them in cold water for one and a half to two hours. clean water.

You can also pickle the leaves for the winter using the hot method so that they do not spoil. To do this, you need to prepare vegetable raw materials and brine. Use five to six tablespoons of salt per liter of water. Boil the brine and dip the pre-washed leaves into it in a stack of ten pieces. After the leaves change their color to brown, they need to be removed from the boiling liquid and placed on a plate. Process all the leaves in this way, place them in a sterile jar and fill with brine. Then seal the jars and turn them upside down until cool.

Prepare in the freezer

Grape leaves can also be stored for dolma by freezing. The collected raw materials must be thoroughly rinsed and spread on a paper towel to dry.

Afterwards, you need to fold the leaves into piles and roll them up. Place these preparations in bags and place them in the freezer. Keep in mind that frozen leaves become especially fragile. Before cooking, you need to carefully defrost them: lay them out to thaw on their own, or dip them in hot water.

So, there are many ways to prepare greens for dolma. And every housewife can choose the one that suits her.

Our housewives are accustomed to preparing cabbage rolls by wrapping meat preparation with rice and cabbage leaves. There is a similar dish in the Caucasus, only they use minced lamb, which is wrapped in grape leaves. This dish is called dolma. In general, it turns out to be a kind of version of our cabbage rolls, only in a new wrapper.

Modern housewives have begun to prepare dolma quite often, which is why today I would like to raise the topic of how to prepare grape leaves for cabbage rolls for the winter.

How to prepare grape leaves for the winter

When choosing leaves for dolma, give preference to white grape varieties. It is advisable that the “wrapper” for the future dish be young, cut from a vine located in a remote area away from busy highways and roads. The fact is that the plants located along the roadway are saturated with exhaust gases and other nasty things, as it all settles on the leaves. Such plants can be harmful to health.

There are two ways to prepare grape leaves for the winter: freezing and pickling.

Let's look at both:

Freezing is the most affordable way storing leaflets for a long time. To do this, take grape leaves, rinse thoroughly and dry. Place clean plants in a stack of 7–10 pieces, carefully roll them into a tube and wrap them cling film, in this form, send to freezer. Please note that after cold weather the sheets become very fragile, so it is recommended to keep them in a separate compartment and defrost them carefully. If stored correctly, they will remain usable for up to six months;
To pickle grape leaves for later storage, you need to do the following: wash and dry the plants. Roll up the clean sheets into a tube and put them in a jar. It’s best to knock out the container
Make sure there are enough plants in it for one preparation of dolma. Now you need to make the marinade, for this in 1.5 liters warm water dilute 2 tbsp. l. table salt. The resulting composition is poured onto the leaves. Since there will be a certain amount of empty space between the plants due to air, you need to wait until the brine fills the “voids.” You will notice that there is less marinade in the jar, fill the container to the brim. Leave the jars in this state overnight at room temperature. In the morning, you need to close the jar with a rubber lid and put it in the refrigerator or basement. Such leaves can be stored for up to 90 days. Thanks to the marinade, they will turn out to be very tender; by the way, after salting, you can taste them within 3-5 days.

Recipe for making real dolma

You now know how to roll up grape leaves for cabbage rolls for the winter, but let’s also discuss the recipe for this national dish.

To prepare dolma you need:

minced lamb – 750 g;
rice (it is better to take steamed) – 100 g;
grape leaves – 25 pcs.;
butter – 100 g;
salt, spices and herbs at your discretion.

Steps to prepare this delicious dish will be as follows:

Wash the grape leaves thoroughly and leave to dry;

If you took uncooked rice, then scald it with boiling water, otherwise the grain will take a long time to cook;
Mix together chopped meat, prepared rice and butter;
If you like fried onions, you can easily add it to the minced meat;
Now mix the future filling thoroughly. Don't forget to add salt and spices to it. After this, you can begin to form the dolma;
To do this, place a grape leaf on the table and add the filling in the middle. Approximately 1 teaspoon;
Construct an envelope from a grape leaf so that the filling is securely hidden;
If you are cooking from fresh sheets, then you may encounter the plants unwinding. To cope with the problem, the resulting envelopes need to be secured with thread, which will help keep their shape;
Once you have neat slices, place them in a saucepan and fill with clean liquid. The water should rise about 2 fingers above the dish;
Cover the vessel with a lid and simmer the dolma over low heat for at least 20 minutes. Be sure to remove the threads before serving. After cooking, the sheets will no longer unwind.

That's all for today. Now you know how to preserve grape leaves for the winter, so that even in cold weather you can delight yourself and your loved ones with a delicious dish.

Cook with pleasure, bon appetit!

The main use of grape leaves is cooking. As a rule, young leaves are eaten white grapes. The most favorable time for collecting such leaves is considered to be the flowering period of the grapevine. Gentle succulent leaf, collected during this period, has a pleasant sour taste.

Red grape leaves are used much less frequently because they are tougher and have too uneven edges.

An extremely useful property of grape leaves for cooking is their ability to reveal their flavor during heat treatment (boiling, baking, frying or stewing). During the cooking process, they perfectly absorb the aroma of other products, and also willingly give off some of their own fresh taste.

Combining it with smoked meats or with fatty types meat, for example, with lamb. In addition, grape leaves go well with beans, lentils or chickpeas. Young tender leaves, along with honey and dried fruits, are included in the recipe for sweet pilaf.

Grape leaves are great for cooking stuffed dishes. The most famous of them is dolma (tolma) , which is known not only to the peoples of the Middle East and Transcaucasia, but also to Europeans. Meat is wrapped in leaves withrice , the dish is steamed, baked in a saucepan or fried in a pan and served hot. They also make vegetarian dolma (with rice), which is usually served chilled.

Grape leaves can also be stuffed with fish. Classic dish cuisine of Sephardi Jews - “siniya” - is baked fish (for example, trout, mullet or crucian carp) in grape leaves, with “tahina” (sesame sauce) and pomegranate seeds.

Grape leaves can be prepared for the winter, and this is usually done in the spring, when they are most tender. One way is to wrap them tightly in fabric, paper, or best of all, in polyethylene, trying to leave as little air as possible inside this “package,” and put them in the freezer. When defrosting, the leaves must first be kept in cold water, then immersed in hot water for about five minutes.

Grape leaves can be salted and pickled. Here are some ways:

1 Wash grape leaves (3-4 vine leaves) in cold water. Roll 20 leaves into tubes and tie. Place the prepared tubes one by one in boiling water for a few seconds. and then into cold water. Immediately place the tubes in half liter jars and pour 40 grams of salt into 1 liter of water with cold brine. We don’t roll up the jars. and leave it to ferment for three days. After three days, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and brine to each jar. if the jars are not full. We sterilize the jars for 15-20 minutes and roll them up.

2 Collect young grape leaves and wash. Roll up rolls of 5-7 leaves and place in half-liter jars. Pour boiling water over it twice, and the third time pour in the marinade prepared in required quantity. in the specified proportion. for preparing the marinade: for 1 liter of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar and 2 tablespoons of 9% vinegar. Before cooking, the leaves are washed from the marinade.

3 Another way.We collect young light green leaves and rinse them thoroughly with running water.Pour boiling water for 3 minutes, immediately cool in cold water.We roll 10 pieces into tubes. put it tightly in the jar.Pour boiling water twice for 5 minutes each, a third time with boiling brine - 1 tbsp per 1 liter of water. salt.Roll up and wrap in a blanket until completely cool.In winter, be sure to soak up excess salt!

Here's another interesting one unusual way pickling leaves. Unfortunately it is not written. who is author. You need to take the youngest, most tender, small grape leaves that grow at the very tips of the vine (no further than the fourth leaf). Like these ones

You need to pick at least a couple bags of leaves. In general, the more, the better) Important! Leaves must be whole, dry and clean.

Now we fold the leaves several at a time, roll them into a tube and put them in the bottle.

We need a rolling pin to periodically compact the leaves with it. You need to press gently, but firmly, trying to leave as little free space in the bottle as possible.

When the bottle is filled, you need to pour salt into the neck. As much as will fit, to the brim) If you filled the bottle tightly enough, the salt should not seep down. It will remain in the neck, or will go down slightly. Next, the bottle should be screwed tightly and stored in a cool place. Maybe in the refrigerator, maybe in the basement.

In the next photo, on the right is last year’s preparation (the one we didn’t have time to eat in winter), on the left is today’s. It is clear that the leaves have changed color, that they have “shown”, but at the same time taste qualities the leaves have not changed.

Everything is quite simple, isn’t it?) You may have only one question - how to get this precious product out of the bottle? It’s very simple) When you start preparing dolma, take a sharp knife and cut off the bottom of the bottle without regret. The leaves will happily fall out to meet you) All you have to do is rinse them from salt, throw them into boiling water, boil for five minutes and start preparing one of the most delicious dishes in the world - tolma from grape leaves!

Our housewives are accustomed to preparing cabbage rolls by wrapping the meat and rice in cabbage leaves. There is a similar dish in the Caucasus, only they use minced lamb, which is wrapped in grape leaves. This dish is called dolma. In general, it turns out to be a kind of version of our cabbage rolls, only in a new wrapper.