Lahanodolmades - Cabbage rolls with egg & lemon sauce
Ingredients
1 cabbage
½ kg beef mince
1 cup short grain rice
1 cup chopped parsley
1 small onion, finely grated
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 eggs
2 large lemons
Method
Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Core cabbage, separate the leaves as much as possible and boil until leaves have softened. Drain and set aside.
In a bowl, add the mince, rice, grated onion, parsley, one egg, salt and pepper, and mix well.
Take a medium sized heavy based saucepan and line with pieces of cabbage, especially the larger chunks that are difficult to use for rolls.
To make the dolmades, take a leaf the size of your hand and place a tablespoon of mince mixture at the base. Roll up like a parcel, tucking in the sides as you go. Place in the saucepan, in circles beginning at the edges and continue until a complete layer is formed. Repeat with another layer until the filling mixture and cabbage has been used up.
Add the juice of half a lemon, olive oil and water to cover. Place a plate to weigh down the dolmades and simmer for 40 minutes, adding hot water if needed. Check to see if the rice is cooked and remove from the heat. Add extra hot water if here is not much liquid.
To make avgolemono (egg and lemon) sauce, whisk the remaining 3 eggs in a bowl and then slowly add the lemon juice (1 ½ lemons) while continuing to whisk. Using a ladle, slowly add hot liquid from the dolmades to the egg mixture, while continuing to whisk. Keep ladling until the egg mixture has warmed up. Pour this back into the dolmades and swirl the saucepan to mix through. Warm through for one minute.
