How to store grape leaves for dolma after opening a jar + at home, secrets, methods

Defrosting features

If you want to prepare dolma, carefully remove the bundle of leaves from the freezer. Try not to press it, as the product is fragile and will crumble at the slightest impact. To prevent the frozen “wrapper” from breaking into small pieces without unwinding, pour boiling water over the leafy roll and allow it to absorb the necessary moisture for a few minutes. The product can then be used for its intended purpose.

You can prepare dolma at any time of the year, thanks to properly prepared raw materials for future use. By following our recommendations, you can easily provide yourself and your loved ones with this opportunity.

3-4 hours before cooking, remove the bundle from the leaves and, without unwrapping, smash it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
Pour boiling water over the leafy roll. Wait a few minutes for the moisture to be absorbed. Now you can use the leaves for their intended purpose.

How to pickle grape leaves for dolma

We will need: a glass jar, a rubber or plastic lid and a pan for the marinade.

How to choose ingredients

Vine leaves work best when they are no larger than the palm of your hand.
You need to take fine-grained salt, since it contains less debris.
Brine water must be filtered or purified.

Cooking steps:

We cut off the stems of the grape leaves, wash them, put them in a saucepan and fill them with water. Let's boil.
Place the cooled leaves in piles of 10 and roll them into rolls.
Place the resulting rolls tightly into the jar.
You can start preparing the marinade. Boil water, add salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until the salt is completely dissolved.
Pour the marinade into the jar so that it fills all the voids. Let it sit for 12 hours.
Then we close the jar with a plastic lid and store it in the refrigerator.

As you can see, pickling grape leaves is no more difficult than preparing cucumbers or tomatoes in the same way. Pickled leaves store well and are great for winter dolma.

How to marinate

In order to marinate the dolma ingredients, they are first blanched in boiling water.

Two minutes will be enough for them to sterilize and become very soft.
Then they are taken out of the water, and, having previously been rolled up in 7-8 pieces, placed in sterile containers in dense rows.
To prepare the marinade, mix a tablespoon of salt in 1 liter of water. You will also need vinegar or mustard (1 teaspoon per liter container).
Pour the marinade into jars and store the jars in a dark room.

Here we looked at several ways to store grape leaves for the winter. Each housewife chooses for herself the option that is right for her. Those who want to quickly prepare leaves use the freezing method. If you have the desire and time for preservation, you can get an unusual taste and aroma of grape leaves.

Important! Do not pack the freezer tightly. There must be space between the contents for air circulation.

We prepare grape leaves for the winter. The best recipes.

Dolma prepared according to this recipe is a very tasty and satisfying dish in the form of rolls of grape leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice. I prepared dolma from canned grape leaves. The dish is simple, but everyone who tries it will definitely like it. You can wrap the minced meat with rice in grape leaves by hand; I used a dolmer (this is a tool for wrapping dolma). I got this recipe from a friend, and I suggest you make dolma and enjoy this wonderful dish!

The first thing you should understand when deciding to stock up on leaves for the winter is that not everyone is suitable for such an operation, and individual specimens are generally not recommended for consumption.

Pickling

A method that better preserves leaves and makes them tastier than salted ones. It is not so widespread, although the leaves saturated with marinade acquire a pleasant piquancy and a peculiar spirit. How to pickle grape leaves for dolma?

Collected grape leaves remove dirt and foreign particles.
Divide into piles of 10, rolling each ten into a tube.
Ready-made cigars are packaged in regular cans. Pour boiling water in there for 5 minutes. After some time, the water is removed.
Prepare the marinade as usual until the added salt (1 tbsp) and granulated sugar (1 tbsp) are completely dissolved. Add vinegar (2 tablespoons).
The boiled filling is filled into jars with leaves. They roll them up quickly.

Turkish cuisine is famous for its meat dishes and a variety of kebabs: kazan kebab, doner, lula, etc.

How to pickle leaves for dolma, watch the video:

For a nylon lid (stored less) : tubes are rolled up from several leaves, large ones can be taken one at a time;
glass containers are filled;
prepare brine for 1 liter of water 100 g. salt;
the usual hot mortar filling procedure is carried out;
The jars are covered with nylon and sent to storage where it is cool.

Recipe 6: grape leaves for the winter in a jar (with photo)

Grape leaves for the winter, the recipe for their preparation will be useful to those housewives who love to please their family with the traditional Azerbaijani dish - dolma, as well as to all those who love grape leaves. There are many recipes for preparing them for the winter, but I suggest trying the simplest, in my opinion, of them. It won't take you more than half an hour to do everything. Let's get started!

How to store grape leaves. Grape leaves for dolma for the winter

Oriental dishes have long been part of our lives. For example, dolma, beloved by many. It is very similar to our cabbage rolls. Only for its preparation they use grape leaves instead of cabbage leaves. Fans of this unusual dish for our area may be interested in how to store grape leaves for dolma so that it can be prepared even in winter.

There are several storage methods:

freezing;
drying;
pickling;
pickling.

Let's take a closer look at each of them.

How to store open grape leaves. Options for storing grape leaves

For storage, whole green young leaves of white grape varieties, small in size (about the size of a palm), are selected. They need to be washed and the petioles cut off. So how to store grape leaves - choose the method that suits you.

Freezing

To save space in the freezer, the leaves are stacked tightly on top of each other, 10-20 pieces at a time. It is recommended to roll up the folded leaves in cling film or a bag. If frozen, they can last for at least a whole year. Before using, the leaves must be completely thawed, otherwise they will break.

Drying

Long-term storage of the product will ensure drying according to the herbarium principle. The prepared leaves are placed between the pages of a large book or layers of paper, pressed down with something heavy so that they remain even and flat. When the leaves are dry, they can be transferred to a bag or container and placed in the refrigerator. To return them to the softness necessary for cooking, the leaves are soaked in cool water.

Storing grape leaves in a jar

The easiest way to store grape leaves for dolma is to sterilize them and roll them into jars.

In order for them to retain their qualities for a long time, they are collected in 10-15 pieces and rolled into a tight roll.
Then, the leaves folded in this way are placed in a glass jar and sterilized for 20 - 25 minutes, having previously closed the lid tightly.
After the jars have cooled, they are rolled up and placed in a dark and dry place.

In this form, grape leaves can be stored until next summer.

General storage table

The raw materials previously prepared for salting are placed in a glass container (enamel dishes can be used) and each layer is sprinkled with salt.

Then they put pressure on top and put this dish in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
After this, the leaves are folded in 7-8 pieces, rolled as tightly as possible and then placed in jars as tightly as possible.
The brine that remained in the container where the leaves were is poured to the top and closed with a lid.
With this storage method, they can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 months. Before using, the salted leaves are well soaked in water.

Optimal shelf life of grape leaves prepared in different ways

Having prepared raw materials for dolma using one of the methods, you should understand that the shelf life for each of them is completely different.

If after harvesting the grape leaves are not put in the refrigerator, then at room temperature they will be suitable for use for 1-2 days.
In the refrigerator, wrapped in a damp cloth, the leaves can be stored for up to 14 days. Provided that the temperature in it is from 0 to +2°C.
Grape leaves can be stored in the freezer for about 1 year.
Dried are suitable for consumption for 9-12 months.
Salted and pickled (sterilized) grape leaves are stored for 3 months to six months.

Compliance with all the rules will help to properly preserve and prepare grape leaves for dolma for the winter.

Learn about three ways to prepare grape leaves from the video.
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Recipes for pickling grape leaves

Before you start pickling, the grape leaves must be collected and prepared; this process remains the same in every recipe. To make the final dish tasty, use only young leaves of approximately the same size and it is advisable that the grapes be of white varieties: oddly enough, they have a more pleasant taste. Then the leaves should be sorted and sorted by diameter, washed thoroughly, and then soaked in cold water for 30 minutes.

When salting, it is very important to use only clean water, filtered or bottled; ordinary tap water is not suitable, as it noticeably changes the taste for the worse. After soaking, rinse the leaves again with running water and proceed to pickling. The tails can be cut off or left untouched - they are very convenient for removing leaves from the jar. The recipe for canning grape leaves is not such a rare occurrence, we offer you several.

Cooking features

The most important thing that those who decide to prepare grape leaves for the winter need to know are the rules for choosing suitable raw materials. After all, not all grape leaves are suitable for dolma; some should not be eaten at all.

Leaves for dolma are collected in May-June, that is, during the flowering period of grapes. Experienced cooks pluck from the fifth to the seventh leaf for this purpose, if you count from the top of the vine. It is important that the leaves have not been sprayed with chemicals before, have no signs of damage by pests or sunlight, and have a uniform green color without signs of yellowness.
Before storing them for the winter, grape leaves must be washed well in running water and doused with boiling water. You can do without scalding with boiling water only if you plan to pickle the leaves. In addition, at the stage of preparing the leaves, their petioles and other rough areas are cut off.
No matter how you prepare grape leaves for the winter, they must be dry. You can let them dry naturally after washing, or blot them with paper towels to speed up the process.
If the leaves are prepared by freezing, then you need to remove them from the freezer before preparing dolma. If they do not have time to thaw completely, then during use they may turn out to be too fragile and damaged. Because of this, it will be impossible to wrap minced meat in them.
If you decide to pickle the leaves in jars, they must be sterilized before doing so. This also applies to the lids with which you plan to seal the jars. Otherwise, it will be impossible to store the leaves for a long time.

How to pickle grape leaves in the easiest way

This recipe for pickling grape leaves is good not only for its simplicity, but also because the taste of the leaves is neutral and can be used for a wide variety of dishes without restrictions.

Ingredients:

grape leaves - 1 kilogram;
non-iodized salt – 4 tbsp.
brine:
water – 1 l;
salt – 1.5 tbsp.

How to pickle grape leaves:

Pour boiling water over the prepared leaves for 3 minutes. Be sure to set the time with a timer and do not overcook, otherwise they will boil and fall apart. Quickly drain the boiling water.
Cool the sheets, collect them in stacks of 10-15 pieces and roll them into tight rolls.
Place the rolls tightly in the jar, generously sprinkling salt on each layer.
Prepare the brine: boil 1 liter of water, add one and a half tablespoons of salt, stir to dissolve, then remove from heat and cool completely.
Pour the cooled brine into jars, place them on a tray and leave at room temperature for 14 days.
The grape leaves will ferment for two weeks, then you need to prepare a new batch of brine and add as needed so that each jar is filled to the very top. Then close the jars with tight lids and store in the refrigerator or other cool, dark place. An open jar can be stored for no more than 5 days.