Dolmades

Dolma ( Turkish for "stuffed") is a family of stuffed dishes associated with Ottoman cuisine, typically made with a filling of rice, minced meat, offal, seafood, fruit, or any combination of these inside either a leaf wrapping or a hollow or hollowed-out vegetable (e.g. a bell pepper). Leaf-wrapped dolma, specifically, are known as '' sarma'', made by rolling grape, cabbage, or other leaves around the filling. Less commonly, both fruits and meat (particularly offal) may also be stuffed with similar fillings and termed dolma. Dolma can be served warm or at room temperature and are common in modern cuisines of regions and nations that once were part of the Ottoman Empire.

History

Stuffed vegetable dishes have been a part of West Asian Cuisine for centuries. Recipes for stuffed eggplant have been found in Medieval Arabic cookbooks and, in Ancient Greek cuisine, fig leaves stuffed with sweetened cheese were called . The word dolma, of Turkish origin, means "something stuffed" or "filled". (A Turkish share taxi is called a ''dolmuş'' for similar reasons). In some of the former Ottoman countries, native names have been retained or have blended with Turkish language terms, for example, in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and Damascus, stuffed leaves are called ''mahshi yabraq'' or ''mahshi brag'', a combination of the Turkish word for leaf (''yaprak'') and the Arabic term for stuffed (''mahshi''). The origins of dolma, as suggested by ''The Oxford Companion to Food'', likely stem from Armenian culinary traditions before becoming integrated into Turkish cuisine. William Pokhlebkin, a specialist on culinary history and cookbook author, contends that the dish's inception traces back to Armenian culinary heritage:

"From the 17th to the early 19th century, Armenia was divided between Turkey and Iran. During this period, Armenia's economy, its human and material resources declined, but its spiritual and material culture remained unchanged, and Armenian cuisine did not perish. On the contrary, Armenians contributed to the cuisine of the Seljuk Turks, so many truly Armenian dishes later became known in Europe through the Turks as, allegedly, Turkish cuisine (for example, dolma)."

''Dolma'' in Western Armenian and Georgian is ''tolma'' in Eastern Armenian. Several dolma recipes were recorded in 19th-century Iran by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar's chef, including stuffed vine leaves, cabbage leaves, cucumbers, and quinces, with varied fillings prepared with ground meat, sauteed mint leaves, rice and saffron. Iraqi Jewish families have a version of dolma with sweet and sour flavors that were not found in other versions. Dolma are part of cuisine of the Sephardic Jews as well. Jews in the Ottoman Empire used locally grown grape leaves and adopted the Turkish name of the dish.

During winter months cabbage was a staple food for peasants in Persia and the Ottoman Empire, and it spread to the Balkans as well. Jews in Eastern Europe prepared variations of stuffed cabbage rolls with kosher meat—this dish is called holishkes. As meat was expensive, rice was sometimes mixed in with the meat. Jews in Europe would sometimes substitute barley, bread or kasha (barley porridge) for the rice. There are similar Slavic cabbage rolls: ''golubtsy'' in Russian, ''holubtsi'' in Ukrainian, ''gołąbki'' in Polish.

In the Persian Gulf, basmati. Cabbage rolls entered Swedish cuisine (where they are known as ''kåldolmar'') after Charles XII, defeated by the Russians at the battle of Poltava, returned to Sweden in 1715 with his Turkish creditors and their cooks.

Distribution

Dolma dishes are found in Turkish, Balkan, Southern Caucasian, Egyptian cuisine, Levantine cuisine, Palestinian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Israeli, Maghrebi and Central Asian cuisine.

In the cuisine of the Crimean Tatars, ''dolma'' refers to peppers stuffed with minced lamb or beef, rice, onion, salt, pepper. Carrots, greens, tomato paste, and spices can be added to the filling. When grape leaves are stuffed with the same filling, however, they are called ''sarma''.

In 2017, dolma making in Azerbaijan was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.Dolma making and sharing tradition, a marker of cultural identity
. UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Variants

There are many varieties of the ''zeytinyağlı'' (with olive oil) and ''sağyağlı'' (with clarified butter) ''dolmas''. The ''zeytinyağlı'' dolmas are usually stuffed with rice and served cold with a garlic-yogurt sauce, but variations with meat based fillings are served warm, often with tahini or avgolemono sauce.

Stuffed vine leaves

The origins of stuffed vine leaves, or ''sarma'', are unknown. They can be made with meat or grain fillings, and served with garlic yogurt, '' tarbiya'' or sweet and sour sauces made with pomegranate syrup and sour cherries. They are known as ''dolmeh'' in Iran, ''dolmades'' in Greece, ''koupepia'' in Cyprus, ''yarpaq dolması'' in Azerbaijan, and ''yebra'' in Syria. Egyptians call it '' mahshi waraq enab'' (), this version of dolma, or mahshi as it's called in Egypt, is typically eaten during the summer season. Stuffed vine leaves without any meat, called ''yalancı dolma'' in Turkish and Western Armenian, are served at room temperature.

Cabbage rolls

In several countries, cabbage rolls are stuffed with beans and tart fruits. It is wrapped with cabbage leaves, and stuffed with red beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, cracked wheat, tomato paste, onion and many spices and flavorings. Cabbage rolls are called Pasuts tolma (պասուց տոլմա) (Lenten dolma) in Armenian where they are of seven different grains – chickpea, bean, lentil, cracked wheat, pea, rice and maize. Armenian cooks sometimes use rose hip syrup to flavor stuffed cabbage rolls. Cabbage rolls also known as ''kələm dolması'' in Azerbaijan During winter in Egypt cabbage is traditionally used to make mahshi, these cabbage rolls are called mahshi kromb ().

Vegetables

''Mülebbes dolma'' is a historic recipe from the Ottoman era. ''Halep dolması''—named for Aleppo—is a dish of eggplants stuffed with a meat and rice filling that is flavored with spices and either sour plum flavoring syrup or lemon juice. ''Şalgam dolma'' are stuffed Russian turnips.

''Soğan dolması'' (''soğan'' means "onion" in Turkish), or stuffed onions, are a traditional dish in Bosnia, considered the specialty of Mostar. Ingredients include onions, minced beef, rice, oil, tomato purée, paprika, vinegar or sour cream, strained yogurt (locally known as ''kiselo mlijeko'', literally "sour milk"), black pepper, salt and spices. After the onion's skin is removed, the larger, external, layers (leaves) of onion bulbs are used as containers, so-called "shirts" ( Old Turk. " dolama(n)" for a special kind of Ottoman robe) for the meat stuffing. The remaining part of the onion is also used, mixed with the meat and fried on oil for a couple of minutes, to obtain the base of the stuffing. To extract the separate "shirts", the entire bulbs are cut on the top and then boiled until soft enough to be pried off, layer by layer. In order to prevent a further softening and crumbling, the bulbs should be blanched. The "shirts" are removed from the bulbs by slow and gentle finger pressure. Filled "shirts" ("dolme") are boiled slowly at low heat in broth. The level of liquid should be sufficient to cover the dolmas entirely. Sogan-dolma are usually served with dense natural yogurt.

''Enginar dolması'' is stuffed whole artichoke hearts. They may be stuffed with seasoned rice or ground meat cooked in fresh tomato sauce with aleppo pepper. Celery root may be substituted for the artichoke.

A regional specialty from Mardin is a mixed dolma platter. The sumac and Urfa pepper seasoned rice filling is first wrapped with onion layers, vine leaves, and cabbage. The remainder of the rice is used to fill eggplant, zucchini, and stuffing peppers. The wrapped onion dolma are added on the bottom of a deep cooking pot and the stuffed vegetables, cabbage rolls, and stuffed vine leaves are layered on top of the onion dolmas. The entire pot of dolmas are cooked in sumac flavored water.

Seafood

There are also seafood variants of dolma. Stuffed mussels or Midye dolma may be filled with rice, onion, black pepper and pimento spice.

The filling for ''kalamar dolma'' (stuffed calamari) is made from Halloumi cheese, onion, fresh breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley. The whole tentacle is stuffed with the mixture and fried in a butter, olive oil and tomato sauce. For another variation a whole small squid may be stuffed with a bulgur and fresh herb mixture and baked in the oven.

''Uskumru dolma'' (stuffed mackerel) is a staple of Istanbul cuisine. The version that was traditionally prepared by Armenian cooks is particularly well-regarded. After the fish is prepared by carefully separating the skin from the meat, the meat is sauteed with onions, currants, dried apricots, almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, fresh herbs and lemon juice. The entire mixture is stuffed into the whole, intact skin. The stuffed mackerel is then either baked or preferably grilled long enough to brown the skin.

Sardines (''sardalya'') may be stuffed with a filling of kashar cheese, tomato, onion, dill and parsley. In Turkey, stuffed sardines may be served as a mezze platter at traditional taverns called ''meyhane''.

Offal

There are several varieties of dolma made with offal. ''Dalak dolması'', widely considered a delicacy of Armenian origin, is spleen stuffed with rice that has been seasoned with allspice, salt, pepper, mint, parsley and onion. It may be served an accompaniment with anise-flavored liquor like arak, rakı, ouzo or oghi.

'' Mumbar dolma'' is intestine stuffed with a moist mixture of ground meat, rice, pepper, cumin and salt. The stuffed intestine is then boiled in water until it is cooked thoroughly, after which it may be sliced and fried in butter before serving.

Fruit-based dolmas

There are some fruit-based dolmas as well like ''şekerli ayva dolması'' ( stuffed quinces with a rice and currant filling, flavored with coriander, cinnamon and sugar) and ''pekmezli ayva dolması'' (meat and bulgur stuffed quince flavored with a traditional Turkish syrup, similar to molasses, called ''pekmez''). ''Pekmez'' is also an ingredient in the meat-based variants of ''elma dolması'' (stuffed apples) and ''sarı erık dolması'' (stuffed yellow plums). Iranian Azerbaijanis and Persian Jews may serve stuffed quince, called ''dolma bay'', as a Sabbath meal or during Sukkot.

One filling for stuffed apples is made from a high-quality cubed lamb shoulder called ''kuşbaşı'', ground lamb, and rice. First black grapes are boiled together with sumac—the resulting sumac flavored grape juice is drained and reserved. The ''kuşbaşı'' lamb is cooked in this sumac flavored grape juice. The apples are stuffed with a mixture of ground lamb combined with rice, salt, pepper and layered in a pot on top of the cooked chunks of ''kuşbaşı''. The apples are cooked in the remaining sumac flavored grape juice. Dried apricots and blanched almonds are added to the pot near the end of the cooking process. A meatless variant of the filling is made from a sauteed mixture of diced apples, diced pears, walnuts, hazelnut, currants, cinnamon, cloves, and star anise. The hollowed out apples are stuffed with the mixture and baked in the oven. This version may be garnished with powdered sugar.

Stuffed melons were part of the Ottoman palace cuisine. The recipe survives in modern Yemenite and Armenian cooking.

Religious celebrations and customs

It is customary for Jewish families to eat stuffed cabbage on ''Simchat Torah''.

Assyrians prepare meatless dolmas for Lent. When traditional ingredients are not available, the Armenian Christian community in West Bengal, India celebrates Christmas with '' potoler dorma'', a local variation from Anglo-Indian cuisine. Stuffed vegetables called ''gemista'' or ''tsounidis'' are also common in Greek cuisine.

Muslim families often serve dolma as part of the ''iftar'' meal during Ramadan and during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations that mark the end of the holy month. Large pots of dolma are prepared during the Novruz festival.

See also

* Dolma Festival in Armenia
* List of stuffed dishes
* Sheikh al-mahshi, zucchini stuffed with minced lamb meat and pine nuts in yogurt sauce

References

Sources

* Alan Davidson, ''The Oxford Companion to Food''. .
*
*

{{Intangible Heritage Azerbaijan

Stuffed vegetable dishes
Arab cuisine
Armenian cuisine
Assyrian cuisine
Azerbaijani cuisine
Balkan cuisine
Greek cuisine
Iranian cuisine
Iraqi cuisine
Georgian cuisine
Kurdish cuisine
Levantine cuisine
Ottoman cuisine
Uzbek dishes
Algerian cuisine
Tunisian cuisine
Turkish cuisine
National dishes
Sephardi Jewish cuisine
Mizrahi Jewish cuisine
Lenten foods
Iftar foods
Swedish cuisine
Syrian cuisine
Albanian cuisine
Offal dishes
Seafood dishes
Fruit dishes