Recipes using mince

Easy ‘family Recipes’

Posted by annauk1 on June 8, 2014

Posted in: easy, Family recipes, How To Eat, mince, Nigella, Recipes using mince. Tagged: gravy, mince, yorkshire pudding. Leave a comment

I’d like to be able to say that I spend my days wandering round food markets looking for beautiful, seasonal, fresh produce before deciding what will be on my lucky family’s menu that sunny day, when the truth of the matter is that it’s a quick look in the cupboards and fridge to see what can be used to cobble together a meal.

Isn’t it always sunny though when you’re holding your wicker basket in your imaginary food market?! 😉

I’d love to have more time to lovingly cook my family’s Cypriot recipes on a more regular basis too, but the truth of that matter is that our favourite recipes are the rather more time consuming ones, involving layering, frying, rolling….perfect when one has the time, but rather less so when one does not.

In as such, certain recipes have become ‘family recipes’, quick, easy, tasty, perfect for every day fare.
Nigella’s recipe for Yorkshire pudding from ‘How To Eat’ (which in turn comes from Jane Grigson) certainly fits the bill,
perfect for serving, as Nigella suggests – with golden syrup and ice-cream…..

Grigson/Lawson Yorkshire Pudding
Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s book ‘How To Eat’.
Makes 1 family sized Yorkshire pud.

1. Put a pan (approx 30cm x 20cm) into which you have put 1-2 tbsp oil or dripping/ lard, into a very hot oven.

2. Mix 300ml milk and 4 eggs in a large measuring jug. Add half a teaspoon of salt.

3. Mix in 250g plain flour and a pinch of ground pepper.

4. Pour the batter into the very hot pan.

5. Cook for 20 minutes, after which time it will be beautifully risen and golden.
(Don’t use a glass pan as I did- I’ve found that the pud doesn’t rise as impressively)

Either serve with your roast dinner and plenty of gravy, use as a sweet with ice-cream and golden syrup or fill with minced beef, onions and gravy – proper school/childhood dinner 🙂 mmmmmmm

Ps no apologies for using frozen veg and gravy granules. By all means though, peel and chop fresh vegetables if you prefer and use cornflour slaked with water to thicken the sauce.

Minced Beef with Gravy, Onions and Veg
(Enough to fill the Yorkshire Pud- will serve 4 hungry people)

500g lean minced beef
1 tbsp garlic infused oil
1 lg onion, finely chopped
200g chopped tomatoes (tinned are fine)
60ml sherry, Marsala or red wine
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cups frozen, chopped mixed veg
1 cup boiling water
4-6 tbsp Bisto Best gravy granules.

1. Heat the garlic oil in a large pan, add the chopped onion and fry for a couple of minutes until beginning to soften.

2. Add the mince and continue frying until no trace of pink remains.

3. Add the Marsala, sherry or wine and continue stirring for a minute or two so the alcohol reduces.

4. Add the Worcestershire sauce, chopped tomatoes and veg, then the boiling water.

5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

6. Slowly add the gravy granules while mixing vigorously.
(If you use Bisto gravy granules you won’t need added seasoning)

7. Use to fill the Yorkshire pud, or serve separately. Yummy either way.

Cypriot Stuffed Peppers and Okra Yiahni.

Posted by annauk1 on February 25, 2014

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, Greek, Recipes using mince, rice. Tagged: mince, okra, onions, Peppers, rice, tomatoes. 12 Comments

These two Cypriot dishes came about being made together to form our Evening meal, by a rather fortuitous trip round my favourite ‘Waitrose’ today. I love Waitrose!

Love just spending as long as I want going up and down the aisles, having a good mooch at all the products…today I found pearled spelt, farro and wholewheat couscous amongst other goodies, largely due to my obsession with Megan Gordon’s great book ~ ‘whole-Grain Mornings’. 🙂

And everything is so much nicer when the sun shines, isn’t it? Makes you happy just to be!

The okra was just sitting waiting for me on the reduced rack. Yay! 😀

Now, I know okra’s a bit like marmite. Love or Hate. No in between camp! And it can be a little gloopy, especially when simmered in a stew, but here we want to embrace the okra’s ability to somehow magically ‘thicken’ the sauce, all on it’s lonesome.

But first let’s make the Cypriot stuffed peppers together shall we? A lovely, filling family meal.

I use the same filling that I use in my stuffed vine leaves, just so you know 🙂

first we need 6 beautiful, colourful peppers, with the tops and seeds removed.

We also need 500g minced pork:

(Don’t panic please! It’s not out of date! I had it in the freezer! 😉

place the minced pork in a large bowl and to it add 1 cup of long grain rice:

Brown 2 chopped onions in about 2 tbsp vegetable oil, until nicely browned.

Add 1, 400g tin of chopped tomatoes to the browned onions and simmer together for a few minutes:

Until the tomatoes have become nice and thick:

Add the tomato and onion mixture to the rice and mince and also add: 1 tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp dried mint and 2 tbsp lemon juice:

Mix well:

Use this mixture to stuff the peppers. Any remaining mixture can simply be placed in the same pan as the peppers, to the side.

Use a pan which will give you a snug fit, I used my glass Pyrex oval dish, the one I use for the ‘One hour Cinnamon rolls’ 😀

Pour about 400g Passata over the peppers (or another 400g tin of chopped tomatoes) pour boiling water into the pan, until it comes half-way up the peppers, into the peppers too, this will help with the rice cooking.

Cover with foil and cook at 180 deg C (160 deg C Fan oven) for about 1hr 10 minutes. Uncover for the last half an hour or so, to allow the peppers to brown and burnish. You may need to turn up the temperature towards the end if the peppers haven’t browned.

I know it looks as though the peppers are swimming in liquid, but the rice continues sucking this up even after they’ve finished cooking, I had hardly any liquid left by the time the family ate.

Okra Yiahni –
A true Cypriot peasant dish, great for a meat-free day, you can add potatoes to this dish which have been cut into 1 inch cubes and fried until golden.

Start off in the same way as the stuffed peppers, by frying 2 chopped onions in a little oil until golden brown.

Top and tail the okra:

Add 1, 400g tin of chopped tomatoes to the browned onions. Simmer for a few minutes, before adding the okra (and potatoes if you are using them, though I didn’t on this occasion)
one and a half cups of water, salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil, turn heat to low, cover with a lid and simmer for about 20 minutes until the okra (and potatoes)are tender (test with a fork)

Add about 1 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to counteract the richness of the dish.

Serve with the stuffed peppers. Oh, and lots of lovely, crusty bread. 😀

Before I go, my lovelies, do check out these two blogs – my friends Eleanor and Georgina have recently started their blogs up again after time away…

Georgina’s blog – Culinary Travels

Eleanor’s blog – Flowers in The Kitchen

I never grew up with meatloaf….

Posted by annauk1 on January 28, 2012

Posted in: Family recipes, Recipes using mince. 26 Comments

….At least I don’t think I did. Others? Maybe…..but us….
We may have grown up on squid and octopus and halloumi with watermelon…but not meatloaf.

The first time I remember eating meatloaf was at my sister-in-law’s house in Cyprus, but there it was wrapped in caul fat and enclosed a layer of hard boiled eggs.

Now, if you know me well, you will know I don’t do eggs.

Not fried.
Not boiled.
Not scrambled.

No way, uh uh, never!

We can attribute this loathing to Mama Kouzari who fearing her little girl would be missing some kind of valuable vitamins and minerals that only eggs have, would try and feed me with it, only for me to spit it out.
I would probably have the same reaction now.
Unless of course they’re heavily disguised in a chocolate cake or something…….
She even mixed it up with my weetabix, trying to disguise the taste…

Mom, did you really do that?

The best meatloaf I’ve ever had was a recipe that my Australian friend Coby supplied me with.
It’s great hot, served with mash or rice or whichever carb you prefer, but try it cold the next day in thick slices sandwiched between thick white bread.

To die for.

Here’s the recipe, which Coby kindly agreed to let me share:

Coby’s Meatloaf.

In Coby’s words “The sauce is interesting and really delicious in this. I don’t like coffee, but I like this sauce inspite of it. There’s always a long list of ingredients in meatloaf, but it’s super easy to just scrunch it all together”.

I would have to agree Coby, but say that I love the sauce because of the coffee. :))
Just the very idea that it’s there, makes it all a bit more adventurous and gets people intruiged and wanting to try it. Even though the finished sauce doesn’t actually taste of coffee…..

For the meatloaf:
3 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into squares.
Half a cup of milk
500g beef mince
500g sausage or pork mince (sausage is the tradition)
2 onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons curry powder
Quarter cup chopped parsley
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 grated carrot
1 grated turnip (I sub another carrot or a parsnip if I don’t have turnip at home)

For the sauce:
Half a cup water
Half a cup of tomato sauce (Ketchup)
Half a cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
1 teaspoon instant coffee
30g butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
Quarter cup brown sugar.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C or 160 deg C, if you have a fan oven.

2. Pour the milk over the bread and let stand until milk is absorbed.

3. Place all the meatloaf ingredients in a bowl. Add the bread and mix until very well combined.

4. Press mixture into a greased 4 litre capacity loaf tin. Bake for 30 minutes.

5. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

6. Drain fat from the meatloaf and invert onto a baking dish, pour over the sauce and cook for a further 30 minutes, basting every ten minutes.

Thanks to Coby for a recipe which has become part of my family and our lives.

…and carrying on with the Asian theme…

Posted by annauk1 on August 17, 2011

Posted in: Nigella, Nigella Kitchen, Recipes using mince. 13 Comments

…….Nigella’s ‘Korean keema’.

Perfect for those days when you need a quick family meal, that fills tummies, but is tasty and a little spicy.
We enjoyed this, but I’d definitely add more Gochujang next time.

Korean Keema:

Serves 2, generously.

150g Basmati rice
250g turkey mince
6 thin, or 3 fat spring onions, chopped
125g frozen peas
1 tsp veg. oil
2 tbsp rice wine
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

for the sauce:
2 tbsp Gochujang (red pepper paste)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp rice wine
2 tbsp soy sauce

Cook yer rice as you would normally do!

Whisk together the sauce ingredients and stir in the minced turkey, leave to steep for about 5 mins.

Heat a wok. While it’s heating up, pour boiling water over the peas which are in a colander (to defrost them)

When the wok is hot add the oil then the peas and spring onions and stir-fry for 3-4 mins.

Add the turkey mince and sauce and stir-fry for 4-5 mins until cooked.

Add the rice wine along with 4 tbsp water to swill out the residue sauce from the meat-steeping bowl, pour into the pan and fry for a further 30 seconds until everything is piping hot.

Serve over the rice sprinkled with fresh coriander.

Marks out of ten? 8

Would I make it again? Yes.

Would I do anything differently? I’d add more of the spicy pepper paste – we like spicy in this family!

China Modern

Posted by annauk1 on August 13, 2011

Posted in: Chinese, Dom's Challenge, First attempts, Recipes using mince. 18 Comments

Do you ever go through phases with your cooking?
I do.
I may go through a Greek cooking phase (natch!)
An American South phase (regularly)
And sometimes, an Asian food phase.
What got me into my Chinese cooking phase was a cookery challenge on another food blog ‘Belleau Kitchen’, where a book and recipe are randomly chosen off one’s bookshelves.
In order to make sure that I didn’t cheat in any way, shape or form I asked my daughter to choose a book with her eyes closed, then open the book randomly, put her hand on a page and I would cook the recipe on that page.
The book she chose was Ching-He Huang’s ‘China Modern’.
And the recipe? Well, you’ll have to wait another day for that.
But that’s how I got into the Chinese cooking phase….luckily Birmingham has a thriving Chinese community, near to the town centre, there are numerous Chinese supermarkets within walking distance, so off I went clutching my pennies, with a vague idea of what I wanted and walked out with spring roll wrappers, wanton wrappers, Chinkiang black vinegar, yellow bean paste, panko breadcrumbs, glutinous rice flour, noodles and a pretty bowl….
Yup, a good haul!

Maybe one or two of these will be used in the monthly challenge….maybe…..:-))

But here’s what I made this time- my first attempt at anything vaguely sushi-ish.

Duck Nigiri:

Which were a huge hit in my house, I have orders to make them again! I even had one daughter search in the fridge for them the day after ‘Mom, are there any more of those sushi duck things?’

Fat chance.

All gone.

Here’s the recipe….

Peking Duck Nigiri Sushi

1 large duck breast fillet, skin on (I used 2 smaller ones)

For the marinade:
half a teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

For the Sushi rice:
150g shortgrain sushi rice, washed until water runs clear
240 ml water
half a teaspoon salt
2 tbsp mirin
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp hot water

12 fine slices cucumber
12 fine slices spring onion.

Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl, place duck in bowl and leave to marinate for as long as possible, ideally overnight. Unfortunately I left mine in the marinade for all of ten minutes, but it was fine.

Drain the marinade into a pan and bring to a boil, this makes an amazing dipping sauce for the duck, yum, yum!

Preheat your oven to 220 deg. C.
Place duck, skin side down in a wok or grill, cook for 1 minute on both sides until golden-brown. Place on a roasting tray and cook for about 15 minutes.
I let mine cook for 20 minutes as I have an extremely anti-pink-meat husband!

Put the rice and measured water in a pan with a tight-fitting lid, boil the rice until only a little water remains, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until water is completely absorbed.
Remove from the pan and let it cool down for about 10 minutes, mix the seasoning ingredients in a bowl and pour into the rice, mix with a flat wooden spoon or spatula.

Take a tbsp of the sushi rice and shape into an oval mound (the rice is extremely sticky, so try wetting your hands beforehand, place a cucumber slice on top.

Slice the duck into lovely pieces, place on top of the rice mounds, shove a few into your mouth while no-one’s looking.

Yep, you read right. Oh my Gosh! Are they GOOD!!

Place slices of spring onion on top.

Serve with that yummy dipping sauce.

Serves one. Erm, sorry, serves 4.

Zheijiang Mein:

An uncomplicated and tasty noodle and minced beef dish.

For the sauce:
250ml chicken stock
3 tbsp hoi sin sauce
2 tbsp Shaosing rice wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp chilli bean sauce

1 tbsp groundnut oil, or other flavourless oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
350g minced beef
200g dried vermicelli rice noodles (I used ordinary wheat noodles)

To garnish:
1 spring onion, finely chopped
small handful coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 small carrot, finely sliced into matchsticks.

Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl.
Heat a wok over high heat, fry garlic for less than a minute, add beef and fry until browned.

Pour in sauce, bring to a boil and cook for about 4 minutes.

Cook the noodles, drain then divide between 2 bowls, sprinkle over meat sauce, then garnish with spring onion, coriander and carrot sticks.
(I mixed the noodles and meat sauce together)

Serves 2.

Both recipes adapted from ‘China Modern’ by Ching-He Huang.

The meatballs that morphed

Posted by annauk1 on June 24, 2011

Posted in: curry, Feast, Recipes using mince. 6 Comments

So….
I made the meatballs and rice from Nigella Lawson’s brilliant book ‘Feast’. The ones from the kiddie chapter.

Nigella’s meatballs & rice

I slaved over them. treasured them, made each little ball with love.

This is how my youngest daughter reviewed them a few years ago…..

But now the family ask ‘What’s for tea?’…..then turn their noses up. Won’t even try them.
Nada. Zilch.

what to do…..what to do……

Sudden light bulb moment!

Turn them into a curry**.
then everyone eats them, raves over them, wants them again.

Crisis averted.

Sigh….my family are Curryholics.

Meatball curry with peas

Mind you it does look quite good right?

**I did this by frying off a couple of chopped onions in a little oil, adding 2-3 tbsp curry powder, which I fried for a few minutes with the onions to take away the raw spice taste. Then, tablespoon by tablespoon, add about 6 tbsp yoghurt, stirring between each addition until it is incorporated into the sauce.
Add the original meatball recipe to the onion, curry powder and yoghurt, add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas, a few chopped fresh green chillies (We like things spicy so I tend to add about five of them!) and about a cupful of water, simmer for about 20 minutes.
A couple of minutes before it’s ready stir in a small bunch of chopped fresh coriander and a tbsp of garam masala.

Serve again.To rapturous delight this time.

Our Chilli.. step-by-step..

Posted by annauk1 on June 15, 2011

Posted in: Family recipes, Recipes using mince. 12 Comments

Surely every family has their own recipe for chilli con carne?
It’s one of those meals, that takes little time or fuss to prepare, but pleases everyone.
Just in case you don’t, here’s ours:

Chilli con carne: (Serves 3-4)

500g lean minced beef
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced or finely chopped
1 lg or 2 small onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 – 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 – 410g tin of red kidney beans, drained
1-2 handfuls frozen corn or 1 small tin
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 level teaspoon of salt
freshly ground black pepper
between 1 pinch and 1 tsp of chilli flakes (depending how hot you like it!)

Basmati rice- 100g raw weight, per person.

1. Fry the onion, garlic and peppers in the vegetable oil until softened.

2. Add the minced beef and continue frying until no trace of pink remains-

3. Add the kidney beans, tomatoes, puree, corn, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile measure out 100g per person raw weight Basmati rice, steam or boil until cooked to perfection.

5. Feed the hungry hordes, then marvel at yourself how clever you are making such a filling, tasty meal which includes a good few portions of their 8-a-day!

Goubes/ kibbe/ kubbeh/ ostrich eggs?!

Posted by annauk1 on May 14, 2011

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, Recipes using mince. 5 Comments

By Bobbi Kyprianou

A very long time ago, in my dim, distant past, an eighteen year old English- Cypriot girl met and got engaged to a Cypriot boy all in the space of a month (Yes, in those days that’s how things were done!) and along with so many new experiences and new family members to get used to, went to live with him in his home in Larnaca. While helping my new sister-in-law to cook one day, she asked me ‘Do you know how to cook?’.
Paralysed by fear and nerves, I somehow managed to whisper an embarrassed ‘no’, when the truth was I had some knowledge, because I’d enjoyed cooking with my mom at home in England and had picked up some of the basics of Cypriot cooking as I did so. But rather than risk more of her questioning I’d denied all knowledge, because it was easier for me.

I don’t like that memory. Sigh.

But anyhow, I came back from Cyprus armed with my new little Cyprus cookbooks as well as a new fiancé! Determined to learn how to cook Cypriot food as good as, if not better than some, Cypriot housewives.
These little books are great, published in the early 80’s, they cover any Cypriot dish you can think of! And it was from these books that I got the recipe for goubes from.
I’ve made them quite a few times over the years, but they are definitely a labour of love! Time consuming and fiddly – one’s worth as a Greek housewife is measured by how thin one can make the bulgar wheat casing.

I’m not joking.

Goubes/kibbe/kubbeh/koubes are basically bulgar wheat ‘shells’ filled with a minced meat and onion filling and then deep fried. There are many variations from the Middle-East and around that area, some baked, some fried, some layered in a tray and baked, much like the disastrous Nadia Sawalha’s kibbe which I blogged about previously.

Goubes: makes about 30.

3 cups of fine bulgar wheat
4 and a half cups of water.
800g pork (or lamb) mince
3 small onions, very finely chopped
about 2 cups of chopped parsley
2 tsp. salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. cinnamon.

1. Add the water to the bulgar wheat and simmer for 5-10 mins until the water has been absorbed, add 1 tsp of the salt and set aside.

2. Fry the onions in a little oil until softened, add the mince and fry until browned, there should be no trace of pinkness left. Add the other teaspoon of salt, pepper, the parsley and cinnamon.

3. When the bulgar wheat has cooled down knead it well until it becomes a cohesive mixture, almost like a bulgar dough.

Now take egg sized lumps of the bulgar and insert one finger while building it up into a well (it should look like an elongated egg, with a cavity running from one side, almost to the other (Oh, dear, I hope I’m explaining this ok)
Now fill the cavity with about a tablespoon of the mince meat, then close the cavity, while shaping the ‘egg’ so that it is as elongated as you can get it, bearing in mind that the bulgar wheat casing should be as thin as you can get it.

Do you want to be known as a good Greek housewife? Then it needs to be THIN!

You should now have an elongated-egg shaped bulgar wheat shell, filled with mincemeat.

4. I dread to think of the gossiping that will ensue….
my goubes are neither thin walled, nor elongated……..sigh……..

Fry in plenty of vegetable oil, medium/high heat until golden brown.

Then sit back and bask in the glory.

Or not, as the case may be.

Wink, wink!

Ooops! Nadia Sawalha’s kibbe..not a success…

Posted by annauk1 on April 9, 2011

Posted in: Carine Goren, Israeli food, Recipes using mince. 12 Comments

Israeli goodies

My friend Fran, who lives in Israel, has been kind enough to send me a box of foodie goodies, which I’m really excited about – spices, which are either unobtainable, or exorbitantly priced, over here – za’atar, baharat and hawaij.
Vanilla pudding mix, which is used in a few of Carine Goren’s recipes, is not really available here in the UK, unless I order online, or buy the American ‘Jello’ brand in the little box, from places with fancy food halls such as Selfridges or House of Fraser.
Fran also included some cute little disposable paper baking cases, some for cupcakes and some larger ones, suitable for making the chocolate pear puddings in Carine’s book. As soon as I can get my hot little hands on some tiny pears, I’ll be making these.

I had some kind of exuberant vision of making kibbe, a suitably Middle-Eastern dish, to kind of celebrate the arrival of my box of goodies, and as a virtual way of saying thank you to Fran for being so kind, but things didn’t work out quite as I’d planned…….

The kibbe are in the bin.

They were overwhelmingly greasy, crumbly and smelt heavily of lamb, which I hasten to add, I usually like the smell of.
My husband took one bite, pulled a face, which looked like he’d just stepped on, or tasted something very unpleasant, put his fork and plate down and refused to eat any more.

Kibbe are supposed to be a dish of layered bulgar wheat mixed with lamb mince and pounded (or processed) to a paste, with added spices, layered with a filling of, again, lamb mince, fried with chopped onions, pine nuts and spices, covered with lots of butter, fried in lots of butter and baked until golden brown.

Baked kibbe

Crumbly kibbe

They sound delicious…I don’t really know where I went wrong….
I should have realised when I was adding butter and more butter, with fatty lamb mince.

Well, as they say, you live and learn.
I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to make these again.

From Nadia Sawalha’s book ‘Stuffed vine leaves saved my life’.

Marks out of ten? 1.

Would I make them again? No, unless I found a very different recipe on personal recommendation!

Would I do anything differently? Can’t really answer my own question, as I’m not making them again.

Have a look at this old 2007 post – Coco, the burlesque wonder cake.

Stuffed vine leaves – A step-by-step guide.

Posted by annauk1 on September 17, 2008

Posted in: Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, Greek, Recipes using mince. Tagged: mince, traditional, vine leaves. 13 Comments

I love stuffed vine leaves, it’s one of the family meals I remeber as I was growing up my Mum making regularly, especially when we had visitors. The best stuffed vine leaves are made with leaves fresh off the vine, but failing that, the vine leaves preserved in brine make a good substitute.

I begin by boiling the vine leaves in water for about 10 minutes, this makes them more maleable, and also takes some of the briny taste away. I usually just put them for about 10 minutes in the microwave on full power, works just as well.

I add a chopped onion which has been fried until golden and then simmered for about 10 minutes in a tin of chopped tomatoes, to the minced pork, long grain rice, salt, pepper, cinnamon, ground cloves and dried mint, also the juice of a lemon.

Here I’m ready for the assembly job:

Each vine leaf is filled with about a tablespoon of the filling and then wrapped carefully, just tight enough to keep the vine leaves tight, but not tight enough that the cooking rice causes the leaves to split.

The vine leaves are placed in a hob proof casserole, in layers.

I use an upturned plate and a large pebble I bought from Cyprus especially for this job!
Of course it was washed and boiled before being used….

The vine leaves are simmered for 45 minutes until the rice and meat are cooked through and the vine leaves have absorbed all the water.
Here’s the finished stuffed vine leaf: