[Sca-cooks] 16th c. Safavid dulma-ye kalam (stuffed cabbage leaves)

[Elaine Koogler]

There is a recipe in Dame Hauviette's "A Celebration at the Serayi" for a
period version of dolmas that does usre grapevine leaves. She devised the
recipe from a 16th c. travel diary by a German visiting Turkey.  The
description of the dish in the diary is pretty specific, even to specifying
that "wine leaves" were used.  However, it does not use rice as one of the
ingredients but does describe how the leaves are wrapped around the filling
as well as the completed item being boiled in water.

Kiri

On Fri, Sep 3, 2010 at 9:05 PM, <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:

> The subject of dolma comes up here occasionally, so here is more "food for
> thought"...
>
>
> From the Safavid Persian cookbook, "Maddat al-khayat, resala dar elm-e
> tabbaki" (The substance of life, a treatise on the art of cooking), dated to
> 1594/5 and written by Ostad Nurollah, the head chef of Shah Abbas I (r.
> 1587-1629)
>
> Dulma-ye kalam [stuffed cabbage]
>
> This is cooked by the people of Rum [Ottoman Turks] very often. In Iran it
> is not well known. How it is made : Brown finely chopped meat. Then prepare
> rice, which was mixed with chickpeas, onions, crushed spices and salt. Break
> down the cabbage into leaves, blanch each, then wrap the chopped meat and
> the rice in the cabbage leaves. Then put this into a pot, drip some clear
> meat broth and melted fat into it, and let it simmer.
> (my translation)
>
> The Persians drank a lot of wine, and would have vine leaves available, but
> they apparently are not used in this recipe.
> --
> Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
> the persona formerly known as Anahita
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