In looking up how to prepare fresh-off-the-vine grape leaves for stuffing it seemed like I should have started days before I planned on stuffing them. The first few sites I found said that stuffed grape leaves were prepared with leaves that had been soaked in brine for days. Well, DAYS of soaking was not going to happen, but I figured that they did need some soaking. I thought that they would need the flavor of salt plus a soak in brine would help tenderize them. Ha! Still just faking all of this because I have never actually eaten stuffed grape leaves.

I went outside and cut off 30 grape leaves. Ideally they would have been all the same size, but there wasn’t 30 of all the same size. I started off with ones about the size of my hand, but ended up having to get larger ones. I also tried to get ones that look fairly new. I figured the newer leaves would be more tender and tasty.

After I gathered the leaves I brought them inside and washed them thoroughly. Although, it was pretty cool because it had rained the day before so they were pretty clean to begin with. There was no dirt or bugs, but still, I washed them. I also cut off each stem as close to the leaf as possible. Then, I poured some salt into the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish then added some water. I put some of the grape leaves in the dish, then I poured some salt onto the leaves then added more water. I put the rest of the grape leaves in, then filled the dish with water. I used another dish to hold the leaves down. I let them soak about five hours.

Since I didn’t necessarily want them to be salty and I was hoping for some tenderization, I rinsed the leaves off before I blanched them.

Then I stacked two piles totaling 15 leaves into the rinsed out 9X13 baking dish and poured boiling water over them. Instructions I had seen on blanching them said to leave them for two minutes. So I set my timer for two minutes or so I thought. I was doing something else and so I wasn’t paying attention but then it dawned on me that my timer had not gone off. So I took the leaves out of the hot water and stuck them in their ice bath. I don’t know how long they ended up being in the hot water. With the next batch I paid more attention to setting the timer and I actually did it. I took the leaves out after two minutes. By then I was fully immersed in making the stuffing AND my husband had come home so the surprise was out of the bag. We started talking about the books we were listening to and about what I was making and I didn’t really look at the second batch of leaves. I just took them out of the hot water and placed them into their ice bath after the timer had gone off.

I didn’t notice the difference in color between the two batches until I started stuffing them. I was concerned because the ones that I believed were in the hot water longer than two minutes were that drab color green – the same color as the jarred leaves, but the ones that were in the hot water for two minutes were still bright green. I was worried that they would not be tender enough and would taste too green. I asked my husband to pay attention while he was eating so that he could report to me so that I would be able to adjust the preparation in the future.

When I pulled the first group of leaves out of the ice bath I had just set them on a towel to dry. I did not separate them or even pat them dry to help them. I was more concerned at that point with getting the whole process underway because the stuffed leaves were going to take an hour to cook and it was getting late. We often eat late and I was trying to not let that be the case. So I wasn’t even thinking about taking the time to dry the leaves. I didn’t even think about drying the leaves until I was 18 into stuffing and rolling. Then it dawned on me. So I patted the last twelve dry.
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Fresh-Off-The-Vine Grape Leaf Preparation

Grape Leaves
Water
Salt
Ice

Wash the leaves. Cut the stem off as close to the leaf as possible. Pour some salt into a dish/pan large enough to immerse all of the leaves. Put some water in the dish. Put half of the leaves in the dish, then pour more salt on top of the leaves. Then put the rest of the leaves in and fill the dish with water. Use another dish to keep the leaves complete submersed, if need be. Let the leaves soak for about five hours.

After a few hours at least (if not five), rinse the leaves. Rinse out the dish/pan, then put the leaves back in . . . (you can blanch all the leaves at once if you’d like or not. I didn’t because I didn’t have a dish large enough to hold water, the leaves, AND ice for the ice bath so that is why I did two batches).

Pour boiling water over the leaves. Let them set for at least 3 minutes.

Take the leaves out of the hot water and put them in an ice bath.

(Since I was blanching the leaves in two batches I left the cooling leaves in the ice bath until I was ready to put the other ones in.)

Take the leaves out of the ice bath and let them dry a bit. Use a towel or paper towels if you want to dry them. I would think that if you are going to let them dry you might need to separate them first. I don’t know for sure though. I just left them wet. When I did dry the remaining 12 I had separated them and was filling each one then folding each one.
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PLEASE NOTE: In looking at the pictures I see why the second batch of leaves did not blanch well. As I mentioned, I was distracted as my hubby had just come home and I was making this up as I went along – I had put ice in the dish I used to weight the leaves down, I had been making more room in the ice bath dish and didn’t want to put it in the sink to melt because I figured I could use it for the next ice bath. When I went to use the dish as a weight, I didn’t think about the ice I had put in it. I just grabbed it and put it on top of the leaves in the boiling water. DUH! Had to have taken some of the heat out of the boiling water.

This is part 2 of 4 – Stuffed Grape Leaves Part 2 – Prepping The Fresh Grape Leaves

Here is the link to part 3 of 4 – Stuffed Grape Leaves Part 3 – Stuffing And Cooking The Stuffed Grape Leaves