How to Prepare the Filling for Stuffed Grape Leaves

Amy Riolo: Hi, I am Amy Riolo and today I’m working with Chef Jordan from Cafe 8 and we’re going to be making stuffed grape leaves. So now we’re going to show you how to make the filling for our grape leaves. The first thing that Chef Jordan is doing is he’s added olive oil to a heated pan and he’s coating the bottom of the pan over medium heat. Then he’s adding the onions and a little pinch of salt just to kind of let the onions get soft to help them release some of their liquid. And then he’s going to add the pine nuts as soon as the onions are soft. And as he adds the pine nuts, he’s turning to coat them and then he’s really going to keep an eye on them and make sure that they turn light brown but not much darker than light brown. With nuts you have to be very careful. Once they start to brown, they can really burn quickly on you. So he’s just turning them to coat and let them get golden and then he has added black pepper and all spice. As soon as they begin to release their aroma, you know that they’re toasted. He’s stirring them to incorporate.
Chef Jordan: All you right, you smell it and you know it's toasting, a little bit of tomato paste.
Amy Riolo: Now he’s adding the rice and stirring, and he’s also going to add in the mint and currants.
Chef Jordan: Now we took it off the heat because we’re basically—the rice cooks itself in the water, in the grape leaves. This is just the actual initial flavorings, and now it’s ready basically for stuffing.



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