Recipes for Grape Leaves?

I know my grandparents used to make grape leaf pickles, but I think they put the leaves in to flavor the cucumbers. Don't know if they ate them. I'd planned on trying some with my dad's help the very year he died. Now I'll never know how his family did it.

Are you talking about stuffed grape leaves? If so, I remember using a really good recipe out of this cookbook:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0688075894/?tag=absolutewritedm-20

The title of the thread caused me to enter.....

Why would you want to eat them? This is just something I had never considered.

Fresh or preserved grape leaves? I've never tried with fresh, but if you're using the jarred ones, be sure to rinse them. I put mine in a colander and set it in a sink full of cold water, and switch the water a couple times to get rid of all the extra salt.

I don't remember where I found this recipe, but it's the best I've tried. I like it because you start with cooked rice (no risk of crunchy bits) and raw meat (so it holds everything together once it's cooked).

"Ingredients:
• 1 lb lean ground beef or lamb
• 2 cups rice, cooked
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup fresh mint
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• vine leaves
• 2 cups hot water or broth
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3 egg whites
• 3 egg yolks
• juice of 1 ½ lemons
Method:

Remove vine leaves from jar in which they are packaged, soak them in cold water for about half an hour, changing the water a few times. Into a mixing bowl, add beef, rice, onion, egg, mint, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and water. Mix together and put bowl aside. Place the vine leaves shiny side down, trim out the stem if necessary. Add about a tablespoon of the mixture to the centre of each vine leaf. Fold leaf inwards and then roll into a small cylindrical shape. Place vine leaves into a large baking dish, making sure the side with the fold is facedown. (*Pack them tightly together so that they support each other in the pan).

Line the pan with the leaves that are ripped or two small. Once the pan is full of as many as you are willing to make, cover them with more leaves. If you don’t have a complete layer on top, stuff the gap with leaves to hold them all in place. Mix hot water or broth and olive oil. Slowly pour in into the pan full of dolmathes. You should be able to get about 1 to 1-½ cups in.

Bake at about 325 for at least an hour. If they haven’t been in there long enough the leaves will be tough.

To make the lemon sauce, whip egg whites in a mixing bowl, add egg yolks and lemon juice. Place over a pan of simmering water (like you’re making Hollandaise). Add the liquid, which you strained from the dolmathes, little by little. Because it's hot, drizzle it on because you don't want to curdle the egg."

I recommend cooking for 2 hours though. And I prefer to serve them at room temperature.