Directions

• Place the cleaned grape leaves in boiling water for around two minutes to soften them up a little bit. Then let them dry.
• Prepare the filling as follows: place the minced meat in a bowl, alongside the cleaned and dried rice. The rice does not need to be pre-cooked. Also add the two very finely chopped onions, one teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of black pepper, one tablespoon of red (paprika) pepper, a little bit of dill and the melted butter. Mix everything together well and place the filling in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
• Open up the grape leaves on the palm of your hand and place the filling on the edge of the leaves. Then roll up and close the leaves like you would with a burrito or dürüm döner. Berliners will know! Make sure not to overdo it with the filling, as it is supposed to be enough for 40–50 leaves and the sarmas should not be too thick.
• Place the rolled up sarmas in a baking pan (on top of each other as two layers, if the baking pan is not big enough for a single layer). Add 2–3 thin slices of butter. Also add enough water to cover up the bottom layer of the sarmas. Place in the oven for 30 minutes at 250 °C. Rotate the sarmas from time to time, and make sure that the water does not run out before the end of the 30-minute baking time. If it does, add a bit of extra water as required. For (optional, but highly recommended) extra flavour, after taking them out of the oven, put a thin layer of fresh yoghurt on top of the sarmas and put them back in the oven for another couple of minutes after it has been turned off.
• Serve with some nice slices of fresh bread and fresh goat yoghurt. Ju bëftë mirë!