Sarmale

Sarma

A plate of Yaprak sarma from the Turkish cuisine
Place of origin	Ottoman Empire
Region or state	Middle East, Caucasus, Scandinavia, Central Europe & Southeast Europe, Iran and Central Asia including Mongolia
Serving temperature	Cold or hot
Main ingredients	Vine leaf, rice
Ingredients generally used	Yogurt
Variations	With cabbage leaves

Sarma is a dish of grape, cabbage, monk's rhubarb or chard leaves rolled around a filling usually based on minced meat, or a sweet dish of filo dough wrapped around a filling often of various kinds of chopped nuts. It is found in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire from the Middle East to the Balkans and Central Europe.

Sarma comes from Turkish language, from the verb sarmak which means 'to wrap' or 'to roll'.Yaprak sarma (grape leaves with meat) is sometimes called yaprak dolması 'filled leaf' or simply dolma 'stuffed thing'; although dolma strictly speaking applies to stuffed vegetables, it is often conflated with sarma. Yaprak sarma without meat (grape leaves filled with rice flavoured with pine nuts, currants and spices) is usually called " 'fake dolma'.

Minced meat (usually beef, pork, veal, or a combination thereof, but also lamb, goat, sausage and various fowl meat such as duck and goose), rice, onions, and various spices, including salt, pepper and various local herbs are mixed together and then rolled into large plant leaves, which may be cabbage (fresh or pickled), chard, sorrel, vine leaf (fresh or pickled) or broadleaf plantain leaves. The combination is then boiled for several hours. While specific recipes vary across the region, it is uniformly recognized that the best cooking method is slow boiling in large clay pots. A special ingredient, flour browned in fat (called rântaş in Romania, where it may also contain finely chopped onion, or ajmpren in Slovenian), is often added at the end of the process. Other flavors include cherry tree leaves in some locations; other recipes require the use of pork fat—there are innumerable variations across the region. Vegetarian options as well as those made with fish exist.